Mayoral candidate Karen Bass met with voters recently at a campaign stop in the Los Feliz District, and plans to meet with many more leading up to the Nov. 8 General Election.
(photo courtesy of Karen Bass for Mayor)

With 12 days left until the Nov. 8 General Election, mayoral candidate and U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) is pounding the pavement and getting out her message, and said she won’t stop until Election Day.

“I feel great going into the last 14 days,” Bass said in an interview on Oct. 25. “I do feel very good and energized. I feel like the momentum is there, the enthusiasm is there. And I think that’s one of the things that’s different [from my opponent Rick Caruso]. He’s spent now close to $90 million on himself, and against me, and can you imagine how many people could be housed for $90 million? I think when it’s all said and done, I probably would have spent $8 [million]. I think that you can’t buy an election, and you really have to go and convince people and encourage people to rally. So I feel like we have that type of momentum on our side.”

Bass said there are many issues facing Los Angeles, and the top two are homelessness and public safety. She said what differentiates her from Caruso is her experience working in government, collaborating and building coalitions.

“I’m in the Miracle Mile … my congressional office is on the corner of Highland and Wilshire, so I’m in the area all the time and homelessness is a huge issue for us and really, the reason why I decided not to run for Congress again,” Bass said. “I thought the problem was so severe, the way it has really blown up in the last few years. And it’s compromising our quality of life. It’s obviously dangerous for the people that are homeless, but it’s also dangerous for the people that are housed. My plan is to get people off the streets, immediately into temporary housing. It’s unacceptable for people to live on the streets and to live in squalor. You get people off the streets into temporary housing, and then those that need it, you move into permanent supportive housing.”

Bass said she plans to call a state of emergency regarding homelessness on her first day in office, which is something Caruso has also vowed to do, and will begin working closely with county officials to address the homelessness crises in a more cohesive manner.

“On Day One, [I will] declare a state of emergency. We have to have the county and the city in alignment, complete alignment,” she said. “One of the reasons why we have not been able to address the problem thus far has been the city and the county pointing fingers at each other. There hasn’t been the leadership there to say we need to work together. That would happen under my administration because I have deep relations [with] the county and because many of the legislative issues I’ve worked on have been county-related issues, whether we’re talking about child welfare or juvenile justice, those are issues that reside at the county level. I have worked with county administrators as well as the supervisors.”

Bass also said she plans to leverage more federal funding opportunities to address homelessness, an area where her experience working in federal government will be beneficial. She said homelessness and a lack of affordable housing are interconnected issues, and there will be a focus on maintaining the city’s affordable housing stock and building more housing. Bass said that is another area where she and Caruso differ.

“The type of work that the city needs now is what I have a lot of experience at,” Bass said. “[Caruso] is a developer and he is a builder. But for some reason, he has never built one unit of affordable housing. And, he has never allowed affordable housing to be included in his developments.”

Bass also said her opponent has never had to show transparency and accountability, being a private businessman, and that is another aspect that differentiates her.

“He touts his record as a builder, OK, that’s great. And listen, I love The Grove. But the type of building he’s done has not helped the problems the city is dealing with right now,” Bass said. “As I’ve said to him, and he’s a friend, we’ve worked together and collaborated on different projects. He has run a business for years, which is wonderful, but he has no board of directors, no shareholders. He’s never had to be accountable to anyone, and you cannot walk into government and command everybody. That’s not how government works.”

Mayoral candidate Karen Bass said she plans to bring communities
together across Los Angeles to address problems. (photo courtesy of Karen Bass for Mayor)

Bass also said she plans to work to rebuild city government following the racist remarks that came to light on a recording of former Council President Nury Martinez and Councilmen Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo, as well as Ron Herrera, former head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. While Martinez and Herrera have resigned, de Leon and Cedillo have not stepped down from the City Council.

“Let me just tell you what I’ve done in the last three weeks, because building coalitions, especially across racial lines, is something that I have done for decades. I have a long history of it and I think I am well suited to address what is going on now,” Bass said. “I heard the tapes on Sunday (Oct. 9) and Tuesday (Oct. 11) called a meeting of civic leaders. We had a meeting at Trade Tech, and every category that was disparaged on those tapes was represented, from Indigenous folks to African Americans, Latinos, Jews, every category was in the room. And we discussed the problem, but we also said we need to have convenings around the city and address these issues. Last Friday, we got together. I called on the city leaders to do a series of convenings around the city and discuss what happened, but more important, dialogue about what happened. What are we going to do about it?”

Bass said she supports redistricting reform that is under examination by the City Council, but stopped short of stating that the number of council districts should be increased citywide.

“I don’t think we should have a knee-jerk reaction and do that. Is it time for charter reform? What about the unequal distribution of city resources? Why is it that some parts of the city are like they’re not even connected to other parts?” Bass said. “I’m hoping that the civic leaders will come up with agenda policy recommendations and bring them to City Council. Managing these kinds of conflicts is something I did after ’92, it is something I’ve done in Congress, it is something I did in the State House. I have a wealth of experience navigating across racial lines.”

Bass also expressed the need to provide social services for people from disadvantaged communities, and vowed to continue helping families and children. She added that collaborations between the city, county, state and federal governments are needed to address those issues.

“That is why you have to have government aligned, because a lot of the services are from the county. The city can fund services. When I started community coalition [building] 32 years ago, the city was providing a lot of services. The city got out of the business of providing services,” Bass said. “What I would propose is for the city and the county to collaborate together. For example, we have a congressional delegation, we have a state delegation. If we got those delegations together and asked them to submit joint proposals on behalf of the county where the city would benefit too, we could bring in a lot of money. On the federal level and the state level, they can do earmarks. When we brought the delegations together and said, ‘can you do a joint earmark for homelessness?’ we could bring in money. And I found, by the way, that L.A. City does not aggressively pursue a lot of money that could be available.”

Bass added that she will be appearing at numerous campaign events throughout the city in the coming days to continue offering her plans as mayor of Los Angeles. She also encouraged voters to visit her campaign website for more information about her positions.