Will Los Angeles Have a Billionaire Mayor as San Francisco Boots Liberal District Attorney?

As liberal San Franciscans powered by conservative donors begin a recall campaign against their district attorney Chesa Boudin due to the impression that he’s too soft on crime, which they believe has risen since his time in office, another blue city in California is also preparing to elect a billionaire business tycoon to be their next mayor.

In a city that is famously liberal, the tides may be turning red as residents in San Francisco are fed up with crime they believe is being neglected. But even though the COVID-19 pandemic may be the actual culprit for the spike in violent crime— with overall crime rates actually dropping since Boudin took office— San Franciscans are looking to their political leaders to make a change.

Watching Boudin’s career tank, whether just or unjust, has given conservatives in other major cities fuel to criticize what has become a “liberal” way to deal with crime in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, which sought to defund the police and reform the criminal justice system.

Riding on the coattails of liberal backlash is another city in California. In Los Angeles, which is also a famously progressive city, unrelenting crime and homelessness are motivating residents to back Rick Caruso, 63, a billionaire businessman who has spent a majority of his adult life as a Republican before switching to the Democratic party just weeks before the mayoral race deadline.

Caruso has been endorsed by Elon Musk, who donated more than 34$ million to his campaign. He’s also been building a cache of political clout while hiring one of the state’s top Democratic consulting firms. The mega billionaire is running a political campaign that promises to “clean up LA” and to be “a doer… not just a talker” when it comes to crime and homelessness in the city.

For some, Caruso offers a faint glimmer of hope in a city that struggles to keep housing costs, gas costs, and crime rates down. As for the city’s more “loyal” liberals, the mogul’s Republican past doesn’t appear to add up.

“That is not the sort of mayor that a heavily Democratic city like Los Angeles deserves to have,” said Garry South, a Los Angeles Democratic consultant. “If you look at his background, he doesn’t reflect the heavily Democratic values that voters in Los Angeles support.”

Caruso is tied with Democratic Representative Karen Bass, who has been a social worker, and political activist, and has served as the U.S. representative for California’s 37th congressional district since 2011. She is also the first African American woman in U.S. history to serve as a speaker of a state legislative body.

Bass and her team have called Caruso a “fraud” and equated him to former President Donald Trump, who changed political parties at least five times since the late ‘80s and, like Caruso, is a real estate developer who has an excessive amount of money to play with. Others have accused Caruso of alarmism, considering the fact that crime in the area is nowhere near the high numbers the city experienced in the 1990s. However, voters say that this year, public safety is their top priority.

Boudin, like Bass’ allies, has also accused his opponents of fear-mongering. And while some Asian Americans in San Francisco who wish to recall him have legitimate fears for public safety— an increase in anti-Asian hate crime which increased by 567% following the COVID-19 pandemic— he may be right, considering that overall crime dropped since his time in office.

“People read the story, they see the video, and they perceive crime as being out of control,” Boudin said. “When in fact things like shoplifting are down dramatically. It doesn’t mean we don’t have a real problem with auto burglaries, but the notion that it’s out of control today and it wasn’t in 2019 is just demonstrably false.”

Caruso has also promised to declare a state of emergency on homelessness if elected mayor. He believes that by doing so he will be able to bypass the city council on some affordable-housing decisions. Others are saying he wouldn’t have the ability to do so considering that Los Angeles’ bylaws are structured so the mayor and his council members must share their governing power 50/50.

“This is why the, ‘I can do it myself, I’m the savior’ trope is a little bit tired and dangerous,” said Los Angeles City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. “Those of us who are in the trenches doing the work, we know what the rules are, and we know what can and cannot be done.”