Karen Bass needs to make the case — before it’s too late

The latest poll in the LA mayor’s race is brutal for incumbent Karen Bass. If she doesn’t start making her case now, she will lose — and the socialist “red wave” will come to LA.

The UC Berkeley/LA Times poll has socialist challenger Nithya Raman eleven points ahead of Bass, 39% to 28%.

Bass can take little comfort in the fact that 33% of the voters in the poll were undecided, or that other polls show a closer race.

She knows she is in trouble.

There has been a major shift in momentum since the “jungle primary” vote in June.

Raman came from behind to pass Spencer Pratt, surprising many people — especially since Pratt had been so dominant in social media and at the debate.

Then, at the end of July, the new numbers for LA’s homeless count were released.

That was the real game-changer.

Instead of declining, as they had done for the previous two years, the number of homeless people actually rose over the last year.

That was a massive blow to Bass.

Bass had based her primary campaign on the claim that her efforts to reverse homelessness — with billions poured into alternate housing — were starting to work.

Now, it appears that the city has wasted money, and time, on a problem that gets worse the more money is thrown at it.

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The problem is not a lack of money. It is a lack of political will to enforce the law; and to require homeless addicts and the mentally ill to seek treatment.

Add the homeless count to Bass’s failures in the Palisades Fire and the rebuilding effort, and Bass has a real challenge ahead. 

She is LA’s first female mayor. That was a milestone. But her record has become a millstone.

Bass needs to find a new sense of vision and purpose, something more convincing than “The alternative is worse.”

Not that Raman is a great alternative.

Raman is no better than Bass on homelessness. She failed as chair of the City Council committee on the subject.

Her allies in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have an agenda that could destroy the city. 

People need to open their eyes. Socialism is a real threat.

This is the fight of Karen Bass’s political life. 

She needs to admit mistakes, and explain what she has learned.

She needs to make the case.

And she needs to do it now.