Bass takes a small lead over Caruso
The congresswoman is ahead by 4,000 votes. Next updated count is Saturday.
U.S. Rep. Karen Bass overtook businessman Rick Caruso in the seesaw battle to be mayor of Los Angeles, with Friday’s tally putting the veteran lawmaker 4,384 votes ahead of the real estate developer in a contest that will not be settled until next week at the earliest.
The new totals from county election officials put Bass ahead 50.38% to 49.62%, in the lead for the first time since Caruso took a slim advantage in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Bass has now outpaced Caruso in the last two updates from the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office.
Going into Friday, Caruso held a tiny lead of half a percentage point, or 2,695 votes. The fourth lead change in less than 72 hours seemed to bear out pre-election predictions that a winner might not be known for a week or more after Tuesday’s election day. The L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/ County Clerk’s office promises another updated count Saturday.
With only about 30,000 votes added to the mayoral tote board Friday, Caruso’s supporters cautioned against reading too much into the new totals. But Bass partisans sounded buoyant that despite the modest overall numbers, their candidate had taken 60% of the votes revealed since Thursday.
Independent analysts suggest that a minimum of 300,000 ballots remain to be counted, the vast majority of them mail-ins. Bass pulled from behind in the vote count in the June primary on the strength of mail-in votes, and the new totals this week — with the congresswoman gaining three-fifths of the total 82,510 new votes over two days — suggested a possible repeat of that pattern.
“Give me one more [vote batch] like these last two and it will officially be a
‘Give me one more [vote batch] like these last two and it will officially be a trend. It becomes increasingly hard for Caruso to claw back.’
— PAUL MITCHELL, expert on voting patterns, on successive gains by Rep. Karen Bass
trend,” said Paul Mitchell, an expert in voting patterns who has been closely tracking the L.A. election. “It becomes increasingly hard for Caruso to claw back and makes it hard to come up with any intellectually credible justification of why these ballots should start changing course.”
The new front-runner’s campaign manager, Jenny Dellwood, said the Bass team “continues to feel great about the numbers, and Karen is optimistic and ready to roll up her sleeves and get to work.”
In the race for Los Angeles County supervisor in the 3rd District, West Hollywood City Councilmember Lindsey Horvath also pushed into a narrow lead with the new vote totals Friday. Her 670-vote advantage over state Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys), if it holds, would keep the fivemember board all female.
“I’m so grateful to the voters of District 3 for their confidence and support,” Horvath said in a statement. “We are confident that when every vote is counted and certified, we will win this race and bring much needed change to L.A. County.”
In another high-profile county race, Sheriff Alex Villanueva continued to lag far behind challenger Robert Luna, leaving his chance of winning a second term in considerable doubt. The latest batch of ballots had Luna up more than 235,000 votes, a margin of more than 16%.
The two would-be mayors have presented a study in contrasts since voting concluded Tuesday: Bass hunkering down with her family and staff, and Caruso spending at least some of his day presenting himself to Angelenos as a kind of mayor-in-waiting.
On Wednesday, the 63year-old mall developer dug in to a pastrami sandwich at Langer’s Deli west of downtown. On Friday, he dropped in on a Veterans Day parade, greeting the crowd with his golden retriever Hudson and briefly greeting Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was riding in the parade and has a month left in office.
Bass, who would be the first female mayor in L.A.’s nearly 250-year history, hasn’t been seen by the media since her election night speech and has been relatively silent compared with her opponent. The veteran House member “has been catching up on her personal life and spending time with family,” said spokesperson Sarah Leonard Sheahan. “Today she held a luncheon for her staff to express her appreciation.”
On Friday, hours before the latest tally was released, Caruso stood on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, waving to veterans taking part in the parade and posing for photos with fans.
“This is exactly what we were expecting,” Caruso said. “We’re gonna go up and down as these ballots get counted . ... We’re going to be on a roller coaster for a while.
But I’m very optimistic.”
Caruso’s interview with reporters was interrupted when Garcetti passed by, wearing his Navy Reserve uniform and sitting atop the back of a convertible that rolled down Laurel Canyon.
“Look who it is!” Caruso said, walking over to shake the mayor’s hand.
The two had earlier exchanged texts, and, after shaking hands, agreed to soon connect on the phone. Garcetti said he had also been in touch with Bass and that his staff and city department heads had begun to work with both camps to smooth the way for a transition to be completed with the swearing in of a new mayor on Dec. 12.
In other races, city attorney candidate Hydee Feldstein Soto continued to lead attorney Faisal Gill. Feldstein Soto has 57.7% of the vote to Gill’s 42.2%, according to Friday’s results.
In the City Council race for a Glassell Park-to-Hollywood seat, labor organizer Hugo Soto-Martinez maintained his edge over Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, who is vying for a third term. Soto-Martinez leads 53.3% to O’Farrell’s 46.7%.
On the Westside, Traci Park maintained a 9-percentage-point lead over attorney Erin Darling in the race to succeed City Councilmember Mike Bonin.
In the race to replace Councilmember Paul Koretz for a Fairfax-to-Bel-Air seat, political aide Katy Young Yaroslavsky continued to lead attorney Sam Yebri, 57% to 42.9%.
Attorney Tim McOsker maintained a large lead over neighborhood council member Danielle Sandoval for a San Pedro-to-Watts seat, with McOsker at 65.4% and Sandoval at 34.6%.
In the city controller’s race, accountant Kenneth Mejia is on his way to being declared the official winner. Rival Koretz conceded earlier in the week.