Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday

Mayor Villaraigosa's candidate to replace Mike Lansing on the school board holds a slim lead over his next nearest opponent in campaign fundraising the Daily Breeze reported. Former school superintendent Richard Vladovic has raised about $2000 more than former principal Neil Kleiner. Kleiner says he expects to do better in the non-City of Los Angeles portions of the district where Villaraigosa's support could potentially be a handicap for Vladovic.

The US House voted Wednesday to lift the ban on subway tunneling along Wilshire Boulevard. This is the next step in making possible Mayor Villaraigosa's "Subway to the Sea."

Martini Republic passes along an item from Chowhound about Mayor Villaraigosa's recent visit to the latest trendy eatery, Mozza. A patron accuses the Mayor of working the room, to which Antonio replies "Hey if you're not working the room, get another job, right?" Someone noted the Mayor was once again dining solo, without the company of Mrs. V.

Political blogs are being courted by presidential candidates. One candidate who is aggressively doing this is John Edwards (not the psychic but the former senator). We have been approached often with tidbits about Edwards to run. Now some right wing Catholic groups are up in arms about alleged anti-Catholic remarks made by a pair of pro-Edwards bloggers. Hey whoever said blogging was pretty?

And finally this is a few weeks old but the Left of 818 blog is up in arms about folks who pick on California Assembly District 40 Democratic candidate, Stuart Waldman. More specifically, he's blaming our blog for referring to Stuart as yucky and a "greaseball." Now its true that some of our readers made these remarks made this old, dead Republican mayor has been quite friendly to Stuart even though some of my past and present blogging partners have not. However, I must give full disclosure to the fact that Stuart and I have been friends for 15 years and though I am an old, dead Republican I intend to endorse Stuart for the Assembly based on his experience, work ethic and concern for the community (I'll have to choke down some of his liberal views but I've done it before).