Bloomberg Attacks Washington During Trip to Coast

LOS ANGELES — He says he's not running for president, but Mayor Bloomberg traveled to the delegate-rich state of California today to deliver a scorching attack on Washington for failing to keep up with the need for new airports, roads, water systems and bridges across America.

While China and other nations are investing heavily in ports and high-speed trains "Washington doesn't have a plan" to address crumbling American infrastructure, Mr. Bloomberg said.

In remarks clearly aimed at a national audience, the mayor said politics trumps common sense in Congress, where pork-barrel spending takes priority.

Washington "spends money to win votes," Mr. Bloomberg said. "It's hurting our country."

The Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent mayor appeared with Governor Schwarzenegger of California, a Republican, and Rendell of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, to announce a coalition that would push for more investment in ports, highways and other infrastructure. Both governors are known for reaching across party lines to reach compromise.

Standing at a transit station with the governors, Mr. Bloomberg said "independent, nonpartisan solutions" were needed.

"Let's just get the job done," he said.

Mr. Schwarzenegger was asked if he was staying neutral in the presidential race to see if Mr. Bloomberg would jump in, and he answered that he did plan to make an endorsement.

It was the second day of a trip that also took Mr. Bloomberg to Texas, another key state on the presidential election map where he met privately yesterday with an expert in third-party ballot access who served as campaign manager for Ross Perot.

In an era when the public views government with suspicion and loathing, the billionaire mayor appears to be honing an image as an innovative problem-solver working outside the partisan scrum of Washington politics.

Mr. Bloomberg has been quietly polling and analyzing voting trends in every state as he contemplates launching a campaign. On Tuesday, his supporters launched a 50-state petition drive in an attempt to "draft" him into the race.

Mr. Rendell, a prodigious fundraiser and former general chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is a political maverick who delivered most of his ambitious first-term agenda by building coalitions in a Legislature controlled by Republicans. He is in his second year of his second four-year term.

The coalition, Building America's Future, will be a not-for-profit organization that will be made up of elected and other officials. It will work with presidential candidates and the platform committees of the national political parties to bring attention to the need for more investment in infrastructure.

Aides say he will delay a decision until after the major parties produce clear front-runners.