Congratulations to Eric Garcetti, and not just for becoming US Ambassador to India.

For decades, the job of mayor of LA was a political dead end. By finally getting a plum date, Garcetti has made history and

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have broken the curse that has long plagued mayors’ political ambitions.

The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Garcetti’s nomination. But the closing of the final vote, 52 to 42, in a Democrat-controlled chamber means the shadow over Garcetti has not disappeared.

Garcetti, who was an early supporter of

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Biden’s presidential campaign, who was first nominated for the post in July 2021.

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A former Rhodes scholar who taught international relations and diplomacy before running for office,

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It seemed like a shoo-in for the position, but the nomination process dragged on, partly for partisan political reasons but also because of serious questions about whether the mayor tolerated sexual harassment and bullying by one of his closest associates.

The mayor’s bodyguard, Matthew Garza, came to the south of the city in 2020 and claimed to have been repeatedly sexually harassed by Garcetti’s adviser, Rick Jacobs, often in front of Garcetti. (The trial is scheduled for September.)

Garcetti testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he never witnessed any misconduct by Jacobs and if he had, he would have stopped it. After former Garcetti associates went to Senator Charles E. Grassley

(R-Iowa)

to put red flags on the nomination, the senator commissioned a report concluding that Garcetti likely knew or should have known of Jacob’s conduct. Around that time, Garcetti’s parents hired a lobbying firm to publicize his cause in Washington.

In the end, three Democratic Senators Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Mark Kelly of Arizona voted against Garcetti, saying they were deeply concerned based on what they heard. He was bailed out by several Republican senators who supported his nomination, in part so that the US would finally have an ambassador to a key strategic ally.

Unlike mayors before him, Garcetti is now entering a new chapter in his political career. Tom Bradley, Richard Riordan, and Antonio Villaraigosa all ran for governor and lost. Sam Yorty, who was a perpetual seeker of higher office, ran for president in the 1972 Democratic primary and lost. Garcetti spent nearly two years exploring a presidential run, but announced in 2019 that he would instead focus on running for mayor.

Perhaps the best strategy at the end of a long career is to seek the mayor’s job, as Karen Bass did. During her campaign last year, she was seen as a politician looking for her last job and willing to take on the politically thankless job of solving LA’s homelessness crisis.

At the best of times, running Los Angeles is incredibly difficult, demanding and often thankless. It is a sprawling city that historically has not had a strong culture of political engagement. The mayor, one of the region’s few recognizable political figures, gets to lead the celebration for big wins (even if they’re not technically in town) and is blamed if things go wrong (even if the mayor isn’t alone ). politician responsible). Perhaps the curse of career-ending office is useful in weeding out mayoral candidate candidates who are more interested in their future than the city’s.