The election polling between Los Angeles’s mayoral candidates Rick Caruso and Karen Bass has been a close tie with Bass leading with 45 percent and Caruso with 41, according to BallotPedia.
Although it looks like Bass is taking Caruso by the upper hand, an interview with Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Oreskes and National Public Radio’s (NPR) correspondent Adrian Florido recently discussed how the voting gap between Caruso and Bass is not as big as it seems.
“Rick has been gaining on Karen for months now. When we did this poll last month at the end of September, early October, she was winning by 15 points,” Oreskes said. “Now she’s winning by four. This is kind of remarkable. It speaks to the incredible Bloomberg-esque investment that Rick Caruso has made in his candidacy.”
And it’s true that Caruso had spent over a 100 million dollars, 13 times more than Bass reported by the Los Angeles Times.
However, what makes Caruso’s campaign better than Bass’s is that Caruso focuses on two main concerns that affect Angelenos, which is homelessness and public safety. And he uses this effectively on his campaign videos by appealing to his audience by using ethos and pathos.
Although Bass had used ethos to convey her message, Bass should try to connect with the community by showing more of her personhood to the public to build and ensure more trust.
He even listed out the complete plan of action he has for the housing crisis along with his other projects such as his agenda for sustainability and climate change on his website.
Additionally, unlike Bass’s campaign, Caruso addresses issues women are facing, despite past controversy, he’s using his platform to say that he’s reformed and plans on making Los Angeles “work for women”.
Some of Caruso’s agenda items involve hiring a deputy mayor that centers women and supporting more representation of women including supporting their businesses and providing more accessibility to childcare.
With the elections still in motion, it’s safe to say that Caruso’s campaign has tremendous outreach and advantage, and that there’s still time for him to catch up in the election polls.