Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled a new discount prescription card yesterday, writes longtime Daily News reporter Rick Orlov. Villaraigosa also announced the program on the Huffington Post.


We'll give the mayor some credit — on the face of it, a five to 40 percent discount on prescription medications for Angelenos certainly looks like a good program.

But Villaraigosa just couldn't help himself from pulling an old politician's trick, and placed his mug front and center on the actual card, reminding people every time they use it who made the program happen.

In an L.A. Weekly feature story, titled “Los Angeles on $300,000 a Year,” we wrote about other politicians who love to stick their faces or names on things — L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar, for example, became unhinged when a free light bulb program he co-sponsored didn't feature his profile.

But Villaraigosa has an extra special fondness for making sure the spotlight shines on him whenever he comes up with a city program, as we reported in “The All-About-Me-Mayor,” another L.A. Weekly feature.

While the L.A. Times, at the time of Villaraigosa's second inauguration speech in July, gave the impression that the mayor had turned the corner with such P.R. gimmicks, noting that “he vowed to focus 'on deadlines over headlines,'” the prescription discount card seems to show that Villaraigosa still can't help himself.

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.

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