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Los Angeles mayoral candidate Karen Bass and other prominent L.A. Democrats denounced Rick Caruso’s party affiliation change from independent to Democrat ahead of the midterm elections on Tuesday.
“You can’t just change your party registration, change your viewpoints and spend tens of millions of dollars trying to convince people that you’re somebody you’re not. If you lie about who you are, if you lie about who other people are, how could you possibly bring the city together to meet the needs that we have in Los Angeles right now?” said Bass, flanked by a group of Democratic officials during a press conference at her campaign headquarters. Bass’ statements come two days after being endorsed by former president Barack Obama.
Caruso’s long history of changing party affiliations began in 2011 when he switched from Republican to “decline to state,” according to public records. He then re-registered as a Republican in 2016 and switched to independent in 2019.
In the last 60 years, Angelenos have voted in a Republican mayor only twice, both terms being served by Richard J. Riordan.
Caruso registered as a Democrat three weeks before filing to run in the 2022 mayoral election.
“Rick Caruso is lying to Angelenos,” said Korean American Democratic Committee President Steve Kang. “He’s been a Republican nearly his entire life, supporting far right extremists worth millions of dollars. He’s only been a Democrat in the last year, and he did it so that he could trick voters into thinking he’s something that he is not.”
When asked about his voter registration changes in June, Caruso said, “I’m a Democrat, and I’m proud to be a Democrat. What fascinates me is that we’re even having this conversation because the electorate, the voters in the city don’t care about this. What the voters of the city care about is crime and homelessness and corruption.”
L.A. County Democratic Party Chair Mark Gonzalez also spoke out against Caruso at Monday’s press conference, specifically citing mailers he received about Caruso’s endorsements by other Democrats.
“Let’s be abundantly clear: Rick Caruso is not endorsed by the Democratic Party. Karen Bass is the only real pro-choice Democrat, which is why President Barack Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders, President Biden and Vice President Harris have endorsed the only Democrat in this race,” Gonzalez said.
Unlike other states, California allows Democrats to run against Democrats because of its top-two open primary system. This allows the two top candidates in the primary, regardless of affiliation, to face off in the general election.
Bass’ criticisms of the real estate tycoon range from his failures to rectify the homeless crisis in L.A. and his use of personal funds on political advertising.
In response to a question by Annenberg Media, Bass said, “My message to Rick Caruso is, number one, he shouldn’t lie. $100 million could have better been spent helping people. Please tell me why you’ve never built one unit of affordable housing, nor did you ever allow any affordable housing in the development you have built.”