U.S. Rep. Karen Bass has taken the lead over real estate developer Rick Caruso in the Los Angeles mayoral race after Friday’s totals.
Bass had a razor-thin 4,384-vote lead – 50.38 percent to 49.62 percent – her first since early Wednesday morning, the Los Angeles Times reported.
With about 300,000 votes still to be counted, many of them mail in, a winner likely won’t be declared until sometime next week.
The news buoyed Bass supporters, who are looking for a repeat of the June primary that saw Caruso take an early lead, only to be overtaken by Bass when mail-in votes were tallied.
Caruso, prior to Friday’s vote announcement, still remained optimistic.
“This is exactly what we were expecting,” Caruso told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re gonna go up and down as these ballots get counted. … We’re going to be on a roller coaster for a while. But I’m very optimistic.”
Early returns showed Caruso, a onetime Republican who registered this year as a Democrat and has never served in elected office, and Bass trading the lead before Caruso pulled ahead late Wednesday with 51.25 percent of the vote Wednesday, compared with Bass’ 48.75 percent.
The general election could be a repeat of the June Democratic primary, which saw Caruso take an early lead, only to be overtaken by Bass when mail-in votes were tallied.
The two candidates – a mall developer from Brentwood and a former community activist – are a study in sharp contrasts.
Caruso, viewed as a moderate, spent $100 million to lift him from relative obscurity to a frontrunner. Bass, meanwhile, has support of the city’s liberal political base and was considered the candidate to beat heading into Tuesday’s election.
— Ted Glanzer
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