At this point, it’s obvious to anyone paying attention that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass bungled the response to the devastating wildfires that wiped out much of the Pacific Palisades, about as badly as any politician could screw up any natural disaster that happened on their watch.
If Los Angeles is our ship of state, Karen Bass is Captain of the Titanic.
The good news is, the new president of Ghana loved the inaugural gift Mayor Bass bestowed unto him, while the mayor’s own city was burning to the ground.
I still don’t know what the gift was, but something tells me it wasn’t a functional fire hydrant.
The idea that Bass is in trouble is backed by virtually all of the available evidence, including all five of my senses.
A survey of likely Los Angeles city voters, conducted by pollster David Wolfson for the political consulting firm Madison McQueen, back in January, found that 54 percent of Angelenos disapprove of how Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is handling the wildfires in Los Angeles, compared to 37 percent who approve.
Additionally, if the 2026 Election for Los Angeles City Mayor had been held at the time of the poll, Bass would lose to her 2022 challenger, real estate developer Rick Caruso by 7 points, with Caruso sitting on 43 percent and Bass – 36 percent.
Mind you, these numbers are months old. Since then, the bad news just keeps coming for her. This week, State Farm and Farmers’ Insurance were both added to California’s Endangered Species List.
In the pages of this newspaper back in February, my colleague Susan Shelley penned a convincing and blistering indictment of the first-term mayor, titled “Blaming everyone but herself, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass needs to go.”
In her piece, Shelley concludes that, “Voters should take a cue from [legendary Broadway choreographer, whom the film ‘All that Jazz’ is based on] Bob Fosse and invite her to leave the theater immediately.”
And now, Nicole Shanahan, the Silicon Valley philanthropist who helped fund Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign and served as his running mate, is funding a group that seeks to recall Karen Bass from office.
On her X account, Shanahan wrote, “Los Angeles has endured enough. Once a city of hope, it’s now overrun with crime, chaos, and suffering. Today, we begin the effort to revive the City of Angels—for the people. First step: recalling Karen Bass. http://recallbassnow.com”
Consider the implications. This ultra-rich, George-Gascón-donating, far-left wing nut had no problem picturing RFK, Jr. the new leader of the Free World, but now she wants Karen Bass on the next bullet train out of town? That tells you how desperate this situation really is for Los Angelenos.
The theory among those who want Bass replaced is that we certainly couldn’t do any worse. In fact, we might end up with someone who would be much better.
The two models for this belief are the 1993 mayoral elections in Los Angeles and New York City.
In Los Angeles, between the Rodney King riots, rampant gang violence, and the economic collapse of the aerospace industry following the end of the Cold War, the city was a tinder box ready to blow up again.
Long time incumbent Democratic Mayor Tom Bradley had lost control of his city and declined to run for another term. The Democratic Party wanted LA Councilman Michel Woo, who didn’t have the answers Los Angeles needed, to replace Bradley.
That’s when successful Republican LA businessman Richard Riordan threw his hat in the ring and ran for mayor on the platform, ‘Dick Riordan: Tough enough to turn LA around.’
Riordan won that election with 54 percent of the vote and was reelected four years later.
And turn LA around he did.
In the Big Apple, Republican mob prosecutor Rudy Giulliani took over after uncontrollable crime produced events like the Crown Heights riot and the Family Red Apple boycott.
After two terms of Rudy, New York City was back.
But, it doesn’t always work out like that, and the city of Chicago is our cautionary tale.
In 2023, then Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was dealing with out-of-control crime of her own, and I don’t just mean Jussie Smollett.
In addition, the mayor was involved in Ukraine-level wars with the Chicago City Council, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, and the Chicago teachers union, among others.
At one point the New York Times wrote that Lightfoot had an “uncanny ability to make political enemies.”
It was time for her to go, and the city recognized that. The good news for Lightfoot was, at least she wouldn’t be joining the last half-dozen or so former Illinois governors in federal prison.
However, she wasn’t replaced by a Rudy or a Riordan. Rather, she was replaced by a ‘defund the police’ socialist who made Lightfoot look like James Madison.
According to a survey of likely Chicago voters conducted by M3 Strategies back in February, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is approved of by only 6.6 percent of voters, while 79.5 percent disapprove of his performance.
Which is to say, if the election for Chicago mayor were held today Brandon Johnson would get an old-fashioned shellacking from ‘Don’t Know/Undecided’.
While it’s true that Karen Bass needs to go, we need to make sure that she’s replaced by a Rudy or Riordan type, and not by a Brandon Johnson.
As hard as it may be to believe, things can get worse in Los Angeles. All you need to do is look to Chicago for living proof.
John Phillips can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on “The John Phillips Show” on KABC/AM 790
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