Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was in Chicago Friday to participate in Barack Obama’s Transition Economic Advisory Committee despite LA being hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Not to mention the fact that he was an ardent Hillary supporter back in the day. The team was comprised of several other rich people who donated various amounts to the American bailout including Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker, who donated $37,500; Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, whose employees donated $727,000; and Citigroup Chairman Robert E. Rubin, who gave $35,600, while employees of the company donated $460,000. But it may have been Villagairosa’s status as the mayor of a flat broke town that earned him his place.

“What I heard today was a president-elect who is going to […] make sure we’re doing everything we can to invest in cities.” the mayor told the Los Angeles Times on Friday. He blames the lack of investment by the Bush administration, which he calls “abysmal,” for much of his city’s woes. The only things Obama said publicly on Friday were that he wants to extend unemployment benefits for the jobless and that he is very focused on saving the auto industry.

Villaraigosa continues to deny he has any aspirations to run for governor of California in 2010, but re-election campaigning has already begun for the March 9th poll date. Hopefully he can keep from making out with anyone covering the campaign trail. At least until the election is over.

Barack Obama says stimulus plan is his priority [Los Angeles Times, via]