LOS ANGELES — As autumn settled over Los Angeles, Rep. Karen Bass suddenly found herself in a tight race with developer Rick Caruso.
The double-digit lead that polls showed she built through the summer had crumbled under a multimillion-dollar onslaught of attack ads. Clips of her giving a speech to a meeting of Scientologists over a decade ago aired in heavy rotation. Spots appeared on all platforms about a University of Southern California scholarship she received, which was being mentioned in the corruption prosecution of a city official.
Bass offered explanations for both, but had little money to respond with advertising of her own.
