Voters explain pick for mayor
‘Civil rights and multiracial unity’
Heights
At the corner of North Broadway and Daly Street in Lincoln Heights, volunteer Rosalio Muñoz held up a sign for the Bass campaign just as a burst of rain approached.
More than 50 years ago, Muñoz helped organize the Chicano Moratorium, an anti-Vietnam War movement that included a peaceful march through East Los Angeles with roughly 30,000 participants. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies responding to reports of unlawfulness near a post-march rally fired tear gas at attendees and beat them with clubs. Three people died, including Los Angeles Times columnist Ruben Salazar, who was fatally struck by a gas canister.
Muñoz said he’s still fighting for the same things he wanted five decades ago. He thinks Bass is the best candidate to carry on that fight, more so than her opponent, developer Rick Caruso.
“She’s highly qualified, a leader in Congress, a leader in the Legislature and a leader in organizing the community for civil rights and multiracial unity of low- and moderate-income people,” Muñoz said.
After years of community outreach, he said, the tenets of his activism still propel him forward: fighting the rise of fascism while ensuring that Latino and Black residents have access to social services and affordable housing.
In previous years, he voted for candidates with the Peace and Freedom Party and other progressive groups.
In Bass, Muñoz sees a coalition builder who can address homelessness and housing instability.
He said he wants to see Bass sever the cozy connection between exploitative developer interests at City Hall and invest in the public transit system.
The rainy day wasn’t enough to deter Muñoz’s support for Bass — nor that of her detractors. A man approached and asked why Muñoz was voting for Bass, loudly declaring: “I’m voting for Caruso.”
Mike Romero, who explained that he also supports the reelection campaign of Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, wanted to know why Muñoz would waste his vote on Bass. The two briefly debated the merits of the Democratic Party, until the rain arrived and washed away their argument.
‘Pseudo-Trumpian developer’ irks him
Canyon
At the Silver Lake Dog Park, clusters of canines chased after mud-stained tennis balls, sprinting across a patch of dirt alongside the reservoir. Their owners, meanwhile, were grappling with opposing views on who should be mayor.
Leaning against a bench as his bulldog, Olive, scampered nearby, Matt Black, 38, said he plans to vote for Bass.
But his support for the congresswoman is less a vote for her than one against Caruso, whom he called a “pseudo-Trumpian developer” and a “nightmare.”
A former campaigner for Councilmember Nithya Raman, Black worried that Caruso’s standing puts him on the side of developers and the NIMBY constituency — a major problem, Black said, amid an ongoing housing and homelessness crisis.
“At the very least, it feels like a bad look, not what we want to project in the middle of a housing crisis — or ever,” Black said.
‘She’s on the right side of history’
and Brittany Crawley
Partners Miranda Tower and Brittany Crawley both plan to vote for Bass.
The two sat on camping chairs, casting lines into the artificial lake at Lake Balboa/Anthony C. Beilenson Park.
“I’m tired of seeing big money win in politics,” said Tower, referencing the nearly $100 million Caruso has invested in his own campaign. “There are so many people in L.A. who don’t have that money and are often underrepresented.”
Tower and Crawley questioned Caruso’s tendency to “flip-flop,” citing his change of party from Republican to Democrat. The two also cautioned against Caruso’s former support of politicians who opposed abortion, calling the businessman “sneaky.”
“I’m not saying Karen’s not, but she is a woman, and for me, I think that means a lot right now for reproductive rights,” said Crawley, who said she is still reeling from the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe vs. Wade.
The two grew up in Virginia, where, Crawley said, she was surrounded by regressive and bigoted views that threatened the civil rights of women and people of color. She worried that someone like Caruso would be an extension of those views.
“I’m gonna go with her,” Crawley said, referring to Bass, “because I think she’s on the right side of history.”
She is ‘not just going to King Taco’
care worker
Outside of McCarty Memorial Christian Church in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, Royette Caldwell handed out bags of canned food and bread. She wore a T-shirt, a blue surgical mask and sunglasses while surrounded by other volunteers and stacks of donated quilts.
Caldwell donates her time to hand out food and clothes to people in need who may not be homeless but might be close to losing everything after one bad day.
She shook her head when she thought about the mayor’s race and Caruso’s run for office.
She has been flooded with his attack ads against Bass. When she spoke about voting, she directly addressed Caruso.
“You’re spending your money on all these ads against Karen Bass. But what are you doing in the neighborhood?” Caldwell asked. “Not just going to King Taco or certain stores in Compton. I wonder how often you did any of that before you decided to run for mayor.”
Caruso’s lack of connection to neighborhoods across Los Angeles is a red flag for Caldwell, who said she’s voting for Bass “hands down.”
Caldwell has lived in the Jefferson Park neighborhood for nearly three decades and remembers when gang violence was at its worst, in the 1990s. Crime is still a major issue for Caldwell, but she says the lacking homeless and mental health services are also important factors.
“I have not heard any of [the candidates] talking about how they would open up mental health institutions, which we had years ago,” Caldwell said. “Getting homeless people the care they need versus putting them on the street to potentially die seems important.”
She thinks the next mayor will need to address the inherent racism and corruption on the City Council. The secret recording of Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and L.A. County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera making racist comments angered her, but none of it was surprising, she said. (Martinez, who was council president, and Herrera have resigned.)
“They shouldn’t be in office if they can’t respect every ethnicity and every race, regardless of their creed,” Caldwell said.
There has to be some sort of mechanism to remove council members when they are caught in these types of scandals — a zero-tolerance approach to racism and blatant corruption, she said. The next mayor would have to address that head-on.
“It’s going to be a little tricky,” Caldwell admitted as she loaded a box of canned goods for a neighbor.
She ‘comes from a working family’
Heights
When Veronica Casarez bought her home in Boyle Heights — the neighborhood where she was born and raised — she knew she’d have to make the repairs to her fixer-upper herself. She even built a tiny lending library outside her home.
She said she appreciates candidates who make the most of what they have — like Bass.
Casarez believes Bass can address homelessness, the lack of affordable housing and high rents without overlooking low-income residents.
There are many things Casarez, who has worked as a community organizer and is a lifelong Democrat, wants Bass to accomplish. But one stands out:
“I think it comes down to one thing: that’s having a good job, a well-paying job — and one job should be enough for everyone,” Casarez said. “We have people that are working two to three jobs just to pay the rent and provide for their children.”
Casarez had her first daughter when she was 15 and her second at 17. She knows what it’s like to work three jobs to pay the bills.
Bass “comes from a working family, she comes from labor, and she has always been there supporting the middle class, the low-income communities,” Casarez said.
Caruso is a successful businessman, she said, but she thinks his talents and money could be better spent elsewhere.
“With all that money that he has, he doesn’t need to be a politician. He doesn’t need to be in office to make a difference,” Casarez said. “He could be Mother Teresa.”
