For more than two months, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, has faced the lacerating criticisms for their management of Palisades fire, her absence of the country when she exploded, her wobble public appearances once returned, even her lack of preservation of her text messages.
In recent days, Pro-Bases forces have been backward, arguing that it is under attack of “rich oligarchs”, including real estate developer Rick Caruso and Nicole Shanahan, who is helping to finance a campaign to remember it.
Bass sponsors are portraying attacks as very partisan, amplified by a right -wing media apparatus and, at least for some, rooted in racism. These arguments offer a potential preview of the political case that will be done for the bass while running for re -election and seeks to defend the retirement in Deep Blue the
In a recent email to Bass followers, Joanne Kim, head of personnel of the City Council President, Marquece Harris-Dawson said that right-wing billions have “armed” the fire of January 7, using it to fight a “disinformation campaign” against the mayor. Kim, who worked in Bass's 2022 campaign, pointed out not only Caruso but also the billionaire Elon Musk, who has published diatribas against the mayor on social networks.
“This is its strategy: exploit tragedy, distort reality, divide people. We will not leave them, ”Kim wrote in his email of 1,000 words. “I ask you to use each communication platform that you have to close the lies and show that we are with our mayor.”
Vahid Khorsand, president of the City Public Works Board, recirculated Kim's email to his followers, repeating the warning that billionaires are “come by the” Khorsand, a high level bass designated by the low level, praised the mayor for his zoom web seminars in the recovery process and to ensure a commitment of federal officials wild, which destroyed large swaths of the recovery areas of the recovery areas and south in the city areas.
“This is exactly why the correct one comes behind her. That is why they are using any means they can, like this wind storm, to attack it. They know that Karen puts people first, ”he wrote.
Community Coalition employees, the non -profit organization of South founded by Bass and others 35 years ago, have also aligned behind the mayor, testifying in the City Council and publishing on social networks in recent weeks.
Doug Herman, a strategist of the re -election campaign of Bass 2026, said Angelen should not be surprised to see the closest allies of the mayor who joined behind her in front of a retirement. He said that the mayor's team did not ask Kim, Khorsand or the others to advocate in his name and did not work with them in their messages.
“These are his strongest followers. They are responding in the strongest way. I don't think there is unusual that, ”said Herman. “They are talking about the things that bother them using their rights of the first amendment.”
The gear scream of the mayor's allies follows the two most difficult months of his political career, which includes six years in the state legislature, including two as a speaker of the Assembly, and a dozen in Congress.
Bass has taken heat in recent weeks to expel Los Angeles firefighters, Kristin Crowley, who has been accepted by the fire union to say publicly that his department is very low funded. The mayor also received strong criticism for organizing a three -month salary and $ 500,000 for his forest fire recovery tsar, which was discarded after the uproar.
Others have affirmed that Bass attendees are to blame for not alerting it to the prognosis of Santa Ana's potentially dangerous winds before going to a diplomatic mission to Ghana.
Bass has responded to criticism highlighting the progress that the city has achieved since the disaster. The water was restored to Las Palisades two months after the fire, much faster than in the paradise community after the 2018 camp fire. The elimination of toxic debris in burns areas, the responsibility of the federal government, not the city's agencies, also took place faster than expected initially.
Bass defenders have adopted a more struggle approach, saying that they are wrongly blaming him for a forest fire that they attribute to climate change.
Kim, whose email left Karenbass.com, an account proportionate to her when she worked in Bass's 2022 campaign, said Caruso did not waste time at the scapegoat to the mayor, “push what seems like a campaign announcement” while the Palisades fire was still furious.
Caruso, who ran against the bass in 2022 and whose family lost two houses in the Palisades fire, dismissed the criticism.
“Angelen wants and deserves leadership that reconstructs its communities and returns them to their homes, no more political turns and points of conversation,” said Eric Koch, Caruso spokesman, in a statement. “Rick Caruso focuses only on the results, no more excuses, delays and money passes.”
Fernando Guerra, who runs the center for the studio of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, said it makes sense that the mayor's supporters focus on billionaires. Many Democrats in Los Angeles have backed away from the decisions made by President Trump and the main advisor Musk, said Guerra.
“If I were a political consultant” advising Bass and its supporters, Guerra said: “I would say absolutely, use the word billionaire, attack multimillionaires.”
The mayor's allies have become increasingly open in recent weeks, largely in response to two events: Crowley's dismissal and the subsequent effort to recover their work, and the launch of the retirement effort.
Kim advised Bass supporters to be inspired by a seven -minute Instagram video published last month for Alberto Retana, president and executive director of Community Coalition.
Retana told his followers that those who have contributed to the climatic crisis (fossil fuel companies, corporations and 1%) are responsible for this year's devastating fires, not low. He said Trump and his allies have created a narrative about the diversity, equity and inclusion that is now being used to hit the bass.
“This can be difficult to listen to many, but I know she is under attack because she is a black woman,” he said in the video.
Gerald Sirotnak, a strategist for retirement effort, described such statements “an insult to the diverse coalition of Angelenos who feel abandoned by this administration.”
“This withdrawal is not about identity, these are results,” he said in an email. “And the low low results have been catastrophic.”
Sirotnak said that people who lead retirement are not billionaires or right -wing extremists, but include families who lost their homes to the Palisades fire and business owners who face a generalized crime.
On Monday, the group served the bass with their notification of intention to withdraw a retirement, arguing that the forest fire, public safety and other issues have been badly handled. Days before, the group published a campaign video largely focused on the Palisades fire.
That video presented a clip of Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of Los Angeles Times, saying that he felt it was a mistake for the newspaper to support the bass in 2022. Soon-Shiong told The Times that he is not involved in the memory effort and that he did not know that the recovery campaign was using the clip, which was from an interview of the mid-Janera tomorrow”.
The mayor's supporters also mobilized for the audience over the former firefighters, telling the members of the City Council that the movement to restore it was part of a larger attack against Bass leadership.
“Let's call it as it is,” said Siris Barrios, one of the almost dozen pro-base speakers to raise the problem. “It is an attack on his authority, his decision making and we do not ignore the obvious: she as a black woman in power.”
Firefighters took a very different position, saying that Crowley was a truth narrator for running the voice on the financial struggles of the Fire Department.
Several of the pro-base speakers were current or previous employees with the community coalition, which has extensive connections with the City Council.
Two of Bass's main assistants served in the Board of Directors of the Community Coalition, while two others worked directly for the group. The mayor's office supervises the city's youth reducing and development program, which has a three -year contract and $ 3.4 million with Community Coalition.
Harris-Dawson, perhaps Bass's closest ally on the Council, was in charge of the community coalition before winning his seat in 2015. Kim worked for the group for approximately two decades before joining the Harris-Dawson office.
Kim told The Times that he wrote email because he was frustrated by “misinformation” and right -wing attacks. She said she should have used her own email address, not her old Karenbass.com account.
In the email, Kim accused the critics of attacking the bass on the fire of Palisades as he remained calm about the political leadership of Altadena, a community outside Los Angeles, where Eaton's fire destroyed thousands of homes.
Altadena is represented by the County Supervisor, Kathryn Barger, which is white and registered.
“While they attack the bass of mayor, they remain silent with the fires of Eaton, which devastated a less rich community under the surveillance of a supervisor of the white angels county,” Kim wrote.
Barger has been an open defender of the bass, telling journalists that the mayor was “very committed” in the emergence of forest fires while returning from abroad. When asked about Kim's email, he said in a statement that he will work on recovery with all elected officials, “regardless of the party.”
“People want results, no political guilt games,” Barger said.
