Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass pushes the limits of partisanship

Los Angeles is a Democrat-run city, with a Democrat mayor, not a single Republican on the City Council, and a dominant Democrat Party that decides which candidates get the official blessing and which ones get cast out to the wilderness.

LA’s version of ideological diversity is a healthy mix of left-wingers, far-left nut jobs, and Nithya Raman.

This lopsided political arrangement means that it doesn’t matter how incompetently the local officials responded to the fires that ravaged the city, because there are never any consequences for Democrats from city voters.

No water in the reservoir?  That’s global warming.

Forgot to tell the fire department that there’s no water in the reservoir?  File that under, “Global warming is worse than you think.”

Cut the fire department’s budget?  That’s different.  You can blame that on climate change.

Texted all the wrong people to evacuate?  Repeatedly.  Um, has anyone mentioned global warming?

And once you’ve gone down the list, everything else is Donald Trump’s fault.

We good here?  Everybody good?  Okay, that’s lunch!

Sure, none of it makes any sense, but for a highly partisan audience like LA voters, it was always good enough.

Except now, that might be changing.

A new poll says that voters significantly disapprove of Mayor Karen Bass’ job performance on wildfire response.

According to a new survey of likely Los Angeles city voters conducted by pollster David Wolfson on behalf of the consulting firm Madison McQueen, 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.

If the 2026 election for Los Angeles mayor were held today, Bass would lose to her 2022 challenger, real estate developer Rick Caruso by 7 points, with Caruso sitting on 43 percent and Bass with 36 percent.

Also, if the election were held today, Bass would probably be attending a presidential inauguration in Africa.

Even 43 percent of voters said they would now consider Republican leadership in LA county and/or the city of Los Angeles.

Karen Bass’ performance during the fires was so pathetic that highly partisan Democrats are starting to look for alternatives.

That is exactly what happened to LA County District Attorney George Gascón in the November election.  His soft-on-crime approach was so abysmal that the Democrat Party apparatus couldn’t save him against Republican-turned-decline-to-state candidate Nathan Hochman, who handily defeated him on Election Day.

In that election, while most of the bold-faced names in the Democrat Party didn’t officially turn on Gascón and endorse his opponent, they just changed the subject whenever it came up.

Gascón became a man without a country.

Very few Democrats are publicly defending Karen Bass right now, and California Governor Gavin Newsom seems to be more than happy to let her take the blame.

After all, if the blame is shared between Newsom and Bass that probably ends his 2028 presidential campaign. But if Bass takes the fall, that’s her problem and not his.

It’s not an accident that one of Gavin Newsom’s favorite phrases when pressed on the government’s failure is, “I’m not the mayor of California.”

Ouch.

Karen Bass may be in more trouble than we think, especially if she ends up with challengers on the right and the left.

Rick Caruso may not be a declared candidate for mayor, but he’s certainly acting like one.  As a celebrated businessman and former Republican, he has been critical of Bass’ competence, readiness for a disaster and being in Ghana instead of Los Angeles when the initial wind and fire warnings came in.

Additionally, socialist LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia has also been highly critical of Bass on the subject of cutting the LAFD’s budget.  Mejia, also not a declared candidate for mayor, is also looking and sounding an awful lot like one.

In 2026, Bass will push the limits of partisanship in Los Angeles and let us know once and for all how much city residents are willing to put up with to stand behind the incumbent Democrat only because she’s a D.

John Phillips can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on “The John Phillips Show” on KABC/AM 790.