As a big city mayor, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley pronounced himself pleased with the new Democratic ticket. As he told the Chicago Tribune, "It could be the first time in a long time that we had the top two officials coming from an urban environment and I'm not just saying coming just from a big city or an inner city. I'm talking about an urban environment and that includes [places such as] Kane County, Lake County, Joliet. It's urban, it's not just a city. It's a good perspective for us for the federal government, which is much more rural in its history, and not more urban," he said.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper agreed.  He told PolitickerCO,  "From the point of view of a big-city mayor, I think Barack Obama couldn't have picked a better vice-president. Joe Biden has been at the forefront of a lot of urban policy issues - the governor was just talking about his domestic violence legislation. He has consistently shown that you don't throw money at problems, right? You come up with solutions, and they you measure your investment, you measure your outcomes.

"He will be very warmly received by the mayors of this country," Hickenlooper said.

Speaking of urban issues... The U.S. Conference of Mayors will stage a press conference tomorrow in Denver to urge the presidential candidates to raise the campaign profile of urban issues.  New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, among others, has urged candidates to do the same. 

But given the presumed Democratic nominee's history of community organizing, do those urging a higher profile for urban issues really believe that at least the Democratic candidate wouldn't like to spend all day every day talking about the issues he knows so intimately?  Perhaps a better place to stage a press conference urging the urban issues discussion would be at a convention of political reporters.  Or closer to home, how about press conferences in each of their cities urging voters to hold the candidates accountable on these issues? 

Mayors need to ask themselves why is it that voters haven't demanded this discussion?  Why is it that voters are more likely to express their opinion on the FISA bill or on abortion than on crumbling infrastructure?  Why aren't voters demanding federal funds for transit equal to that enjoyed by Europeans or many Asians -- or by the people of Curitiba?  Why aren't voters demanding funds to smooth prisoner re-entry when federal drug laws put many of them away?  Why aren't voters demanding federal money to take care of the extra demands immigrants put on local schools and social services when it is the federal immigration laws that are broken?

It's fine for mayors to urge a national discussion of urban issues.  And all of us who care about cities and metropolitan America ought to help.  But mayors need to bring along their constituents.  There are a whole lot more of them than there are mayors.  And whatever their constituents believe are the issues in this campaign will be the issues the candidates discuss.

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