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Report: Rick Caruso spent $162 per vote in LA mayoral race
Los Angeles Nov 23, 2022
Rick Caruso. | Photo courtesy of John Russo/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)
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Billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent $162 for each vote he received in his Los Angeles mayoral campaign, according to Crosstown LA, a nonprofit news organization based at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.
Caruso, who was defeated by Rep. Karen Bass in a mayoral race on which he spent a total of over $100 million, is projected to receive around 421,383 votes, according to Crosstown LA. The report found that Bass spent $10 per vote, a fraction of Caruso’s spending.
As of Wednesday, Bass led Caruso by nearly 10 percentage points — 508,860 votes to 419,087 votes.
Bass was estimated by Crosstown LA to finish with 512,154 votes.
The report found that Kenneth Mejia, who beat three-term Councilman Paul Koretz in the city controller’s race, ran by far the most cost-effective campaign. Mejia, a tax accountant and activist who ran on a platform of uprooting the status quo, spent just 74 cents per vote received. He leads Koretz by 26 percentage points.
Mejia also has the most votes out of any citywide candidate with 512,154 — more than either Bass or Caruso.
