Comment LOS ANGELES — Ed. USA. Karen Bass was elected the next mayor of Los Angeles on Wednesday, taking the reins in the nation’s second-largest city during an intense period of soul-searching as it is rocked by a racism scandal and seeks new answers to seemingly intractable problems such as homelessness and the corruption. . The Democratic congresswoman beat out billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso to become the first woman elected to lead the city and just the city’s second black mayor. The match, Los Angeles’ most expensive competition ever, it remained close until the final days of a weekly count, when Bass moved decisively forward and never lost her advantage. As of Wednesday afternoon, Bass had an insurmountable lead of just over six percentage points, and the Associated Press projected her as the winner. In Los Angeles, a liberal city which hasn’t elected a Republican mayor in more than two decades, Bass positioned herself as the progressive choice. But he also carried the authority of the party establishment, earning endorsements from Democratic heavyweights including former President Barack Obama, President Biden and Vice President Harris. At a rally on the eve of the election, Harris, a fellow Californian, praised Bass for “fighting for the people whose voices are not in the room but should be.” Nevertheless, Bass faced a formidable challenge from Caruso, who sank $100 million of his own money into the race and sought to capitalize on Angelenos’ growing frustration with the rise in violent crime. “She was outspent 10 to 1 but her fame, connections, experience and support base proved too much for her to overcome – she would have beaten anyone but Karen Bass,” said Rafael Sonensen, executive director. of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University in Los Angeles. “Her coalition faced what could be seen as an overwhelming challenge and not to mention great unhappiness locally about the state of the city.” Until recently, Caruso was a registered Republican, and his election would represent a right-wing blow to the city. He promised to swell the city’s police force to record levels and build temporary housing to house 30,000 homeless people in his first 300 days in office. Bass called Caruso’s proposal unrealistic and pledged to house about 17,000 people in its first year. While some of the biggest names in his new party snubbed him, Caruso received several glowing celebrity endorsements in a star-studded city, including Snoop Dogg, Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry. Perry, who was born in Santa Barbara, shared a selfie of her online vote for Caruso, saying she was voting for him “for a lot of reasons (see news) but mostly because Los Angeles is a warm weather blanket.” On this score, at least, both candidates agreed. The city’s politics have been plagued by scandals for years, but the latest it made international headlines and shook the foundations of Los Angeles’ self-proclaimed identity as a model multinational metropolis. Last month, a leaked audio recording surfaced that captured four of the city’s most powerful Latino leaders belittling their colleagues and hurling racial slurs at a black child, indigenous immigrants and Jewish residents. The tape led to the resignation of City Council President Nuri Martinez and Ron Herrera, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, a local political force. The other two participants, council members Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, have so far refused to resign. Cedillo was set to leave office at the end of the year, while de León, who has long had larger political ambitions, apologized for his role but said he plans to remain over the objections of top Democrats in California and beyond. Even the White House, which rarely gets involved in such local political squabbles, weighed in, calling on all those caught on tape to resign, just one day before Biden’s visit to Southern California, where he appeared with Bass to support the her candidacy. In the final debate of the campaign, and the only one following the tape’s release, Bass and Caruso agreed that the council members should go, but argued over who was best placed to hold the city together in the messy aftermath. “These officials must resign, but that is not enough,” Bass said. “We need a new direction in Los Angeles and new leadership to make sure we reject the politics of divide and conquer.” Caruso characterized the leaked conversation as another example of shady political dealings in the city — the four leaders were discussing how to draw new lines in the council district in order to boost Latino representation, largely at the expense of black voters. “They went into the background to carve up the city for their own special interests, for themselves,” Caruso said during the debate. “The system is broken and full of corruption.” Both said the city needs an independent redistricting commission. Bass has worked for years with some of the figures involved in the tape and pointed to the track record of her nonprofit, Community Coalition, which seeks to bring people together across racial and ethnic lines, as a model for healing in the city. The group, known as “CoCo”, was referred to several times on the recording as derisive shorthand for Black political interests. But even before the recording surfaced, Los Angeles was dealing with a shocking series of scandals: A former city council member was sentenced to more than a year in federal prison for obstructing a corruption investigation. another former member is charged in the same investigation; and a third former council member is charged in a separate corruption scheme. And outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti’s political future is in limbo, with his nomination to be US ambassador to India still deadlocked in the Senate over questions about whether he was aware of sexual abuse allegations against one of his former top advisers. Along with the pulse from these back-to-back crises, Bass will likely face a revamped city council that looks poised to welcome at least two new members aligned with the local Democratic Socialists of America when the next term begins. Activist Eunisses Hernandez, who defeated Cedillo in the primary, and labor organizer Hugo Soto-Martinez, who held a double-digit lead over incumbent Mitch O’Farrell as of Wednesday, will join progressive members Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Nithya Raman, forming a new bloc ideologically to the left of the new mayor. The 15-member body could become more hesitant than ever as the newly strong left considers issues such as the recent ban on homeless encampments near schools: The council approved this measure in August over objections from activists and dissenting votes from its more liberal members. Harris-Dawson slammed the move, which bans encampments within 500 feet of schools and daycare centers, as inhumane. Bass supported the restrictions. The mayor-elect, before Congress, served as speaker of the California Assembly and was tasked with keeping members in line as the state faced a brutal budget deficit during the Great Recession — an experience that cut deals across political ideologies which may update it over the next four years. “If anyone has the ability to bring competing parties together, it’s Bass,” Cal State’s Sonenshein said. “So the question is, can that translate into leadership in that executive position?” That leadership will be especially important in addressing the homelessness crisis, he added, which “has become a symbol of whether city hall and government in general in Los Angeles can function well.” Bass’ election follows the results of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s race, the district’s other marquee contest this year, where retired Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna defeated incumbent Alex Villanueva. The ousted sheriff’s four years in office were defined by his brash leadership style and a series of controversies, including clashes with local leaders and a law enforcement oversight board. His critics say he has left the nation’s largest sheriff’s department in disrepair. Luna and Bass, two of Southern California’s highest-ranking elected officials, will take their respective offices at a time when Los Angeles residents — the city and the county — are fed up with their leaders. Their jobs are different, but they will share at least one goal: rebuilding public trust.
