May 31, 2022 - 4:36pm
Los Angeles
Over the weekend, Noughties band legend Travis Barker grabbed headlines when he was photographed devouring the feet of his beloved, Kourtney Kardashian. But Kourtney’s younger sister, Kim, also kissed the feet of a player in the news. Plumping for the LA mayoral aspirant, Rick Caruso, she said: “I really believe in what he stands for.”
With the Democrats facing an electoral rout in Autumn, it’s easy to overlook the show going down right now in Los Angeles. Caruso, a former Republican-turned-Democrat, is vying for mayor — and by vying, one means buying. So far he has spent over $37 million of his own money in the race compared to his nearest rival, Rep. Karen Bass, whose campaign has raked in $3.5 million.
The real estate magnate’s name is emblazoned on everything from Pepperdine Law’s Academy in Malibu to some free gear clothing the homeless on Sunset; it will now plausibly be festooned upon City Hall. But buying the race doesn’t buy popularity, though. Caruso, a hazy opportunist at best, is not loved by most Angelenos, and he faces a tough contest against Bass in the Golden State’s ‘jungle primary,’ which is set to pit the two Democrats against each other.
The preference of the Democratic establishment, President Biden and every Ukraine flag waver west of La Cienega, is for Bass. Biden, after all, narrowly passed over Bass for veep, in favour of a now-benighted state contemporary from up the road in Alta California — former San Francisco DA and California Senator Kamala Harris.
Bass has a rather likeable grandmother act, even if she has occasionally said the odd good word about Fidel Castro. She has since walked these comments back, but the stench of Leftism may linger on.
The 68-year-old is definitely the preferred pick ahead of Caruso, but the ennui and anomie of the age cries out for something more, with even, or perhaps especially, the denizens of the Hollywood Hills sniffing that out.
Elon Musk (as anyone who watched the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trials knows… is a frequent-enough Angeleno) may grab the headlines. But local barons, or California lifers (like the Kardashian clan), are also fed-up with politics in the state. With an estimated 66,000 homeless people in America’s second largest city and crime on the rise in L.A., Kim Kardashian is not wrong to want something different.
For a party that has dominated the digital age, any new front launched by celebrities is probably the Democrats’ worst nightmare.
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SubscribeI’ll take Rick Caruso any day over Karen Bass. Caruso is a hugely successful developer who has created things. Karen Bass is another lefty who will want to experiment with progressive policies that will backfire and get nothing done.
I worry he will be another Schwarzenegger. Another rich neophyte and supposed moderate who gets crushed by CA’s entrenched political mafia.
As an ex-Californian, I’m tempted to wish a pox on both Caruso and Bass. So long as CA continues to elect “grandmotherly” Leftists or opportunistic oligarchs, its descent into the maelstrom will continue unabated.
Are the rich for dinner ?