Bass’ Goliath

The city is at a crossroads as Angelenos decide who will be their next mayor, a community organizer committed to systemic reform or a real estate behemoth with a business-first axiom.

Opinion by Isaac Dektor, Editor-in-Chief

Representative Karen Bass takes the stage with her daughter and grandson at a mayoral rally in Central Park in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, on Oct. 27. Senator Bernie Sanders showed up in support of Bass at the rally and took to the podium with a speech bashing billionaires for making record profits while the working class struggles. (Griffin O'Rourke/Valley Star)

Rick Caruso is the car mechanic who leaves one screw loose so that customers return in a panic. “That’s why I buy American,” he would say as fumbles around the Toyota, trying to fix the problem that he created.

Holistic solutions take time, especially when reform is needed at a systemic level. Extreme levels of homelessness in LA, which is a key issue for voters up and down the ballot, is a consequence of a vast assortment of issues ranging from lack of affordable housing to untreated mental illness. Fed up with the housing shortage and politics of slow change, Angelenos might be conned into electing a man with no experience and who contributed to the problems he is campaigning on fixing.

A few weeks ago, Bass was in good shape to win the runoff and pick up where Mayor Eric Garcetti is leaving off when he takes up his new job as ambassador to India. Securing over 43 percent of the vote in the primary, the congresswomen could bank on voters from the other two progressive candidates moving to her tent for the runoff election. Then a leaked audio recording exposed three council members in a gerrymandering scandal that rocked the city, shaking up an already close mayoral race. The scandal clouded council member Kevin de Leon in controversy.

De Leon ran in the mayoral primary, winning almost eight percent of the vote. With Black Lives Matter endorsed candidate Gina Viola, who won seven percent in the primary, out of the race, Bass stands to gain those progressive voters. The scandal that led to Nury Martinez’s resignation may also allow political outsider and self-funded Caruso to garner votes from de Leon’s supporters.

Caruso’s political messaging is directed at the disaffected voter, and his position of being a political outsider could benefit him amid the scandal.

“They went into a back room to carve up this city for their own special interest, for themselves. This system is so broken and it’s full of corruption,” said Caruso in a debate days after the leak. “The reason homelessness is out of control is because the system is broken. The reason crime is out of control is because the system is broken. We need new leadership, leadership that isn’t corrupt.”

The position has echoes of former President Donald Trump’s campaign messaging of 2016 that led to four orange years. Much like “drain the swamp,” Caruso’s campaign messaging paints the billionaire candidate as a hard-working businessman who became immensely successful despite government regulation.

Bass has been outspent eight to one in the mayoral race, with real estate developer Caruso pouring over $80 million of his own money into his campaign.

Bass strongly believes in providing unconditional housing provisions to people experiencing homelessness, an approach called “housing first,” as a solution to the worsening crisis. Caruso’s plan involves building 30,000 temporary shelters and declaring a local state of emergency.

“If we don’t win this election, we will return to failed solutions,” said Bass. “With me, what you see is what you get – a lifelong pro choice democrat who has always been on your side.”