Caruso sets appointment to plunge into LA race for mayor

The stampede for the top elected post in the City of Los Angeles looks set to grow today, with real estate developer and civic leader Rick Caruso due at the City Clerk’s office as the filing deadline nears.

Caruso has made an appointment for 4 p.m. today to declare his intent to run for mayor, according to the Daily News.

Saturday is the deadline to declare an intent to run for mayor. Last month, Caruso switched his voter registration to Democratic after nearly a decade of having registered with no party preference.

In October, he hired a high-profile political consulting firm while he pondered a run for mayor in a city that conducts its municipal elections on a nonpartisan basis but is largely Democratic in terms of day-to-day politics.

Caruso has built major commercial projects and shopping centers across the region, including the Grove, Americana at Brand, Palisades Village and The Commons at Calabasas.

A native Angeleno, he served as president of the civilian police commission as an appointee to the commission by Mayor James Hahn in August 2001, as well as on the Board of Water and Power Commissioners.

He is a current member and past president of the Boards of Trustees at USC, his alma mater.

After changing his registration to Democratic, he said he would be a “pro-centrist, pro-jobs, pro-public safety Democrat.”

If Caruso runs for mayor, he’ll join an elbows-to-elbows race for mayor that includes such high-profile candidates as Rep. Karen Bass, L.A. City Councilmembers Joe Buscaino and Kevin de León, and City Attorney Mike Feuer.

This week, Jessica Lall, who represents numerous commercial real estate interests as head of the Central City Association, dropped from the race.

The primary for the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election will take place on June 7, with the top two finishers squaring off in the election on Nov. 8.

[LADN] – Dana Bartholomew