{"id":118870,"date":"2026-01-03T17:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/118870\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T17:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:21:08","slug":"one-year-on-the-palisades-fire-has-shaped-la-mayor-karen-bass-first-term-and-her-reelection-hopes-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/118870\/","title":{"rendered":"One year on, the Palisades fire has shaped LA Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 first term, and her reelection hopes \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"

One year after the Palisades fire<\/a>, Mayor Karen Bass is still trying to shake the political image that took hold in the days after flames tore through the hillside neighborhood: a city in crisis \u2014 and a mayor not in town when a major disaster struck.<\/p>\n

As Los Angeles moves from emergency response to rebuilding, and toward a 2026 election, Bass faces an unusually high-stakes test of leadership: proving the recovery is real, and persuading voters she\u2019s the right person to finish it.<\/p>\n

At a downtown rally launching her reelection campaign on Saturday, Dec. 13, Bass and her allies largely steered the spotlight toward areas where she argues her leadership has strengthened \u2014clashes with the Trump administration over immigration enforcement, a decline in homelessness, housing production, and her ability to broker politically difficult deals, including recent labor agreements<\/a> that averted planned city worker layoffs amid a major budget shortfall<\/a>. Speakers included leaders from immigrant rights groups, AAPI organizations, unions and business groups.<\/p>\n

But Bass also nodded to the disaster that reshaped her first year in office. \u201cIt started in tragedy,\u201d she told supporters, referencing the wildfire<\/a>, before adding: \u201cBut we stood together. We stood together to help those Angelenos who lost their homes and their communities. And we won\u2019t rest until every family in the Palisades is back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fire erupted on Jan. 7 while Bass was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana. The catastrophic blaze killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes. Her absence, along with frustrations over emergency response and communication, quickly became a flashpoint over leadership and preparedness, a narrative Bass has spent the last year trying to counter.<\/p>\n

Political analysts say the fire has become the defining event of Bass\u2019 first term \u2014 an upheaval so dramatic it reshaped the city\u2019s political conversation and even eclipsed other long-running crises.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not have thought there would be another issue that emerged that actually would put homelessness<\/a> secondary \u2013 but it did,\u201d said Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University. He said the disaster has become \u201cthe defining moment of her first term,\u201d and is likely to factor into the 2026 mayoral race.<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Karen Bass speaks as homeowners Walter and Alessandra Lopes look on during a press conference outside a home that was destroyed during the Palisades Fire and is now being rebuilt in Pacific Palisades on Monday, May 19, 2025. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

It also created a political vulnerability Bass has been forced to manage: criticism that she was traveling internationally when the fire erupted and that the city did not respond as effectively as residents expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, it appeared that the mayor\u2019s reaction to the fire was going to cause her tremendous political damage,\u201d said Dan Schnur, a political analyst and a professor at USC and UC Berkeley. Schnur said Bass\u2019 overseas travel, while not unusual for elected officials, \u201c\u200abecame symbolic of what many perceived to be a lack of attention and oversight on her part.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first month or two after the fire, Schnur said, \u201c\u200ait looked like they could potentially cost her reelection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Schnur and Guerra said Bass now faces the challenge of shaping how voters understand the recovery, and whether it is moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to see that things are progressing, but how you measure progress \u2014 what are the metrics, what are the stories \u2014 is going to be very important for the mayor to define that narrative,\u201d Guerra said. He said Bass must be able to argue that the city is on schedule or ahead of schedule on actions within its power \u2014 such as debris clearance and permitting \u2014 while also explaining what depends on federal support, insurance companies and homeowners.<\/p>\n

Guerra said Bass\u2019 leadership style, often centered around coalition-building and giving others a voice, can clash with the demands of a crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a crisis\u2026 it has to be one clear voice,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s the challenge for her because it\u2019s not in her nature \u2026 to try to hog the spotlight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cautious optimism and lingering concerns<\/p>\n

For residents, the political debate is inseparable from everyday realities: insurance uncertainty, rebuilding costs, and whether the city can turn promises into real progress on the ground.<\/p>\n

David Schwarz, who chairs the Pacific Palisades Community Council\u2019s Rebuild Committee, said the community\u2019s mood is best described as \u201ccautious optimism,\u201d paired with anxiety about whether the Palisades can be fully rebuilt \u201cwithin their lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe obstacle to reconstruction is, to begin with, lack of insurability or under-insured homeowners,\u201d Schwarz said. Even homeowners who want to rebuild, he said, fear they won\u2019t have enough insurance proceeds \u201cto go the distance,\u201d or be able to afford coverage afterward.<\/p>\n

Schwarz said residents\u2019 top priority is preventing a repeat catastrophe \u2014 \u201cfire safety, fire safety, and fire safety\u201d \u2014 from undergrounding utilities to repairing hydrants, water mains and other aging infrastructure.<\/p>\n

He argued that speeding up reconstruction will require a major upfront investment in infrastructure, particularly in streets and sewer and water systems that in some cases are more than 100 years old. Residents, he said, increasingly recognize that \u201cthe price of improving the infrastructure\u201d will require shared responsibility among federal, state and city governments, as well as residents themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty much still in the starting blocks,\u201d he said, praising the Army Corps of Engineers and EPA for debris removal but warning that reconstruction of infrastructure demands coordination and funding the city and state may struggle to provide.<\/p>\n

\"LosLos Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, right, arrives to a press conference in the Palisades with FEMA regional Director Bob Fenton, left, and Col Eric Swenson of the Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday, March 6, 2025. Bass announced that the DWP has approved tap water to be used again in the Palisades area. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

Speaking from his own perspective, he added: \u201cWithout the federal funding, I don\u2019t see this rebuilding happening within my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schwarz also criticized what he described as overly rosy messaging from City Hall, noting that permitting totals do not always translate into shovel-ready homes. In many cases, he said, multiple permits are required before construction can begin \u2014 a reality that can make progress appear further along than residents experience day to day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the mayor\u2019s office gets low grades from me on transparency, gets low grades from me on telling the people what the plan is to undertake the big jobs and who it expects will be able to do that,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s a terrible mistake on the part of the city not to overcompensate when it comes to keeping people informed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office pointed to a series of executive actions intended to speed rebuilding, including emergency orders aimed at cutting red tape and streamlining permitting. According to the office, rebuilding permits in the Palisades are being approved nearly three times faster than typical single-family home projects before the wildfire, with more than 1,400 rebuilding plans approved and more than 1,140 permits issued.<\/p>\n

\"LosLos Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced that the DWP has approved tap water to be used again in the Palisades area at press conference on Thursday, March 6, 2025. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

The office also said more than 350 projects have been confirmed to have started construction, and that utilities were restored for standing homes within roughly two months after the fire. The suspension of permit and plan check fees associated with rebuilding, officials noted, still requires City Council approval to become a full waiver. Earlier this month, the City Council postponed a final decision<\/a> after intense debate over how much relief the city should offer and who should qualify for help.<\/p>\n

But Schwarz said residents are watching for more tangible signs of momentum, such as streets reopening, sewer mains being dug up and repaired and evidence that agencies involved in reconstruction are actually coordinating the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to believe that the first and most important bellwether of progress is a plan,\u201d Schwarz said. \u2029\u201dAnd I ain\u2019t seen a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharon Kilbride, an area representative on the Pacific Palisades Community Council who said she evacuated for about two weeks, described widespread frustration with emergency communication during the fire and, later, a lack of warnings ahead of heavy rain and debris flows.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no police going door to door in our area warning us,\u201d Kilbride said. \u201cEverything was pretty much an alert\u2026 we kept just watching the TV as much as we could before the power went out.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year later, Kilbride gave the city\u2019s recovery effort a \u201cD,\u201d pointing to stall action on waiving the permit fees, uncertainty around insurance and skepticism that leaders will follow through on proposed relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t even know if they can get insurance again,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to rebuild \u2014 then if you can\u2019t get insurance, that\u2019s \u2026 why build?\u201d<\/p>\n

Competing views of the fire<\/p>\n

Bass\u2019 opponents are expected to keep the fire \u2014 and her response to it \u2014 in the foreground. Former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner, who is running for mayor, said the disaster underscored what he described as a failure of leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the most simple terms\u2026 a crisis is the ultimate test of a leader,\u201d Beutner said, arguing leaders must \u201creact quickly, understand the problem, develop a solution, and build and empower a team.\u201d \u201cBy most measures,\u201d he added, Bass \u201chas not passed the test of leadership\u201d during the Palisades fire.<\/p>\n

Beutner said major questions about the fire and its aftermath remain unanswered nearly a year later, and called for an independent commission<\/a> to publicly examine what went wrong and what should change before the next disaster.<\/p>\n

But strategists cautioned that reelection campaigns rarely hinge on a single moment \u2014 and that by the time voters head to the polls, other issues could rival or even overshadow the fire\u2019s political impact.<\/p>\n

Schnur said Bass has benefited politically from high-profile clashes with the Trump administration over immigration enforcement during the summer<\/a>\u2014 a fight that \u201cgave Bass a chance to rehabilitate her political image,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBass\u2019 campaign would\u2019ve had a very difficult challenge in convincing Angelenos either to forget about the fires, or to reassess Bass\u2019 response to them,\u201d Schnur said. \u201cNow they have the ability to raise an entirely different topic.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many residents are still grappling with wildfire recovery, Schnur said immigration enforcement is a more recent issue and one that resonates more immediately with a broad swath of voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wildfires are a textbook example of how a politician should not respond to a crisis,\u201d Schnur said. \u201cBass\u2019 push back against the ICE raids is a textbook example of how politicians should respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voters\u2019 opinions of Bass\u2019 handling of the fire, he said, are largely fixed. Whether it defines her reelection may come down to which episode voters ultimately weigh more heavily.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will either be the most important memory of her first term or the second most important memory of her first term,\u201d he said. \u201cThe answer to that question will determine whether or not she\u2019s reelected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guerra similarly said the fire does not automatically determine Bass\u2019 political fate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn no way does the fire mean she will not be elected or reelected,\u201d he said, arguing that Bass can point to a broader record in other areas that could \u201covercome\u201d the damage.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWhile I say it dominated it,\u201d Guerra added, \u201cit\u2019s not a foregone conclusion that it was a deciding factor in her victory or defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Bass\u2019 office did not provide an interview for this story. A spokesperson said the team is working on written responses to questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One year after the Palisades fire, Mayor Karen Bass is still trying to shake the political image that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,4132,48,52,51,47,137,50,49,100,1839,136,535],"class_list":{"0":"post-118870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-karen-bass","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-headlines","12":"tag-la-news","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-county","15":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","16":"tag-los-angeles-news","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-palisades-fire","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-wildfires"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}