Report: Radical Democrat Rep. Karen Bass Expected to Run for Los Angeles Mayor

Far left Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), who has a long history of associating with communist organizations, is expected to run for Los Angeles mayor, the Washington Post first reported on Friday.

Sources familiar with the matter told the publication that Bass, 67, has her sights set on the position, especially since current Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) is expected to become ambassador to India pending U.S. Senate approval. Politico reported:

Bass’ decision has long loomed over the race as a decisive variable. Her supporters in deeply Democratic Los Angeles have launched a campaign urging her to run, City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, one of the city’s leading Black politicians and a longtime Bass ally, recently told the Los Angeles Times that Bass would “send terror through the ranks” of other candidates if she chose to run.

State Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) tweeted in favor of her candidacy, saying it would be a “wave of progressive fresh air and hope.”

Bass has been a rising star on the political left for nearly two decades — she was first elected to office 17 years ago when she won a seat in the California State Assembly, and she later became the first black woman in the country to serve as the Speaker of a state legislature by assuming the Speakership in 2008. In 2010, she won her U.S. House seat, where she has consistently maintained her identity as a progressive member of the Democratic Party.

When now President Joe Biden was searching for a running mate for the 2020 election, Bass was one of the top candidates selected by the his vice presidential search committee but was ultimately passed over for Kamala Harris.

“She came under intense criticism during the vetting process for her decades-long association with communists, her membership in a communist front group run by Cuba’s communist regime, her praise of communist dictator Fidel Castro, and her public praise for her communist mentor and communist influencers,” Breitbart News previously reported.

Before  becoming a public political figure — and tucked underneath her identity as a medical professional and South Los Angles community organizer — Bass was associated with the Venceremos Brigade and communist organizations like Line of March, a Maoist organization founded in Oakland, California. She was also heavily involved in far-left activism before running for State Assembly.

Breitbart News reported:

During the late 1980s-’90s, Bass increased her community organizing profile in South Los Angeles, speaking regularly to various far-left organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America, organizing a memorial service for South African Communist Party leader (and Stalin admirer) Joe Slovo, campaigning against Apartheid in South Africa, and continuing her fight against liquor stores — all of which laid the ground-work for her successful run for the State Assembly in 2004.

A 2020 Los Angeles Times review of her finances also revealed that the congresswoman nearly doubled her income in 2010 from consulting fees she received from a nonprofit she co-founded, and her re-election campaign donated nearly $100,000 to that nonprofit between 2008 and 2011.

California is set to lose a House seat for the first time in its history after many fled the state to escape the damages of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) draconian and arbitrary Chinese coronavirus lockdown measures.

“…Demographic data suggests consolidation is likely in shrinking Los Angeles County. Bass’ pursuit of the mayor’s office would potentially ease some of the competition for a reconfigured map with one fewer district,” Politico reported.

A Politico reporter also reportedly overheard Bass talking about her plans to run for mayor on a phone call.

“‘I’m going to officially announce a run for mayor,’ she said on a phone call walking out of the House chamber,” according to the report.