LOS ANGELES — Former Congresswoman Karen Bass outlasted a billionaire business baron at the polls to become the first woman mayor of America’s second-largest city.
The longtime Democrat has become the winner in a race that was so tight that it took a week after Election Day to count enough of the votes to declare Bass the victor. Her formidable opponent, billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, had spent $100 million of his own money in a futile effort to become the city’s chief executive.
Bass, 69, is taking over a mega-metropolis of four million people that has been torn asunder by the pandemic, racial scandals, skyrocketing crime and a pervasive homeless problem that has been exacerbated in recent years.
The longtime progressive politician told Fox 11 that she decided to run for mayor of the beleaguered city because she discerned that the levels of toxicity had risen to levels that resembled the infamous 1992 Los Angeles riots.
“That’s what is frightening to me now — the anger,” she said. “And my concern is the direction the anger can move the city in.”
Bass is the city’s second Black mayor, 30 years after legendary Tom Bradley retired as the longest-tenured executive in Los Angeles history. She will also be working with the city’s first female city attorney as well as the women who dominate the county’s five-member Board of Supervisors.
Bass told the television station in 2021 that she looked forward to the opportunity to work with female leaders in both the city and county of Los Angeles.
“These are general statements, OK? But women are more collaborative. Women are not as transactional. And I think women focus on different issues,” she said. “I think women tend to lead differently.”
