Former NBA star Kevin Johnson campaigns to be Sacramento mayor

A bid by a former NBA All-Star to become mayor of California's capital city has drawn basketball celebrities to a town that is often overshadowed by the state politics that unfold here.

Kevin Johnson is campaigning on a pledge to raise the profile of his hometown after years of watching it get outshined by flashier cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. The contest pits him against a two-term incumbent who has taken a decidedly slower approach.

Because of the presidential race, a record number of voters is expected to cast ballots for either Mayor Heather Fargo or Johnson, a political novice who would be the capital's first black mayor.

"It's not a traditional mayor's race," said Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at California State University in Sacramento. "It's a metaphor for what's going on in the other (national) races."

Both candidates are Democrats campaigning in a nonpartisan race.

Johnson, 42, doesn't like people describing his hometown merely by its geography: halfway between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe.

"We should be a destination place," said the former Phoenix Suns point guard who built a reputation as a scrappy player.

He envisions a place where he can raise a family while, at the same time, entertain visitors with upscale shops and restaurants. Guests at his rallies have included other basketball stars such as Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson

Fargo is quick to point out improvements made during her eight-year tenure.

"If you could have seen midtown or downtown in 1989 compared to where it is now, you would be converted," said the 55-year-old former community activist, who was forced into a runoff against Johnson when neither candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote in the June primary.

The attention on Johnson's bid hasn't all been positive. After spending the primary season fending off old sexual abuse allegations, Johnson is now wrestling with a federal investigation into a nonprofit community development corporation he started after retiring from the NBA in 2000.

The group called St. HOPE is credited with transforming the failing Sacramento High School into a successful charter school and drawing businesses to the commercial heart of Oak Park, one of the city's roughest neighborhoods.

But federal officials say Johnson used AmeriCorps grants to pay volunteers to engage in political activities, run personal errands and even wash his car. The agency that oversees the grants has barred Johnson from receiving federal money while an investigation is under way.

Read More