Former Bass opponent Rick Caruso now says he will vote for her reelection as mayor

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Set us as preferred Billionaire developer Rick Caruso, who spent more than $100 million of his own money in his failed campaign against Karen Bass for mayor four years ago, said Monday he plans to vote for Bass over challenger Nithya Raman.Caruso said his close work with the mayor over the past few months as part of the Palisades fire rebuilding process convinced him that Bass would learn from past mistakes and perform better in a second term.“I have seen her grow into this job.I have seen firsthand her dedication, her willingness to work together, and her commitment to helping families and communities rebuild their lives,” he said in a statement.

The statement doesn’t amount to an endorsement, a spokesperson for Caruso said, but instead simply informs people for whom Caruso planned to vote.The Raman campaign declined to comment.Caruso’s statement doesn’t come as a complete surprise.

Appearing with Bass at an event at his Palisades Village shopping center last week, Caruso voiced concerns over Raman’s stated intention to replace Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell.“I do show extreme concern when a candidate is talking about firing a chief of police,” he said then, although he declined to say who he would vote for at the time.“I don’t think we need LAPD being a lab experiment for the DSA,” Caruso said last week, referring to the Democratic Socialists of America, which has endorsed Raman.Caruso has also bashed Raman’s tenure as the former head of the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, calling her track record there “troubling.”Caruso — whose properties include the Grove, the Americana at Brand, and Palisades Village — publicly toyed with the idea of running for mayor again in 2026, though he ultimately decided against it.

He spent much of the years after his loss...