L.A. on the Record: Caruso talks Hollywood

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our local elections newsletter. It’s Ben Oreskes here with a great deal of help from Julia Wick.

In the run-up to the primary, developer Rick Caruso’s mayoral campaign regularly unspooled a succession of endorsements from high-profile actors, influencers and business people. These nods would come via Twitter and Instagram and sometimes were from people who also did business at his properties.

These endorsements also had the effect of showing Caruso’s bona fides in one of the city’s biggest industries — Hollywood. Both Caruso and fellow candidate Karen Bass touted support from actors and film moguls, with Caruso getting backing from the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Bass picking up the support of luminaries such as Samuel L. Jackson.

On the Ankler’s podcast this week, we got a little more insight into how Caruso thinks about potentially running the city where the movies are made and whom he’s talking to in that world. A lot has been made of his connections to Netflix honcho Ted Sarandos and wife Nicole Avant, who have hosted several events for him.

During the interview with Peter Kiefer, Caruso said: “I talk to [CAA’s] Bryan Lourd. I talk to Dana Walden [chairman of Walt Disney Co.’s TV content division]. I talked to Nicole Avant. I talk to Ted. Listen, I talk to Clarence Avant. I love the fact that Clarence is a supporter.”

The interview included Caruso’s usual riffs on homelessness and his feeling that the quality of life in the city has declined. Caruso tied these ideas, though, to how that affects the presence of major studios and production companies in the city.

“Look at Ted Sarandos,” Caruso said. “Here’s a guy who said, ‘I’m going to make a commitment and have my headquarters actually in Hollywood,’ and made a big, incredibly wonderful commitment to the city.

“What has the city done? The city has allowed encampments all around that headquarters. So, people don’t want to come back to work. People are coming to work, and I’ve talked to the executives in there, coming to work carrying human waste on their shoes because there’s so much human waste on the sidewalk, because we’ve allowed people to live in the most inhumane situation.

Full transcript of the conversation here. Rep. Karen Bass also made an appearance on the podcast earlier this summer.

Ricci Sergienko is arrested after crossing a police line in City Council chambers at Los Angeles City Hall on Aug. 8.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

State of play

— COUNCIL CHAMBERS CHAOS: For the second straight week, City Council chambers became the site of chaos as protesters decried the passage of an expanded anti-camping ordinance that prohibits homeless people from setting up tents within 500 feet of schools and day-care centers and, at one point, brought the meeting to a halt.

One speaker climbed over a bench and onto the council floor near where council members sit to confront council President Nury Martinez, prompting police to fill the chamber and clear out the public. One audience member was arrested.

These acts led several members of the council to compare the angry scene to what played out in the U.S. Capitol last year.

Others, like Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, were more measured, saying the council’s public comment period “got out of hand” on Tuesday. But he said the incident did not worry him.

“I was not scared. I did not feel threatened,” Harris-Dawson said. “It was extremely disruptive. They shut down the meeting. We left, we waited, we continued with the meeting.”

— KNIVES OUT ON ZOOM: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a swipe at Caruso during a Zoom fundraising event for Bass. “Her opponent has a long history, sadly, of supporting anti-choice organizations and candidates,” Clinton said. The statement came shortly after Clinton appeared to compare Caruso to former President Trump, saying “she’s facing off a billionaire — a billionaire real estate developer, if that sounds familiar.”

Caruso hit back Thursday, tweeting, “Respectfully, I’m pro-choice and always have been.”

(The Bass campaign released a clip of Clinton’s speech, but here’s your weekly reminder that we always welcome recordings, tidbits and invite emails from fundraising events up and down the ballot. LAontherecord@latimes.com)

— WELCOME TO THE PARTY: We told you last month how Anna Bahr — Bass’ top spokesperson for much of the primary — had departed. The campaign has brought in Sarah Leonard Sheahan, who once worked for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as its new communications director to replace Bahr.

— NEW GIG: Speaking of Villaraigosa, he has been spending a lot of time lately campaigning with his old friend Bass. But now he has a new job working for an old rival. California Gov. Gavin Newsom just named him “infrastructure advisor to the state of California, working with local, state and federal leaders to identify priority projects and maximize access to federal funding across all regions of the state,” according to a news release. Politico’s Chris Cadelago reports that Villaraigosa “will be paid through an arrangement with the nonprofit group California Forward, which focuses on reforming government operations.”

— NEVER MISSING A PARTY: For a guy who was home sick with COVID-19, City Council candidate Hugo Soto-Martínez sure appeared in a lot of photos from his campaign’s general election kickoff party. That’s because supporters brought a life-size cardboard cutout of Soto-Martínez to the event. The surprisingly convincing cutout — which campaign spokesperson Josh Androsky jokingly referred to as “Bizarro Hugo” — was made by Democratic Socialists of America-Los Angeles members earlier in the campaign.

— INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK: This week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg listed 166 projects that would “receive funding under a popular but oversubscribed program that is receiving an infusion of $7.5 billion over five years under last year’s infrastructure law,” the Washington Post reported. Three projects of note in our neck of the woods are $25 million to help with the design of the state’s high speed rail, $20 million to make the Port of Los Angeles more accessible, and $15 million to build a train that would connect the Forum and SoFi Stadium to a soon-to-be-finished Metro line in Inglewood.

— SONG OF THE SUMMER: Los Angeles Magazine’s Jon Regardie steps back and concludes that as we round third and head for the homestretch of this mayor’s race, “Karen Bass has won the summer.”

— BIG GIVING: Caruso has given big money to his two alma maters — Pepperdine Law School and USC. Inside Philanthropy goes a little deeper on where the billionaire developer has spread his dollars around. Caruso mentions some beneficiaries of his largesse — like Operation Progress — on the campaign trail.

Quick hits

• Who’s running the city? Still Eric Garcetti. His confirmation as ambassador to India awaits a Senate vote.

• The latest in mayoral endorsements: Bass was endorsed by Sen. Alex Padilla, Rep. Tony Cárdenas, Assemblymember Luz Rivas and L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez. She also picked up the backing of former mayoral candidate Alex Gruenenfelder Smith. Caruso was endorsed by Councilmember Gil Cedillo.
  

• And in other city/county endorsements: The Muslim Democratic Club of Southern California backed Bob Hertzberg in the race for L.A. County’s 3rd Supervisorial District. State Sens. Mike McGuire, Melissa Hurtado, Tom Umberg and John Laird also backed Hertzberg. Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell backed his opponent, Lindsey Horvath, as did Northridge Indivisible and Emily’s List President Laphonza Butler. Assemblymember Laura Friedman and the Engineers & Architects Assn. endorsed Erin Darling in the CD 11 council race. Avance Democratic Club backed Katy Young Yaroslavsky in the CD 5 race. Former candidate Bryant Odega backed Danielle Sandoval in the CD 15 race. Councilmember Curren Price endorsed Sandoval’s opponent, Tim McOsker. And over in CD 13, former candidate Kate Pynoos backed Hugo Soto-Martínez.

(If you have an endorsement you’d like to flag for next week, please send it to us.)

• Dig of the week: “What happened in City Hall was nothing like Jan. 6 and comparing it to that is dishonest and wrong.” — The Times Editorial Board on City Council members comparing what played out in chambers this week to a violent insurrection aimed at preventing Congress from certifying the election of the president of the United States.