LA Mayor Karen Bass faces fierce recall campaign over poor handling of wildfires

According to the Los Angeles Times, paperwork has been filed with the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, following an initial filing with the state of California a week prior. The filing allows fundraising to begin in order to place a recall measure on the ballot.

Bass has been widely criticized for being on a trip to Africa when the Palisades fire broke out on January 7. Scrutiny intensified when reports surfaced that Bass had cut funding for the city’s fire department in the budget prior to the fires, a move that coincided with firefighters not having adequate resources to fight the fires.

Bass claimed she was unaware of the severity of fire weather conditions before leaving for her trip to Ghana. She later cited this as a factor in her decision to fire Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristen Crowley.

The group Recall Karen Bass launched an ad campaign highlighting the mayor’s wildfire response failures. The recall’s main funder is Nicole Shanahan, a Silicon Valley philanthropist and former running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“Los Angeles has endured enough. Once a city of hope, it’s now overrun with crime, chaos, and suffering. Today, we begin the effort to revive the City of Angels—for the people. First step: recalling Karen Bass,” Shanahan posted on X.

Bass’s political strategist, Douglas Herman, dismissed the recall effort as “nothing more than another extreme right-wing political stunt designed to divide Los Angeles when we need to move forward.”

For a recall election to be triggered, organizers must collect approximately 330,000 signatures–15 percent of the city’s registered voters–within 120 days of the filing date. While past mayoral recall efforts have failed due to insufficient signatures, bipartisan frustration with Bass could make this attempt more successful.