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 LAPD 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 voter for at the time.
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 not to run.
He spent much of the years after his loss critiquing Bass online over her handling of the homeless crisis and the Palisades fire. But he began to soften on the mayor following the June primary election.
Caruso, a former Republican who registered as a Democrat in 2022, also appeared at an event in Pacific Palisades with Bass last month to break ground on the newPalisades Recreation Center, which Caruso’s nonprofit, Steadfast LA, helped raise money to rebuild. At that time he also declined to say who he would back for mayor.
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