Rick Caruso confirmed Thursday that he will not run in the Los Angeles mayoral election after teasing a potential return to the race a day earlier.
“Rick is incredibly moved by outpouring of support but reached an earlier decision in a thoughtful process and it stands,” Caruso political adviser Mike Murphy told the Los Angeles Times, referring to the billionaire real estate developer’s decision last month to drop out of both the mayor’s and California governor’s races.
“He will not be a candidate for mayor.”
Caruso appeared to weigh a return to the mayor’s race Wednesday after a report emerged that LA Mayor Karen Bass altered a Palisades wildfire report.
“I don’t have a lot of time to decide, obviously, because we’ve got a looming deadline this Saturday,” the 67-year-old Republican-turned-Democrat told KNX. “I’m going to be meeting and talking with the family, and we’ll see what we decide to do.”
His remarks Wednesday came after the Los Angeles Times reported that Bass wanted key findings scrubbed or watered down in the official Palisades fire response report to downplay the failures by the city and fire department when the deadly blaze erupted.
“This is a complete loss of public trust and an intentional act of covering up the actions that led to people dying,” Caruso wrote on X, calling the Bass report an “absolute outrage.”
“When it comes to life-safety matters, this is no longer a matter of making poor judgment, apologizing, and moving forward,” he added.
