LA Democrats Are So Incompetent that the County is Moving Right

KABC’s John Phillips summarizes how politics usually work in Los Angeles:

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.”…

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

It’s good enough until it’s not. 

The performance of California officials to these recent wildfires has awful, so much so that the careers of several politicians appear to hand in the balance, chief among them LA Mayor Karen Bass. A poll released last weekend shows that people are so angry with Bass’s performance they are considering the unthinkable: Voting for a Republican.

…a new Madison McQueen poll released over the weekend…found that only 37% of Los Angeles voters now approve of Mayor Bass’ wildfire response. A majority 54% of all residents disapprove of the job Bass is doing with the fires, with 9% remaining undecided.

Another question in the poll asked residents who they would vote for in a Bass-Caruso Mayoral rematch if it was held today, with Caruso beating Bass 43% to 36%, with 21% remaining undecided. However, the most embarrassing question was the last one, asking residents if they would now consider Republican leadership in Los Angeles. 43% said yes, 46% said no and 11% were unsure, with the 43% being the highest for the GOP in the city in decades.

“Rather than follow predictable partisan patterns, voters in LA are fed up with failure and are demanding more competence from their elected officials,” said President of Madison McQueen, Owen Brennan, on Friday. “Clearly there is an opportunity for new leadership, new ideas, and new direction for Los Angeles. Across LA County, most voters say fire hydrants running dry should be cause for political leaders to lose their jobs. Voters also blamed one-party rule for the lack of sufficient water storage.”

Gov. Newsom hasn’t faired much better despite going all out to defend himself politically. There is already a recall effort being launched against him.

A new recall effort against Governor Newsom began officially on Thursday in Los Angeles, with members of Saving California, the main group behind the recall, announcing and collecting signatures for their notice of intent to recall.

Several recall efforts have been mounted against Newsom since he was sworn in as Governor in 2019. The most successful attempt to date came in 2021, where organizers collected enough signatures to place the recall on the ballot. However, Newsom managed to defeat the recall in September of that year, with 7.9 million voting against the recall and 4.9 million voting for it.

If that vote were held again today, it’s much less likely Newsom would survive. The same group says it is working on a possible recall of Mayor Bass. A change.org petition demanding her recall has already gathered 166,000 signatures.

California is a long way from turning red but there’s no mistaking that over the last few years voters have let some leftist politicos know that being on team blue isn’t enough anymore. Voters in the northern part of the state recalled DA Chesa Boudin, DA Pamela Price, Mayor Sheng Thao and three members of the SF school board. Voters in SoCal just voted out left-wing DA George Gascon. 

There are limits to what people, even California Democrats, are willing to put up with. Mayor Karen Bass may have exceeded those limits this month.