JOB VACANCY JAGA KONTER

 That money couldn’t be matched but it could be countered, and the Obama endorsement was “the biggest weapon we had,” said Herman, who joined the campaign in December and insisted from the outset that Caruso had a ceiling of about 45% he’d struggle to top.

Votes are still being counted, but the current trend suggests that Bass will likely finish with something close to the 7-point margin she held over Caruso in the primary.

The relatively large lead Bass maintained through much of the race and her margin of victory papered over just how much turnover there had been in the early days of her campaign, which went through four fundraisers, swapped out general consultants and later parted ways with the campaign manager and a spokesperson.

All before the general election campaigning started in earnest.

“I think this was building a campaign on the fly,” said L.A. City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, a longtime Bass friend and supporter. “I think it was pieced together, in a way that was haphazard, but Karen was insistent on getting it right and so she was willing to make the changes.”

Karen Bass shakes hands with supporters in October 2021 at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College at a kickoff event for her mayoral run.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Through the summer of 2021, there were efforts to convince Bass to run, but it was an operation that went into overdrive when Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas announced he wouldn’t run for mayor. This freed up a lane for Bass, who had been a fixture in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., “to come home,” as she put it time and again, to help a city that was ailing.

The frantic preparation led to a massive kickoff event in October 2021 that a spectacle of current and former elected officials at her side, including L.A County Dist. Atty. George Gascón, Antonio Villaraigosa and others along with more than 1,000 guests. An air of inevitability formed around her candidacy.

This coalescing belied something many people in Los Angeles politics knew about Bass: She had not run a tough race in some time.

During her tenure in Washington, she stayed connected to her district with regular town halls. But that work didn’t necessarily mean she was schooled in the gritty machinery of local government — particularly on the homelessness crisis — or acquainted with a new generation of  who’d come on the scene in recent years.

Harris-Dawson recalled doing a series of town halls with Bass during his 2015 council race.

“I remember her saying then: ‘Wow, like the city thing is a whole different set of issues than the state or federal government is,’” he said.

Much of the campaign’s early days were spent cultivating connections, fundraising and watching from afar as Caruso’s candidacy quietly took shape. Based on the team that the businessman he’d be willing to spend, Bass advisors knew he’d be stiff competition.

“It was pretty clear, relatively early on that this was going to be a contest between Caruso and Bass,” Binder said, noting that Councilman Kevin de León’s candidacy was one they took seriously at first.