Bill Clinton and Gavin Newsom Campaign in L.A.

California gubernatorial candidate and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is making a campaign stop in L.A. today, with former president Bill Clinton appearing with him at a news conference at Los Angeles City College in East Hollywood -- where they plan to talk about "green technology."

Patrick Range McDonald

S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom works the crowd at the L.A. Gay Pride Parade in June.

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Soon after, Clinton will be the "guest of honor" at a Newsom fundraising reception.

Newsom is looking to raise millions of dollars for his 2010 campaign and to better compete with the fundraising prowess of California Attorney General Jerry Brown, a fellow Democrat who has compiled a sizable war chest for his own run for governor and recently received an endorsement from Dreamworks founders David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg.

Newsom's campaign stop sounds like the kind of thing that would be right up Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's alley.

Villaraigosa, who decided to not run for governor, could even get the chance to check out a mural of himself at Susy's Meat Market that's just around the corner from LACC on Santa Monica Boulevard, with red paint splattered on his face and "vendido" painted on his collar -- that remark has since been painted over, but you can still see it if you look hard.

Villaraigosa, after all, adores Bill Clinton, and now the former president is coming into Villaraigosa's "house," as it were, talking about one of Villaraigosa's favorite topics -- green technology.

Jay Carson, Villaraigosa's new chief deputy mayor, is also a Clinton alum. He worked for the former president back in New York City, and Carson is tight with Clinton's newest rich guy BFF: Hollywood producer Steve Bing, who's also an environmental freak -- and we mean that in a nice way.

The whole thing is primed to be an A-list lovefest, but will Villaraigosa show up and stand side-by-side with Newsom? (The S.F. mayor was recently the subject of a devastating feature story by S.F. Weekly writer Ashley Harrell, which depicted Newsom as something of an ego-crazy cad . . . something Villaraigosa has also been described as.)

Villaraigosa probably doesn't want to anger Jerry Brown with such an appearance, especially since Brown is now the favorite to end up with the Democratic nomination for governor. But Villaraigosa also can't stay away from a good party, and this one is honoring is buddy Bill.

It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. If Villaraigosa does put in some face time, he'll probably tell reporters he's there to support the former president and leave at that. That's our guess anyway. What's yours?

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.