For the nine candidates seeking to become the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles, her or his top responsibility is clear – most Angelenos want to see the homeless crisis alleviated by a leader who can move with a sense of urgency. Two of those candidates, Congresswoman Karen Bass and business leader Rick Caruso, are widely seen as the frontrunners, one of whom could become mayor and face L.A.’s deep-seated troubles.

More than 40,000 Angelenos are estimated to be without a stable place to live other than a shelter bed, vehicle, tent or other makeshift protection from the elements.

The field of nine mayoral candidates who hope to replace Mayor Eric Garcetti include a congresswoman, business leaders, community activists, a lawyer, and an L.A. city councilman. Most tout plans to help people get off the streets by increasing the supply or access to shelters, building affordable housing, and expanding mental health and drug addiction services.

In hopes of quickly and permanently removing encampments, some candidates focus on enforcing laws that prohibit living on the streets and that restrict conduct such as loitering.

The election also comes as many Angelenos adjust to a world changed by the COVID-19 pandemic and a historically tight housing market that makes it difficult for many to find housing — both renters and buyers.

On the issue of public safety, several candidates want to maintain or increase the number of LAPD officers, while some candidates say the city overspends on LAPD and fails to adequately fund other services that can make communities safer.

Amidst growing concern over police misconduct and brutality, reflected in protests by Angelenos in 2020 after an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, was choked to death by a Minneapolis police officer, several candidates are proposing changes. One is to expand L.A.’s pilot program that taps social workers — not armed officers — to respond to incidents when a person is experiencing a mental health crisis.

Trust in government, on the ballot

Trust in government is also on the ballot after a string of corruption scandals at Los Angeles City Hall. One scandal is related to development projects, dubbed Operation Casino Royale by FBI officials, and another involved kickbacks and conflicts of interest that led to an FBI investigation into the settlement of a class action lawsuit against the city and its Department of Water and Power (LADWP).

The class action suit represented thousands of LADWP customers who were wildly overcharged on their bills due to the bungled overhaul of the public utility’s billing system in 2013.

FBI investigations at City Hall helped send former San Fernando Valley Councilman Mitchell Englander to prison for lying to investigators. Eastside Councilman Jose Huizar faces trial next year on federal bribery and racketeering charges. And David Wright, the former general manager of the Department of Water and Power, was sentenced to prison for taking bribes including a $1 million annual salary from a firm that sought a lucrative no-bid contract from the DWP board — where Wright had significant sway.

Public and elected officials are believed to still be under investigation by the FBI. Disturbed voters are asking how Los Angeles City Hall leaders became compromised.

Ex-L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar faces trial next year on federal bribery and racketeering charges. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)

Against this backdrop, voters are being buried in mailers and political ads from candidates with serious campaign chests. Leading the pack in spending is Caruso, a billionaire mall developer who has poured nearly $34 million of his wealth into his campaign, buying extensive television ads and funding online streaming platforms.

That exposure has helped Caruso leap from polling at 6% reported in a Loyola Marymount poll in early February, to a dead heat against Bass according to a UC Berkeley Poll in April.

Other mayoral candidates aiming to get their messages out are scrambling to match Caruso’s unprecedented spending. Bass comes closest. She had spent nearly $3 million as of late May, a more typical expenditure for a top mayoral candidate, yet dwarfed by Caruso’s immense spending power.

A city undecided

Bass and Caruso are widely seen as the frontrunners. But while both are roughly favored by about a third of the voters surveyed in polling, they face a large unknown — the one-third or more voters who are undecided, according to the Berkeley poll. A more recent poll, commissioned by Bass’s campaign, seemed to show that the number of people undecided has shrunk.

Attacks between opponents have primarily involved Bass and Caruso. Bass and her supporters have accused Caruso of being an anti-abortion and not being a true Democrat. Before running for mayor, Caruso registered as a Democrat after having no party preference. Bass supporters have pointed to his past registration as a Republican.

His pro-choice statement, which he released after the leak from the U.S. Supreme Court foretelling its apparent overturning of Roe v. Wade, was questioned by the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project Los Angeles County Action Fund. It called on him to apologize for his past support of anti-abortion Catholic organizations and political figures such as former Ohio governor John Kasich.

A political action committee that supports Bass aired an ad accusing Caruso of being a closet Republican, comparing him to Donald Trump and accusing him of bankrolling Republican candidates and “radical forces” who want to make abortion illegal.

Caruso’s senior campaign advisor Lex Olbrei responded, “The bottom line is, Rick has always been pro-choice and has always supported Roe v. Wade.”

Caruso and his supporters, meanwhile, have leveraged Bass’s longtime friendship with Mark Ridley-Thomas, a former Los Angeles County board supervisor, and ex-Los Angeles city councilman, who was suspended from by the City Council. Ridley-Thomas was stripped of his duties after being indicted on corruption charges that he directed county funds to the University of Southern California in exchange for free graduate school tuition and a paid professorship for his son, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas. Before his indictment, Ridley-Thomas backed Bass for mayor.

One television ad by the Los Angeles police union’s political committee, which backs Caruso, accused Bass of missing numerous votes in Congress — not showing up for work. Another ad juxtaposed Bass’s ties to USC — where she received a free scholarship for her graduate degree in social work — next to the Ridley-Thomas corruption case. That ad criticized her votes in Congress to fund federal departments, which then awarded federal funds to USC.

Anna Bahr, spokesperson for Bass, dismissed the ads as untrue, saying the $4 million spent by the Los Angeles Police Protective League’s political action committee was a “waste of money” and could have been spent on “improving police-community relations and recruiting new officers.”

She said Bass cast 18,000 votes while in Congress and the state Assembly, compared to Caruso’s absence from about 40% of Los Angeles Police Commission meetings when he served on that board.

Bahr dismissed the USC ad as “misinformation,” saying that when Bass voted to authorize the budgets of federal departments, “she wasn’t voting — and no member of Congress ever votes — directly on a contract.” She said  Bass’s USC degree helped her better understand child welfare policy.

Cease and desist letters were issued from the two sides, both saying that the opposition’s ads were false.

Los Angeles City Councilman and mayor-hopeful Kevin de Leon (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)

Kevin de Leon needs a huge come from behind

Six other mayoral candidates who hope to break through have a very large distance to close. Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de Leon, a former state legislator, is the likeliest to eke out an almost impossible come from behind.

De Leon benefits from his time in elected office, including as powerful leader of the California State Senate. Early in the race he was in second place and Bass held the lead. But recent polling showed De Leon in single digits, keeping the company of mayoral hopefuls City Councilman Joe Buscaino and City Attorney Mike Feuer, both of whom have withdrawn from the race. A poll by the NALEO Educational Fund found De Leon was preferred by Latino voters, with Rick Caruso close behind.

Others still in the race include community activist Gina Viola who earned some media attention and inclusion in mayoral debates; Realtor and businessman Mel Wilson, a former member of the Metro Board who participated in a televised debate; Alex Gruenenfelder Smith, an L.A. neighborhood council member who in recent years helped lead a National School Walkout in L.A. calling for gun reform; Craig Greiwe, a business executive who was chief strategy officer at Rogers & Cowan/PMK; businessman John Jackson who supported Measure HHH to fund homeless housing but believes it went to waste; and lawyer Andrew Kim, who said he is focused on homelessness, public safety, corruption and job creation.

While there are nine candidates, the ballot lists 12 because they were printed and mailed before three candidates withdrew. Some Angelenos may have already voted for non-contenders Buscainio and Feuer, as well as Ramit Varma, an Encino-based businessman who withdrew on Monday, May 23. Varma and Buscaino now back Caruso. Feuer has endorsed Bass.

If a candidate receives more than 50% of the votes in the primary, he or she is elected to fill the four-year term for mayor that starts in December. But with nine candidates an outright winner on June 7 is extremely unlikely, and the two top vote-getters are expected to face off in the November General Election.

The two leading candidates are trying to get their stories out to voters, even as many Angelenos have already sent in absentee ballots.

L.A. mayoral candidate Congresswoman Karen Bass discusses homelessness in a news conference at the closed St. Vincent Medical Center in L.A, Friday, Jan 14, 2022. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Karen Bass would declare an emergency

When Karen Bass became politically active in Los Angeles, she was a physicians’ assistant by day, working in a hospital ER. In her personal time she was organizing in her community, eventually through a nonprofit group she founded, Community Coalition, to address a crack-cocaine epidemic she says should have been seen as a public health crisis. But, she says, it was met with heavy law enforcement measures that devastated the stability of families in Black communities.

Now a congresswoman, Bass says she is refocusing on Los Angeles because the city is facing a similar public health challenge in its homelessness crisis.

Her desire to serve in local government – she made an unsuccessful bid for a city council seat in 2002 – comes after serving in the state legislature where she was the powerful senate speaker, and went on to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Bass has set a goal of producing 15,000 beds for those in need in her first term as mayor. Her approach, similar to the one adopted by city leaders and homeless services agencies and organizations, is to create a variety of housing and shelter types to meet diverse needs of people living on the streets.

She says she would declare a state of emergency and tap her connections in other levels of government, to free up or make available more resources.

Bass is aligned with other major candidates and city leaders in supporting regulations like LAMC 41.18, which makes it illegal to set up tents and other makeshift shelter in public areas. She has qualified that support by saying she does not believe in “arresting our way” out of homelessness. She said she saw that approach fail when she was organizing to address the crack-cocaine epidemic.

She has focused her campaign messaging on the lack of services and support for those with mental health and drug addiction challenges. She unveiled her plan in a news conference at the abandoned St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, which she said should be repurposed to shelter people, especially those facing health challenges.

Even though mental health and drug addiction services are usually outside of the city’s jurisdiction and decided by the county, Bass said that as mayor she would build a stronger relationship with Los Angeles County officials.

As an example of how far apart the city and county can be in addressing the homeless crisis, in a recent lawsuit accusing both local governments of failing to help people get off the streets, the city settled with the litigant, L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, which then signaled its intention to move forward against Los Angeles County, the remaining defendant.

Bass hopes to centralize the city’s approach to encampments. Today, encampment issues are handled individually by the 15 city council districts, who don’t follow consistent protocols or policies when it comes to services, shelter or housing, or law enforcement.

CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 19: Rihanna and Jeffrey Katzenberg attend the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2017 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

Backed by big names, criticized by others

Bass’s supporters include deep-pocketed figures such as producer and former Walt Disney Studios executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, labor movement leaders such as Dolores Huerta, and unions such as the United Teachers Los Angeles and nurses’ unions. She is also endorsed by Magic Johnson.

Due to her roots in organizing, Bass came into the race with the support of activists and groups who have worked with her, were mentored by her, or know her reputation. She has turned some off, including Black Lives Matters L.A. leader Melina Abdullah, over Bass’s support of LAMC 41.18. Activists say the city’s anti-camping law criminalizes homelessness, and they’re unhappy about her plan to increase the LAPD budget and maintain current police staffing levels.

Bass has also drawn criticism from groups pushing to redirect funding from jails and law enforcement agencies to programs that improve the well-being of communities and address racial inequities. She said that different communities define safety differently: some feel unsafe and want increased police presence, while in other communities trust must be built between police and residents.

She says as mayor she would invest more in “community safety partnerships,” in which police officers are embedded into communities to get to know residents better.

Bass is sustaining attacks from a political action committee (or PAC) set up by the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union for rank-and-file officers of LAPD. The committee has spent nearly $2 million in independent expenditures which funded a television attack ad.

In Bass’s corner is a PAC that has received funding from Katzenberg, as well as from movie director J.J. Abrams. Though these independent expenditure political action committees support a specific candidate, they cannot coordinate with that candidate or with their campaign.

LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 22: Real estate developer Rick Caruso participates in the mayoral debate at USC’s Bovard Auditorium on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA.(Pool photo Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Rick Caruso wants a safer L.A.

On June 7, she faces billionaire Rick Caruso, best known for the distinctive, theme park-style outdoor malls he develops, including The Grove and Americana at Brand. If Caruso becomes mayor, he will be following in the footsteps of another successful businessman-turned-mayor, Richard Riordan, who recently endorsed Caruso.

After considering the job for years, Caruso finally threw his name in the hat in 2022. He has used his fortune to launch the costliest primary campaign ever for a mayoral race in L.A., pitching himself to voters as a leader who can restore the American dream.

Caruso often cites his grandparents, who sought a different life when they immigrated from Italy to America and settled in Boyle Heights in the 1920s. His grandfather was a gardener. At Sunday dinners, his grandmother  emphasized the value of hard work and dedication to family.

At a recent meeting of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, Caruso said, “We have to bring the American dream back, and the only way to bring the American dream back is to allow residents of the city to actually do what they want to do: raise their family, feel safe, be able to have their business, get rid of the encampments in front of their homes, in front of their businesses, and stop spiraling crime.”

Caruso has focused on homelessness, public safety, and corruption and has released plans on each. He set a goal of creating 30,000 beds in 300 days, saying that would address a shortage in emergency shelter beds for the homeless. He also says he will use his experience as a developer to figure out ways to reduce the cost of building housing.

Caruso’s plan for addressing street encampments mirrors the enforcement approach of city leaders, who used police and sanitation crews to remove the unhoused from public areas such as Echo Park Lake.

He emphasizes that he will have “no tolerance” for encampments that return once removed. He has vowed to “take back parks and public space,” by removing tents and enforcing “quality of life laws.” He argues that the city has fallen short by failing to enforce such laws, and has contributed to encampments that grow to look like “disaster zones.” He also says he will try to make it easier to compel people suffering from mental illness to go into conservatorships.

Caruso has set a goal to add 1,500 officers to LAPD by the end of his first year in office, countering efforts by activists who are calling for the department to be defunded.

Retired L.A. Chief of Police Charlie Beck, honored here at luncheon at Hilton Woodland Hills on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018, backs Rick Caruso for mayor in 2022. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Past LAPD chiefs jump into the fray

Caruso is backed by former Los Angeles police chiefs Bill Bratton and Charlie Beck. And the Los Angeles Police Protective League — the union for the department’s officers — has endorsed Caruso and formed an independent expenditure political action committee that has aired television ads attacking Bass.

Caruso has emphasized that he will work to prevent corruption at City Hall, and points to his wealth as a sign that he will not be vulnerable to the payoffs and bribery corruption rocking the city’s government. He also says he won’t accept contributions from corporations and lobbyists now or once in office, and won’t meet with lobbyists — an unusual pledge in a city where electeds routinely meet with lobbyists.

He also plans to appoint an independent ethics czar who would “advise on all issues and ensure city business is conducted to prevent any conflicts of interest.”

Caruso says he proved himself in the public arena when he served on and chaired the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Commission and the Los Angeles Police Commission. A graduate of the University of Southern California, he points to his work at USC where, as chair of the USC board of trustees, he worked to institute changes following a string of scandals there.

In a March debate hosted at USC, Caruso presented himself as the alternative to candidates he described as career politicians with empty promises. He pitched himself as the only one capable of leading the city out of its problems: “I’m an executive, I’m a manager – that’s the difference between me and other people that are running for office.”