TIPOFF DON'T LOOK BACK, ANTONIO, NEWSOM'S COMING UP STRONG.

Byline: RICK ORLOV

It was the baseball pitcher Satchel Paige who advised: ``Don't look back, something might be gaining on you.''

For Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, his recent trips to Washington, D.C., Dallas and other parts of the country are leaving a gap at home -- and opportunities for others.

Take, for instance, charismatic San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Frequently mentioned as a future candidate for governor, Newsom was working the state Democratic Convention while Villaraigosa was at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.

Among those Newsom was courting were leaders of the California Teachers Association, who wanted to talk about the relationship of big-city mayors and the school districts within their jurisdictions.

Newsom made a point of telling CTA leaders that he had backed off from a Villaraigosa-type approach of having near total control. Instead, he chose to supplement the district with preschool and after-school funding.

``He never knocked Villaraigosa, but he made the point that he was an official the teachers union could work with in the future,'' one observer said.

Villaraigosa is a former organizer for United Teachers Los Angeles, but the mayor and the union have been at odds over much of his district reform effort.

Los Angeles school officials say it was simply a matter of a missed deadline -- but it is looking more like a case of bruised egos.

A social studies textbook on American history was rejected by the Los Angeles Unified School District for use this coming year because it was not submitted to educators in time to review, officials said.

Coincidentally, the book was the only one of three submitted that prominently featured a picture of Villaraigosa being sworn in as the city's first Latino mayor in 150 years.

But, as far as satire goes, Mayor Villaraigosa is in with some fine company these days.

An unidentified prankster has developed a personal Web page for Villaraigosa on the popular Myspace.com site.

To access it takes some dexterity, however, and the long Internet address of:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaLine is overdrawn ction=user.viewprofile&friendID=55873025.

So far, there is no indication that any other local officials have pages mocking them, but among those for whom pages have been created are California Sen. Barbara Boxer, former Vice President Al Gore, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and even Osama Bin Laden.

It was a torturous political path for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and the Los Angeles City Council leading up to last week's decision to appeal a court ruling limiting police officers' ability to arrest the homeless.

For more than two weeks, Delgadillo had avoided answering questions over who had the authority to decide the appeal -- whether he could do it on his own or whether he needed the City Council's approval -- and even if the case should be appealed.

His lack of a clear ruling left council members stewing and uncertain on what course to take.

Finally, a frustrated Councilwoman Jan Perry was able to force the council to meet in closed session to consider the matter just two days before an appeals deadline.

The issue also has created some consternation among the more liberal members of the council, who voted to support Perry's call for an appeal.

There had been heavy lobbying to try to convince Council President Eric Garcetti, in particular, to oppose the legal challenge, but he agreed to the appeal.

The only three council members to oppose the lawsuit were Jose Huizar, Bill Rosendahl and Jack Weiss.

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com

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