For more than two months, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has faced lacerating criticism over her handling of the Palisades fire — her absence from the country when it erupted, her wobbly public appearances once she returned, even her failure to preserve her text messages.
In recent days, pro-Bass forces have been pushing back hard, arguing that she is under attack from “wealthy oligarchs,” including real estate developer Rick Caruso and Nicole Shanahan, who is helping to bankroll a campaign to recall her.
Bass’ backers are portraying the attacks as highly partisan, amplified by a hard-right media apparatus and — at least for some — rooted in racism. Those arguments offer a potential preview of the political case that will be made for Bass as she runs for reelection and seeks to fend off the recall in deep blue L.A.
In a recent email to Bass supporters, Joanne Kim, chief of staff to City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, said right-wing billionaires have “weaponized” the Jan. 7 fire, using it to wage a “disinformation campaign” against the mayor. Kim, who worked on Bass’ 2022 campaign, took aim not just at Caruso but also billionaire Elon Musk, who has posted diatribes against the mayor on social media.
“This is their strategy: exploit tragedy, distort reality, divide the people. We won’t let them,” Kim wrote in her 1,000-word email. “I ask you to use every communication platform you have to shut down the lies and show we stand with our Mayor.”
Vahid Khorsand, president of the city’s Board of Public Works, recirculated Kim’s email to his followers, repeating the warning that billionaires are “coming for L.A.” Khorsand, a high-level Bass appointee, praised the mayor for her Zoom webinars on the recovery process and for securing a commitment from federal officials to cover the city’s expenses from the wildfire, which destroyed huge swaths of Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas.
“This is exactly why the right is coming after her. It’s why they’re using any means they can — like this windstorm — to attack her. They know Karen puts people first,” he wrote.
Staffers at Community Coalition, the South L.A. nonprofit founded by Bass and others 35 years ago, have also lined up behind the mayor, testifying at City Hall and posting on social media in recent weeks.
Doug Herman, a strategist for Bass’ 2026 reelection campaign, said Angelenos should not be surprised to see the mayor’s closest allies rallying behind her in the face of a recall. He said the mayor’s team did not ask Kim, Khorsand or the others to advocate on her behalf and did not work with them on their messaging.
“These are her strongest supporters. They’re responding in the strongest way. I don’t think there’s anything unusual about that,” Herman said. “They’re speaking out about the things that bother them using their 1st Amendment rights.”
The rallying cry from the mayor’s allies follows the toughest two months of her political career, which includes six years in the state Legislature — including two as Assembly speaker — and a dozen in Congress.
Bass has taken heat in recent weeks for ousting L.A. Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who has been embraced by the firefighters union for saying publicly that her department is severely underfunded. The mayor also came under heavy criticism for arranging a three-month, $500,000 salary for her wildfire recovery czar, which was scrapped after the uproar.
Still others have asserted that Bass’ aides are to blame for failing to alert her about the forecast of potentially dangerous Santa Ana winds before she went on a diplomatic mission to Ghana.
Bass has responded to the criticism by highlighting the progress the city has made since the disaster. Water was restored to the Palisades two months after the fire, much faster than in the community of Paradise after the 2018 Camp fire. Removal of toxic debris in burn areas — the responsibility of the federal government, not city agencies — also took place faster than initially expected.
Bass’ defenders have taken a more pugnacious approach, saying she is being wrongly blamed for a wildfire they attribute to climate change.
Kim, whose email went out from karenbass.com, an account provided to her when she worked on Bass’ 2022 campaign, said Caruso wasted no time in scapegoating the mayor, “pushing out what looks like a campaign ad” while the Palisades fire was still raging.
Caruso, who ran against Bass in 2022 and whose family lost two homes in the Palisades fire, dismissed the criticism.
“Angelenos want and deserve leadership that will rebuild their communities and get them back into their homes — not more political spin and talking points,” said Eric Koch, a Caruso spokesperson, in a statement. “Rick Caruso is focused only on results, not more excuses, delays, and buck-passing.”
Fernando Guerra, who heads the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, said it makes sense for the mayor’s supporters to turn the focus on billionaires. Many Democrats in L.A. have recoiled at the decisions made by President Trump and senior advisor Musk, Guerra said.
“If I was a political consultant” advising Bass and her supporters, Guerra said, “I would say absolutely, use the word billionaire, attack billionaires.”
The mayor’s allies have grown increasingly outspoken in recent weeks, largely in response to two events: Crowley’s firing and subsequent effort to get her job back, and the rollout of the recall effort.
Kim advised Bass’ supporters to take inspiration from a seven-minute Instagram video posted last month by Alberto Retana, Community Coalition’s president and chief executive.
Retana told his followers that those who have contributed to the climate crisis — fossil fuel companies, corporations and the 1% — are responsible for this year’s devastating fires, not Bass. He said that Trump and his allies have created a narrative around diversity, equity and inclusion that is now being used to pummel Bass.
“This may be hard for many to listen to, but I know she is under attack because she is a Black woman,” he said on the video.
Gerald Sirotnak, a strategist for the recall effort, called such assertions “an insult to the diverse coalition of Angelenos who feel abandoned by this administration.”
“This recall is not about identity — it’s about results,” he said in an email. “And the results under Bass have been catastrophic.”
Sirotnak said the people leading the recall are neither billionaires nor right-wing extremists but include families who lost their homes to the Palisades fire and business owners facing widespread crime.
On Monday, the group served Bass with its notice of intent to pursue a recall, arguing that she has mishandled the wildfire, public safety and other issues. Days earlier, the group posted a campaign video focusing heavily on the Palisades fire.
That video featured a clip of Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times, saying he felt it was a mistake for the newspaper to endorse Bass in 2022. Soon-Shiong told The Times that he is not involved in the recall effort and did not know that the recall campaign was using the clip, which was from a mid-January interview on “The Morning Meeting” show.
The mayor’s supporters also mobilized for the hearing on the former fire chief, telling City Council members that the movement to reinstate her was part of a larger attack on Bass’ leadership.
“Let’s call it what it is,” said Siris Barrios, one of nearly a dozen pro-Bass speakers to raise the issue. “It is an attack on her authority, her decision-making, and let’s not ignore the obvious — her as a Black woman in power.”
Firefighters took a sharply different stance, saying Crowley was a truth teller for spreading the word about the Fire Department’s financial struggles.
Several of the pro-Bass speakers were current or former staffers with Community Coalition, which has extensive connections to City Hall.
Two of Bass’ top aides served on Community Coalition’s board of directors, while two others worked for the group directly. The mayor’s office oversees the city’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development program, which has a three-year, $3.4-million contract with Community Coalition.
Harris-Dawson, perhaps Bass’ closest ally on the council, was in charge of Community Coalition before winning his seat in 2015. Kim worked for the group for about two decades before joining Harris-Dawson’s office.
Kim told The Times that she wrote the email because she was frustrated by “disinformation” 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 critics of attacking Bass over the Palisades fire while remaining quiet about the political leadership of Altadena, a community outside Los Angeles where the Eaton fire destroyed thousands of homes.
Altadena is represented by L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who is white and a registered Republican.
“While they attack Mayor Bass, they stay silent on the Eaton Fires, which devastated a less wealthy community under the watch of a White Republican L.A. County Supervisor,” Kim wrote.
Barger has been an outspoken defender of Bass, telling reporters that the mayor was “very engaged” in the wildfire emergency while returning from overseas. Asked about Kim’s email, she said in a statement that she will work on the recovery with all elected officials, “regardless of party.”
“People want results, not political blame games,” Barger said.
