Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg is pumping money into advertisements to boost Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), the leading candidate of the Democratic establishment for mayor of Los Angeles, against an insurgency by businessman Rick Caruso.
Katzenberg is known for his links with Disney and Dreamworks, and for backing Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Caruso, who has spent $30 million on advertising thus far, and is touting his career as a real estate developer to convince voters he can solve homelessness, caught up to Bass in the polls last month and is now running neck-and-neck with her.
He has also won endorsements from seemingly unlikely sources, such as rapper Snoop Dogg, who called Caruso the “real deal.” Caruso knows many celebrities from his career building popular shopping malls and donating money to charity.
Katzenberg, however, a major Democratic Party donor on the national level, is backing Bass, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus who is making the rounds of the traditional ethnic and interest groups in the party’s coalition.
The Los Angeles Times notes that Katzenberg is funding television ads that refer to Caruso as a “Republican” — he became an independent in 2011, and a Democrat earlier this year — and that cast him as a conservative in an effort to turn off voters:
The duo have known one another for many years, but this quarrel between Caruso and Katzenberg began in earnest in recent weeks when the pro-Bass committee made its first television ad buy. The ad starts off by referring to “Republican Rick Caruso” and goes on to slam the candidate’s GOP ties and his record on abortion, and compares him to former President Trump.
…
Caruso’s lawyers also said the ad incorrectly described his position on abortion. Caruso said he opposed the leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision that would invalidate Roe vs. Wade and was helping a campaign to enshrine abortion rights in the California Constitution.
Earlier, though, a 2007 article about Caruso in Los Angeles Magazine stated that Caruso “says he opposes abortion in most cases but would support some stem cell research.”
Katzenberg has also compared Caruso to Donald Trump, who is considered toxic in L.A. Ironically, Caruso banned Trump from the Grove shopping mall in Beverly Hills, lifting the ban only when Trump actually won the 2016 presidential election.
The election is being held on June 7 and ballots have already been mailed to voters. Polls do not yet point to a likely winner.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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