Troubled LA Mayor Karen Bass faces a re-election challenge from the city’s left wing

The ever-changing array of political figures seeking to become California’s next governor has a doppelganger in the game of musical political chairs being played in Los Angeles over electing a mayor.

In a sense, that should not be surprising because Los Angeles, population 3.9 million, is a microcosm of California and its multitude of daunting socioeconomic, cultural and political issues.

In fact, as I described in a chapter of a 2008 book, The New Political Geography of California, the rapid conversion of Los Angeles and environs from decades of semi-conservative political orientation into a blue bastion during the 1990s was a major factor in California’s overall metamorphosis.

The end of the Cold War, which decimated Southern California’s defense industry, surging immigration from Latin America and Asia, and the development of a strong union movement all contributed to the city’s leftward drift.

Thus, the issues facing the next governor – such as high costs of housing, utilities and other necessities, homelessness, uncertain water supplies, lagging educational attainment, an epidemic of wildfires, insurance gaps and budget deficits – also afflict Los Angeles and its mayor.

The current mayor, former state legislator and congresswoman Karen Bass, has shown a remarkable tendency toward political self-destruction.

A year ago, Bass left for a junket to Africa with Los Angeles facing the threat of destructive wildfires that became horrendous reality. More recently, the Los Angeles Times revealed that a Los Angeles Fire Department report on the fires was watered down to protect officialdom from criticism and that Bass was complicit in the revisions.

Citing sources, Times reporters wrote that Bass “wanted key findings about the LAFD’s actions removed or softened before the report was made public.”

Those lapses of judgment should be fatal to Bass’ re-election but one-by-one, potentially heavyweight opponents bowed out.

Initially, businessman Rick Caruso, who had waged a credible campaign against Bass in 2022, seemed to be a likely candidate, sharply criticizing Bass on how she handled the city’s worst-ever emergency. He weighed either challenging her or running for governor, but ultimately decided against both.

Austin Beutner, former superintendent of Los Angeles schools and one-time CEO of the Los Angeles Times, announced his candidacy and then dropped out, citing the recent death of his 22-year-old daughter.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath briefly considered dropping in after Caruso and Beutner dropped out, but demurred, seemingly giving Bass the luxury of re-election without a potentially potent opponent.

However, on Saturday, just three hours before the deadline, City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, declared her candidacy.

Raman, one of the council’s most left leaning members, a progressive in the mold of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, had previously endorsed Bass when it appeared she would face a relatively conservative opponent. However, with the field almost clear, she decided to see if Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest city, might go the way of Gotham.

 “I have deep respect for Mayor Bass,” Raman told the Los Angeles Times. “We’ve worked closely together on my biggest priorities and her biggest priorities, and there’s significant alignment there. But over the last few months in particular, I’ve really begun to feel like unless we have some big changes in how we do things in Los Angeles, that the things we count on are not going to function anymore.”

Given Bass’ low standing in polls for her missteps on the firestorm, Raman poses a serious threat to the mayor’s re-election and could compel the business community and critics such as Caruso and Beutner to help Bass fend off a challenge from the left.

The duel over the mayoralty of Los Angeles could surpass the campaign for governor to become the year’s most interesting and important contest.