$104,848,887.43 — Rick Caruso spent no less than that a lot on his unsuccessful marketing campaign to develop into mayor of Los Angeles, in response to the newest marketing campaign finance data.
That’s 11 occasions greater than the $9 million spent by the victor, Karen Bass. It’s the biggest quantity a mayoral candidate has spent in U.S. historical past, simply forward of the $102 million Michael Bloomberg threw at his 2009 reelection in New York.
Caruso hoped to copy the success of Richard Riordan, one other L.A. rich-man-turned-mayor.
As an alternative, the billionaire developer joined Al Checchi, Michael Huffington and Meg Whitman in California’s political bonfire of self-funded, fabulously rich losers.
In a concession assertion posted on social media, Caruso expressed no regrets about his run, saying it “has been probably the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
You already know who else received rewarded? Lots of people.
Radio and tv stations and different media shops (together with this one) that collectively took tens of thousands and thousands in promoting {dollars}. Tens of millions to consultants. $10,000 to the Los Angeles Italian Competition. $2,500 to Canoga Park Elks Lodge #2190. $9,881 for a talking engagement organized by the Males’s Discussion board of St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Apostolic Church in Pasadena however held in Burbank — two cities the place the L.A. mayor has no jurisdiction.
$104 million and alter is, effectively, pocket change for somebody whose fortune the Los Angeles Enterprise Journal estimates at $5.9 billion. That’s what makes the quantity so obscene. As soon as the ultimate marketing campaign finance tallies are in, it may soar even larger.
If Caruso wished to alter individuals’s lives via goodwill, there are lots of methods he may’ve achieved so with that very same cash.
Take into account the chances.
At Casa Vega, the legendary Sherman Oaks Cal-Mex restaurant the place Caruso met with enterprise house owners in August, $104 million buys 3,851,851 #1 combo plates, with soup, rice, beans and your alternative of two: cheese, hen or beef enchiladas; hen or beef taco; chile relleno. A free dinner would’ve gone additional to heat up voters than any of Caruso’s incessant marketing campaign advertisements, which Angelenos will keep in mind with the identical fondness that they’ve for former Los Angeles Dodgers proprietor Frank McCourt.
For what Caruso spent on his race, he may’ve given away 522,613 yearlong print-plus-digital subscriptions to the Hollywood Reporter or 581,005 to its rival, Selection. Each publications cowl the goings-on of his celeb endorsers, together with Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg and George Lopez.
14,964,028 Dodger Canine — followers would demand the franchise create a jersey quantity for Caruso, simply to retire it!
Or for those who favor, 5,213,033 pastrami Reubens from Canter’s Deli.
Caruso’s $104 million may’ve paid for what L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti made final yr — $283,827 — for the subsequent 366 years.
He may’ve lined a yr of tuition, housing, eating and books for 1,124 undergrads at his alma mater, USC — or gotten extra bang for his beaucoup bucks by sponsoring 3,000 UCLA coeds.
Additionally on the schooling entrance, how a few yr on the personal Brentwood College, which his kids attended, for two,553 Ok-8 college students or 2,158 excessive schoolers?
$104 million is sweet for 3,466,666 all-day parking passes on the Grove, Caruso’s most well-known shopping center. Or 24,452 Friday and Saturday stays within the least expensive suite at his Rosewood Miramar Seaside resort in Montecito.
Or a yr’s lease for 1,375 individuals on the most inexpensive condominium at his luxurious 8500 Burton improvement. The $6,300 a month for these items is method above L.A.’s $1,532 median lease. If Caruso wished to stretch out his money, he may put up 5,690 individuals for a yr at that median worth — not the 30,000 individuals he promised to accommodate in 30 days, however one thing.
In his concession assertion, Caruso promised that “there can be extra to return from the motion we created.”
Effectively, Rick, L.A. has loads of payments to pay. Your $104 million nearly matches the $105.5 million the Los Angeles Police Division is requesting in wage, additional time and recruitment will increase in its upcoming price range. A superb chunk of the associated fee overruns for the perpetually delayed Purple Line extension. A couple of third of Bass’ $292-million plan to accommodate 17,000 homeless individuals. A couple of fifth of a mile of LAX’s upcoming individuals mover.
Because the yr wraps up, Rick may’ve unfold $104 million on vacation cheer, the way in which he did on Thanksgiving, when he handed out turkeys to crime victims in South Los Angeles. The next situations are unimaginable in the actual world — however, hey, so is a giant man on an airborne reindeer sled.
Caruso’s largesse may’ve purchased 1,857 Patio Suite packages at SoFi Stadium for the Dec. 8 Rams-Raiders match. At $56,000, every bundle contains 28 tickets, 5 VIP parking areas, meals and drinks and a personal restroom.
Subsequent yr, Caruso may make 742,857 households of 4 pleased with a Dodger Stadium particular that features tickets and $60 value of meals credit.
This month, he may purchase 13,500 courtside heart seats for the Dec. 13 Lakers sport in opposition to the Boston Celtics at Crypto.com Enviornment. He may give out 8,068,269 matinee tickets on the Grove for “The Fabelmans,” a Steven Spielberg story in regards to the unflagging love between a striving son and his imperfect father that might resonate with our man.
$104 million is such an enormous quantity that it makes a few of Caruso’s different generosity appear downright miserly. The Caruso Household Basis, which is the charitable wing of his empire, doled out $7.5 million to varied causes in 2019, the final yr for which there are publicly obtainable tax filings.
The $5-million dedication Caruso’s basis has made to Operation Progress, a nonprofit in Watts aiming to place neighborhood children on the trail to varsity, seems to be like a pittance. So does the $3 million the inspiration has donated to Para Los Niños, which helps children on Skid Row.
That’s the grand tragedy of Caruso’s marketing campaign. As I’ve written earlier than, he’s not an avaricious Mr. Burns or Scrooge. His dedication to serving to those that want it, motivated by his circle of relatives’s immigrant historical past and his Catholic religion, is actual. That very same dedication to higher L.A. is why he entered the mayor’s race and spent all the cash he did, he says.
However his futile effort jogs my memory of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s warning that “politics should not swallow up all of a individuals’s non secular and inventive energies.” Caruso may’ve achieved higher together with his fortune. Right here’s to hoping he does so sooner or later.
104 million six-month subscriptions to the L.A. Occasions — simply sayin’!