Mike Feuer drops out of L.A mayor’s race, endorses Karen Bass

City Atty. Mike Feuer bowed out of the Los Angeles mayor’s race on Tuesday and endorsed Rep. Karen Bass.

Feuer said he was ending his campaign after failing to raise enough money to help him land one of the top two slots in the June election. Polling, he said, showed he wouldn’t get there.

Joining Bass and her supporters at an Encino park, Feuer praised her leadership in the state Legislature and accused rival candidate Rick Caruso of making “false claims” to voters about his ability to fix homelessness.

“There are core values, L.A. values, and experience that Karen Bass personifies,” Feuer said. “And then there’s Rick Caruso. Karen, not Caruso, should govern Los Angeles, and I am going to do everything I possibly can to assure that Karen Bass is our next mayor.”

With just three weeks remaining until election day, the field of leading mayoral candidates has rapidly contracted in recent days. City Councilman Joe Buscaino also dropped out last week and endorsed Caruso.

Ballots have already been printed and mailed to Angelenos. The top two vote-getters in the June 7 election will advance to a November runoff unless a single candidate receives more than 50% of the vote and wins outright.

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Feuer and Buscaino are well-known figures in local politics, but both struggled to gain a wider foothold with voters — particularly as the race appeared to become a two-person fight between Caruso and Bass.

At the same time, federal investigators are probing the city attorney office’s handling of a lawsuit brought by Department of Water and Power customers, a scandal projected to cost the DWP more than $100 million. Two attorneys associated with Feuer’s office, including a former high-ranking city attorney, have pleaded guilty in the wide-reaching scheme.

In recent weeks, Feuer embraced his long-shot status in the race and launched new television ads that painted him as an underdog. He also increased his attacks on Caruso, contrasting the billionaire developer’s career with his own record of public service and challenging Caruso to release his full tax returns.

A former L.A. City Council member and state legislator, Feuer was the first politician to enter the race more than two years ago.

He touted his executive and legislative experience on the campaign trail and told voters he’d declare a state of emergency on homelessness and seek a ballot measure to double the size of the Los Angeles City Council.

Feuer also traveled to about 100 neighborhoods in Los Angeles to meet voters.

The Times’ most recent polling, conducted in late March and early April, showed Feuer with the support of 2% of likely voters and Buscaino with 1% support.

That same poll put Caruso and Bass in a dead heat, with the support of 24% and 23% of likely voters, respectively. Councilman Kevin de León trailed as a distant third with the support of 6% of likely voters.

Internal polling done more recently by Feuer’s team showed him in third place, but still far behind Caruso and Bass.

Bass told reporters Tuesday that Feuer brought “an incredible amount of very important policy ideas” to his campaign.

“And although we haven’t talked about this, one of the things that I want to do is to sit down and talk to him about the policies that I’ve heard him speak about in his debates,” Bass said.

Caruso senior campaign advisor Lex Olbrei responded to Feuer’s criticisms Tuesday by saying that “it would be much better for our city if politicians put as much energy into solving problems like homelessness, crime and corruption as they do making personal attacks.”