Real estate developer Rick Caruso leads Rep. Karen Bass by a hair in a costly race for Los Angeles mayor, as incumbent Eric Garcetti steps down from office.
The billionaire led with 51.25 percent of the vote early Wednesday, with the congresswoman trailing at 48.75 percent, among the 500,000 of votes tallied, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Early returns gave Bass a slight lead, but the two traded positions throughout the night, with Caruso pulling ahead by dawn.
The battle between the mall developer from Brentwood and the onetime community activist from South Los Angeles offered the sharpest contrast for the city’s top job in three decades.
Caruso’s $100 million in spending propelled him from relative obscurity to potential victory, while Bass’ hold on the city’s liberal political base positioned her as the candidate to beat.
Election Day was peppered by on-and-off rain, with Angelenos facing a deep malaise brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, rampant homelessness, an uptick in crime and a racist audio recording of three City Council members vying to maintain political power.
Both campaigns acknowledged the outcome of the race might not be known for days or weeks.
An inconclusive Election Day tally resulted in the June primary, when Caruso jumped to a 5-percentage-point lead only to have Bass surge ahead when late mail-in votes were counted, winning the race by 7 points.
Not since Republican businessman Richard Riordan clinched his bid for mayor in 1993 over Hollywood-area Councilman Michael Woo have residents seen such a stark choice for its top seat.
A Bass victory would make her the first woman to serve as mayor in the city’s 241-year history.
She would also be the second Black candidate elected to the post after Tom Bradley, who served five terms beginning in 1973.
Caruso also would be a rarity in the mayor’s office: a onetime Republican who registered this year as a Democrat who had never once served in elected office.
Bass billed herself as an expert at creating the diverse coalitions needed to govern Los Angeles, given her nearly two decades in the state Assembly and U.S. House , plus her years as founder of the Community Coalition, a nonprofit for economic justice.
Caruso said his work in real estate development and as a public servant on commissions that oversee the Department of Water and Power and Los Angeles Police Department had taught him how to challenge the status quo to make change.
Both candidates identified the city’s slow and expensive permitting process as a major culprit in the city’s housing affordability crisis.
Both candidates said they would reign in homelessness, Caruso promising 30,000 new shelter beds in his first 300 days of office, and Bass pledging to house 15,000 homeless people in her first year.
Caruso said he would grow the Los Angeles Police Department to 11,000 officers, from 9,200, Bass said she would return the force to its authorized level of 9,700 cops.
— Dana Bartholomew
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