Nicole Shanahan Puts Money Into Effort to Recall Karen Bass
The first serious effort to recall Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles after the city’s devastating fires is taking shape, with financial backing from Nicole Shanahan, who was Robert F.Kennedy Jr.’s running mate in last year’s presidential election.Ms.
Shanahan’s involvement in the push to remove the mayor was disclosed on the bottom of a website for the Recall Karen Bass Committee, which listed her as the sole donor providing “major funding.” Ms.Shanahan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Ms.
Shanahan, a onetime Silicon Valley lawyer, could bring financial firepower to the effort: She has a fortune in the realm of $1 billion that stems largely from her divorce settlement with Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder.She has also demonstrated a willingness to pour her wealth into politics, spending more than $15 million to support Mr.
Kennedy’s campaign.Ms.Bass has come under pressure for her handling of the enormous wildfires that struck Southern California in January, destroying thousands of homes as fire hydrants ran out of water.
She has also faced criticism for being out of the country when the fires hit.Those hoping to recall Ms.Bass must first clear several hurdles, however.
Once their campaign is approved, they must gather 330,282 valid signatures of Los Angeles voters to qualify the question for the ballot.Ms.
Shanahan said last month that she believed it would cost $4 million to collect 400,000 signatures.And in recent years, several attempts to remove officials in Los Angeles have failed to gather enough signatures to make the ballot.In 2022, a high-profile effort to recall George Gascón, the district attorney at the time, did not collect enough valid signatures.
Attempts to recall Los Angeles City Council members have also failed.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and ...