Elon Musk Makes 'Rare' Political Endorsement in Heated Election
Though Elon Musk does not typically take public political stands, he has come out in support of Rick Caruso’s run for Los Angeles mayor.
The mayoral race in the City of Angels is heating up heading into the June 7 primary election, the New York Times reported.
Current Mayor Eric Garcetti will be leaving office, since his term limit is up. Now it will likely come down to billionaire Rick Caruso and Rep. Karen Bass.
Musk tweeted his support for Caruso Friday, praising his “executive competence.”
Los Angeles is fortunate to have someone like Rick Caruso running for mayor. He’s awesome.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2022
It is rare for me to endorse political candidates.
My political leanings are moderate, so neither fully Republican nor Democrat, which I am confident is the case for most Americans.
Executive competence is super underrated in politics – we should care about that a lot more!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2022
Caruso made his money through his malls in Southern California and has spent millions on this mayoral race.
“The billionaire Republican-turned-Democrat has already dropped $34 million on the race, single-handedly making the June 7 primary one of the most expensive elections in the country,” Politico reported.
The biggest problems facing Los Angeles are the cost of living, homelessness and crime, the Times reported.
Caruso’s ads have gone after these issues and cast him as an outsider who will be able to fix them.
He is “not just a talker, a doer,” one TV ad narrator says, Politico reported.
Meanwhile, Bass is an established Democrat who was on President Joe Biden’s short list for vice president and has most of Los Angeles’ Democratic establishment supporting her, the Times reported.
Bass has not spent nearly as much on her campaign. Politico reported that Caruso and his allies outpaced her spending by about 13-to-1.
But Bass has said that Caruso’s spending won’t necessarily turn the residents of Los Angeles.
“The fact that he’s had to spend so much money, and yet I’m still in the race, and we’re running neck-and-neck, and he’s spent — I don’t know how much it is now,” Bass said in an interview with Politico. “To me, that says the Angelenos aren’t going for it and people in this city do not want someone to purchase the mayor’s office.”
But some have been surprised that Los Angeles has not appeared to be turned off to Caruso.
Though he has been painted as a big businessman with no political experience, he has not been completely rejected.
Californians are used to big businessmen entering campaigns with millions in self-financing. But in the past, that has not necessarily helped them win.
“People rolled their eyes at Caruso when he got in the race, because California has a reputation of taking these rich candidates, chewing them up and spitting them out,” said Paul Mitchell, who runs a voter data firm used by both Republicans and Democrats, Politico reported.
But Caruso has not been cast out.
“The fact that L.A. voters have digested him, even though in many other instances they’ve pushed away the rich candidate, is not something a lot of people were expecting,” Mitchell continued.
This, along with endorsements from someone like Musk, seems to indicate that Caruso is far from being out of the race.
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