Bringing out all the big guns in the Democrat Party, 69-year-old former Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) starts to see the handwriting on the wall, her big lead over 63-year-old billionaire developer Rick Caruso has evaporated heading into Nov. 8. Bass has the endorsement of every big wig in the Democrat Party, current and past. Los Angeles voters, at least some, resent the meddling from out-of-state politicians that can’t fathom the depth of the problems left to the City of Los Angeles by 51-year old Mayor Eric Garcetti, who rode his way to mayor largely on his father’s reputation as District Attorney Gil Garcetti. But for years, since taking office July 1, 2013, Eric had his eyes on higher office or at least an appointment, which he finally received in 2020 after 79-year-old President Joe Biden took office Jan. 30, 2022. Garcetti got his sought-after appointment as ambassador to India, only to get stalled in the Senate.
Garcetti, a liberal Democrat, created through his own negligence and incompetence, a cesspool in Los Angeles, with homeless encampments and trash proliferating on Los Angeles streets. Things got so bad in 2015, Cholera hit certain homeless encampments where Garcetti didn’t have the decency to provide port-a-potties to homeless encampments where street people were living, breathing, and sleeping in their own human waste. “I am asking Los Angeles to vote for Karen Bass for mayor,” former President Barack Obama said in a video message released by the Bass campaign. “I know Karen, she was with me in supporting my campaign from the beginning, and Karen bass will deliver results . . “ Obama said, knowing, Garcetti, another liberal Democrat, did nothing but leave the City of Los Angeles in a rubbish heap. Bass has zero private sector experience dealing with housing and the homeless.
National brand name politicians don’t have a clue what’s happening in Los Angeles. They go to fundraisers in Beverly Hills, Bel Air or Brentwood, having no idea what’s happening on Los Angeles streets. Over Garcetti’s eight year term, the City has been buried in trash and homeless encampments with the Mayor and City Council working with nonprofits to buy homeless tents to pitch on the streets, under overpasses, and anywhere where there’s a place to put them. Garcetti agreed with San Franciso’s Ninth Circuit Court ruling Sept. 20, 2018 that municipalities must let homeless live on the streets when there’s no alternative housing. Garcetti fully embraced the Ninth Circuit Court ruling allowing homeless to proliferate on Los Angeles streets like the plague. Bass holds exactly the same views as Garcetti and other liberal Democrats and will do nothing to fix the problem.
Bass has been a career politician, doing nothing in her time in the California State Assembly to work on the homeless problem. Bass was elected the head of the Congressional Black Caucus in 2019, presiding during the George Floyd murder and four months of rioting around the country. Bass watched federal buildings around the country torched, neighborhoods seized and she did nothing, other than agree with Black Lives Matter to de-fund the police. How’s that suppose to work in Los Angeles where inner city crime is at it highest level in years? Bass doesn’t talk about law-and-order because she favors de-funding the police and re-allocating city resources to social services, another failed Democrat strategy. So, when it comes to Obama’s endorsement, or that of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, what’s that going to do for the trash-heap known as Los Angeles?
Bass wants all the big endorsements, including the Los Angeles Times, because her campaign is failing, with Caruso methodically telling his story to the voters of Los Angeles. Caruso actually told the public of his plan of building thousands of units to accommodate the growing homeless population. Bass would take the baton from Garcetti and do nothing to fix the horrendous problems facing the city. Obama says Bass will deliver “results,” but what kind of results? De-funding the police, buying more tents and outhouses for homeless encampments? If you take national endorsements seriously, Bass wins City Hall without much resistance. But voters in Los Angeles are onto the fake endorsements knowing nothing about what the city faced under Garcetti and what it would face under Bass. Karen has always been on the right side of the issues we care so deeply about . . “ said Obama.
Bass finds her campaign sinking because voters figured out that things got worse under the last liberal Democrat Mayor Eric Garcetti. Garcetti has been kept off the campaign trail for mayor because he’s radioactive. Bass wants the public duped with all her national endorsements, without recognizing that things have become intolerable on Los Angeles streets under Garcetti. Caruso gives Los Angeles residents hope that someone with a known reputation for beautifying the city can make a difference finally, after years of neglect at City Hall. Caruso has a proven track record of urban renewal and taking run down neighborhoods and turning them into special places. Bass has a track record of only serving her own community or whatever causes advance her agenda. Los Angeles is lucky to have a person of Caruso’s caliber and character willing to sacrifice to help improve lives in Los Angeles.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
