{"id":465129,"date":"2026-09-16T02:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T02:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465129\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T02:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T02:44:17","slug":"caruso-bass-appear-together-at-palisades-event-will-he-endorse-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465129\/","title":{"rendered":"Caruso, Bass appear together at Palisades event. Will he endorse her?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mayor Karen Bass and billionaire developer Rick Caruso appeared together at a groundbreaking for the new Palisades Recreation Center on Tuesday, in a sign that the sometimes icy relationship between the two 2022 mayoral rivals is thawing. <\/p>\n

Bass is now in a fight for reelection against challenger Nithya Raman. Caruso was complimentary of the mayor\u2019s leadership at the groundbreaking for the new center, which will replace one destroyed in the 2025 Palisades fire. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was important about the mayor\u2019s leadership is she rallied the troops together in the city. She set out to break new ground by forming this massive public-private partnership that has never been done before,\u201d Caruso said, adding that the mayor is a \u201cgreat leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

But pressed by reporters on whether he would endorse Bass for reelection, Caruso demurred, calling both Bass and Councilmember Raman \u201ctough choices.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think either option is great,\u201d Caruso said. <\/p>\n

Bass sidestepped the question when The Times asked her whether she would welcome Caruso\u2019s endorsement, saying the groundbreaking ceremony was \u201cnot political.\u201d An aide cut her off before the mayor could say more.<\/p>\n

Bass beat Caruso by nearly 10 percentage points in the 2022 election, even after Caruso spent more than $100 million of his own fortune on his doomed campaign.<\/p>\n

Many thought Caruso would challenge Bass for reelection this year, as he continued to publicly criticize the mayor. <\/p>\n

Caruso is a Palisades resident whose son and daughter lost their homes in the Palisades fire. He has called reporting from The Times that cited sources who said Bass softened the findings<\/a> of an after-action report about the fire an \u201cabsolute outrage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKaren Bass actively covered up a report meant to examine the most significant disaster in Los Angeles history,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a complete loss of public trust and an intentional act of covering up the actions that led to people dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

He eventually decided not to try<\/a> for a second time, opening a path for Raman to make her last-minute bid. At the time, Caruso said he was \u201cdeeply disappointed to step back from an election I believe is so critical to California\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he struck a brighter tone as he and the mayor celebrated breaking ground on the recreation center, which will include sports fields, tennis courts and a gym. The center will be built using 100% philanthropic donations from more than half a dozen groups \u2014 including Caruso\u2019s nonprofit, Steadfast LA, which helped raise more than $40 million.<\/p>\n

Lakers coach JJ Redick, whose nonprofit LA Strong Sports joined in the rec center\u2019s rebuilding and fundraising drive, compared Bass and Caruso\u2019s relationship to an imperfect connection on a sports team. <\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be honest, connections are not always perfect,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m grateful that myself, Rick Caruso, Mayor Bass and her office, that we could all be connected on this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Caruso\u2019s qualms with Bass\u2019 tenure as mayor, he has softened toward the mayor as the election has approached \u2014 potentially signaling he might endorse her over a challenge from Bass\u2019 left. <\/p>\n

Caruso said Tuesday he hadn\u2019t given much thought to endorsing and said he was meeting with Raman soon to discuss her run.<\/p>\n

Caruso, a former Republican who registered as a Democrat in 2022, could help Bass attract more conservative voters who may have voted for Spencer Pratt or tech entrepreneur Adam Miller in the primary but are now up for grabs. But Caruso\u2019s support could also potentially dent her standing with more liberal voters. <\/p>\n

Caruso has started talking more online and on the news about the Democratic Socialists of America, a left-wing group that endorsed Raman for mayor. <\/p>\n

\u201cDSA policies will not solve LA\u2019s problems,\u201d he posted on X on Monday. \u201cThey will only make them worse. Los Angeles deserves common sense solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Karen Bass and billionaire developer Rick Caruso appeared together at a groundbreaking for the new Palisades Recreation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[24058,12858,54379,183163,204,104464,48,52,51,2500,47,50,49,63,4415,13825,1839,96373,57052,69672,68],"class_list":["post-465129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-after-action-report","tag-bass","tag-caruso","tag-councilmember-raman","tag-election","tag-icy-relationship","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-leadership","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-mayor","tag-mayor-karen-bass","tag-palisades-fire","tag-re-election","tag-recreation-center","tag-steadfast-la","tag-tuesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465129","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=465129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}