Los Angeles mayor headed to Iowa

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) will stoke speculation that he is considering running for president in 2020 when he makes several stops across Iowa next month.

Garcetti will travel to the Quad Cities in April to deliver a keynote address at the Scott County Democrats’ annual Red, White and Blue Dinner, his political spokesman said.

Later, he will make stops in Altoona, at a Carpenters Union training facility, and Des Moines, where he will take a tour with Mayor Frank Cownie (D). Garcetti will also stop in Waterloo, where his wife Amy has family.

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In a statement, Garcetti spokesman Yusef Robb strongly hinted that the second-term Democratic mayor would begin pitching himself in the first-in-the-nation caucus state as an anti-Washington solution.

“The thrust of his visit is to support his fellow Democrats in the run-up to the midterms, but Mayor Garcetti is also eager to hear from people how we can help each other move ahead despite the extreme dysfunction in Washington,” Robb said in an email.

It is Garcetti’s third trip to an early presidential state. Last August, Garcetti campaigned in New Hampshire for Joyce Craig, the Democrat who defeated Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas (R) in November. And last month Garcetti stumped among local party leaders in South Carolina, which holds the South’s first primary.

Garcetti is one of a handful of Democratic mayors who are considering runs for president in 2020, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.