L.A. mayors race is in major flux, days before deadline

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The race for Los Angeles mayor has been in an extraordinary state of flux, with the candidate lineup shuffling and reshuffling in the final days before the filing deadline.On Thursday, former schools Supt.Austin Beutner dropped out of the race, citing the death of his 22-year-old daughter.

Hours later, L.A.County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said she was still deciding whether to launch her own challenge against Mayor Karen Bass.Meanwhile, billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, who announced last month that he wasn’t running, briefly reemerged as a possible candidate, saying Wednesday that he hadn’t completely ruled it out.

The following day, he changed course yet again, deciding not to enter the race after all.Pomona College politics professor Sara Sadhwani said she has never seen so many major candidates on the fence about a mayoral bid so close to the filing deadline, which is noon on Saturday.Although Horvath would seriously shake up the race, she would need to raise a significant amount of money in a short time, Sadhwani said.“It appears to me that there are a lot of campaign donors sitting out of this race until now, waiting to see who will jump in,” she added.The uncertainty doesn’t end there.Maryam Zar, who formed a community group to help guide the recovery from the Palisades fire, is also weighing a mayoral bid — and doesn’t plan to decide until the final day.“It’s not an easy decision,” the Palisades resident said.

“I have a life.I’m a parent.

I started a nonprofit doing excellent work out of thin air.”Bass, who was politically weakened by her performance during the fire and its aftermath, was already facing more than two dozen challengers looking to oust her in the June 2 primary — the vast majority little known to the public and not expected to pose any threat.Still, there are exceptions.On Wednesday, Brentwood tech entrepreneur A...