Former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner is expected to announce his candidacy for mayor Monday.
The 65-year-old investment banker and philanthropist, who ran the school district from 2018-21, will challenge Mayor Karen Bass in the June 2026 election, according to the Los Angeles Times. ABC7 also reported that Beutner would announce his candidacy.
Beutner questioned Bass’ record on crime and development issues, but focused his most withering criticism on her response to January’s devastating Palisades Fire, telling the newspaper that the city showed a “failure of leadership” as historically strong winds spread flames through the expensive coastal enclave, gutting thousands of homes and businesses, and killing 12 people.
The fire damaged Beutner’s house, and his mother-in-law’s home was destroyed.
An after-action report issued by the Los Angeles Fire Department last week said the department experienced poor communication, inexperienced leadership, a lack of resources and an ineffective process for recalling firefighters back to work during the crisis.
In light of the report, Bass has promised to make changes.
“When you have broken hydrants, a reservoir that’s broken and is out of action, broken [fire] trucks that you can’t dispatch ahead of time, when you don’t pre-deploy at the adequate level, when you don’t choose to hold over the Monday firefighters to be there on Tuesday to help fight the fire — to me, it’s a failure of leadership,” Beutner said.
“At the end of the day, the buck stops with the mayor,” he said.
Bass’ political operation did not respond to an email sent Sunday from City News Service.
Beutner was publisher of The Times from 2014-15. He was also a deputy mayor of Los Angeles from 2010-13, during former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s second term.
Developer Rick Caruso, who lost to Bass in 2022, is also a possible candidate in 2026. Caruso also owns property in Pacific Palisades and has also been a vocal critic of Bass’ leadership during the fire crisis, writing on social media last week that “Her and the city’s incompetence, mismanagement, and failure to plan, prepare, and predeploy directly led to people dying, thousands of lives being upended, and put on full display the consequences of ineffective and incapable leadership.”
Bass fired back on Wednesday.
“Well, the way he characterized me sounded like Trump,” she said. “But I just was saddened by it, honestly, because that response was beneath him. This is when the city needs to stand together. Why would you do that? So he’s better than that and I was just disappointed and sad.”