Karen Bass and Rick Caruso Vie to Turn out to be L.A.’s Subsequent Mayor

Karen Bass and Rick Caruso are in a detailed battle to turn out to be the subsequent mayor of Los Angeles, as voters proved extremely divided over who’s greatest geared up to deal with town’s homelessness disaster.

In early returns, the vote was break up nearly evenly, with Caruso taking 50.3% to 49.7% for Bass. The poll counting won’t be full on Tuesday evening, and a winner will not be clear for a while.

Within the June major, Caruso held a single-digit lead over Bass within the preliminary returns, just for Bass to surpass him as ballots had been tallied over the subsequent a number of days.

Bass, a six-term congresswoman from South L.A., held a slim edge over Caruso in the latest Los Angeles Occasions ballot. However Caruso was making vital features amongst undecided voters within the closing weeks of the race, as he poured greater than $100 million into the race, saturating Southern California airwaves with TV, digital and radio promoting.

Bass has pitched herself as the one true pro-choice Democrat within the race, noting that Caruso had solely joined the Democratic Get together the month earlier than getting into the race.

Caruso, in the meantime, argued that Bass represented the “established order,” and that he had an outsider’s imaginative and prescient and talent to deal with homelessness. The 2 are vying to succeed Eric Garcetti, who’s heading out to turn out to be the U.S. ambassador to India after practically 10 years as L.A. mayor.

Within the L.A. Occasions ballot, 40% of voters thought Caruso would do a greater job dealing with homelessness, in comparison with 31% for Bass. Caruso additionally held a 41%-28% edge on the difficulty of crime.

However Bass was rated extra favorably total, with 50% of voters having a positive view of her in comparison with 35% with a detrimental view. Caruso was seen as a extra divisive determine, with 43% having a positive opinion and 42% having a detrimental opinion.

The race has divided Hollywood. Mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg put $1.85 million right into a committee supporting Bass. She additionally gained assist from J.J. Abrams, Steven Spielberg, Rosario Dawson and Shonda Rhimes, amongst many others. Caruso, in the meantime, bought the backing of Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of Netflix, CAA honcho Bryan Lourd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Katy Perry and, notable, Katzenberg’s former DreamWorks SKG companion, David Geffen.

In Los Angeles County, Sheriff Alex Villanueva was dealing with a tricky race for re-election towards Robert Luna, the previous chief of the Lengthy Seaside Police Division. Villanueva has had a controversial 4 years in workplace, clashing with all the county Board of Supervisors and launching investigations into that board that critics charged had been politically motivated.

Villanueva was trailing badly in early returns, 60%-40%.

(Pictured: Karen Bass, Rick Caruso)