Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) and Rick Caruso, a billionaire businessman, will face off against each other in a November runoff election to become the next mayor of Los Angeles.
Neither Democrat exceeded the 50% threshold needed to secure the party nomination outright in Tuesday’s primary, setting the stage for a Southern California showdown that will decide who will replace outgoing Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti as the country’s second-largest city grapples with unbridled crime and homelessness.
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Polling had shown the two locked in a tight race in the city’s first open mayoral primary in nearly a decade. A key issue in the contest has been how to address soaring crime, as homicides in the city are on track to top last year’s 15-year high, according to the Lost Angeles Times.
Caruso, who sits on the board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation and was a Republican until converting to the Democratic side, has campaigned as a staunch defender of law enforcement, vowing to bolster the Los Angeles Police Department.
“There is no doubt that our police force can do better, but the attacks on rank-and-file officers must stop. The men and women of the LAPD risk their lives on a daily basis. Rhetoric about ‘defunding the police’ makes no sense when you consider that murders are skyrocketing and LA is the most under-policed big city in America,” his campaign website says.
Faced with stinging attacks over public safety, Bass has similarly called for strengthening the LAPD, while also emphasizing “prevention, intervention, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, and police reform.”
“We’ve tried to arrest our way out of a crime crisis before. It didn’t work. We must build a new crime prevention strategy — a plan that’s rooted in stopping crime at its source, not partisan talking points,” Bass argued in an open letter on addressing crime.
Throughout the primary, Caruso, the founder of real estate company Caruso, has tapped into his estimated $4.3 billion fortune to give a record-breaking $40 million to his campaign, ABC 7 reported. His cash advantage and prior ties to the Republican Party have elicited criticism from allies of Bass. Meanwhile, Caruso’s allies have taken aim at Bass for her attendance record and performance in Congress. She most recently missed 2.3% of votes between April and May, per GovTrack.
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As the Nov. 8 election approaches, celebrities have been opining on the contentious primary. Caruso has racked up support from Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian, Snoop Dogg, and Elon Musk, while Bass has secured support from Steven Spielberg, Ariana Grande, J.J. Abrams, and Donald Glover, according to Variety.
