USC scandal and Harris ‘dark arts’ strategists obstacles to LA mayor front-runner

A report that prosecutors have drawn Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) into a federal bribery and fraud case could present a new line of attack against the congresswoman in the race for Los Angeles mayor.

The timing recalls a flood of negative press coverage that tore down Bass during the 2020 vice presidential vetting process. Bass has said she was told the tactics were engineered by “dark arts” strategists for Kamala Harris, who was ultimately tapped as Joe Biden’s running mate, and that if true, she expects to weather similar attacks.

The corruption scandal now drawing in Bass led to the indictment of former LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and the former dean of the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work, Marilyn Flynn, who are accused of conspiring to steer money to the school in exchange for admitting Ridley-Thomas’s son into a graduate program with a full-tuition scholarship and paid professorship.

The second scholarship went to Bass.

Prosecutors said Bass’s scholarship and details of her relationship to USC are “critical” to an investigation in which Flynn “hoped to obtain the congresswoman’s assistance in passing coveted legislation” after awarding Bass free tuition, prosecutors wrote in a July court filing, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Bass later sponsored a bill in Congress that would have expanded USC’s and other private universities’ access to federal funding for social work — ‘just as defendant Flynn wanted,’ the filing states.”

LAW-AND-ORDER EX-REPUBLICAN LAGS IN LA MAYOR’S RACE AGAINST FRONT-RUNNER BASS

While Bass’s name is redacted from court filings, the Los Angeles Times confirmed her identity through case records, sources, and emails filed in court that were later redacted. Unredacted court transcripts can typically be obtained soon after a hearing before the redactions occur in the public record document.

Also redacted from the filings is the name of the legislation that prosecutors have implicated in the scheme, though the Los Angeles Times states that its description follows a 2014 bill cosponsored by Bass to allow private universities access to federal funding to train social workers.

Bass is not currently under criminal investigation, the U.S. attorney’s office in LA told the Los Angeles Times. Through a spokesperson, the LA congresswoman also “denied ever speaking with Flynn about federal funding for social work programs at private universities while the pair discussed her attendance at USC” and said any agenda was not apparent, according to the outlet. The paper has covered the case extensively.

However, lawyers for Flynn subpoenaed the university for correspondence related to Bass’s scholarship or any other awards she may have received, according to a copy of an August subpoena viewed by the outlet.

The case raises broad concerns about the university’s efforts to leverage influence with Bass and comes at a potentially decisive moment for the congresswoman in her race to become LA mayor.

Bass is running against developer Rick Caruso and once again facing off against a candidate advised by a political consulting team with a reputation for collecting scalps.

During a bruising vetting process for Biden’s vice presidential running mate in 2020, a flood of negative press engulfed Bass, dooming her candidacy.

Susan Rice, now the White House domestic policy adviser, was another reported finalist for the vice presidential post. Upon discovering that the team was putting together an opposition research package on her, Rice phoned Harris, telling her to “call off her attack dogs,” reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns wrote in This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future.

The same team that drove the stake into Bass in 2020 is now advising Caruso, the congresswoman’s rival in the mayoral race.

“They know where the bodies are buried,” Lisa Gritzner, an LA political consultant and the CEO of L.G. Strategies, told the Washington Examiner earlier this month. “I’m sure that was a part of their attraction.”

During a campaign event this summer, Bass was asked about the blitz.

“I will tell you that very prominent people called me during that [vetting] process and told me that Ace Smith is the master of the dark arts and that he was behind the attacks that I experienced,” said Bass, according to Los Angeles Magazine. “If that’s true, then he has the oppositional research to continue doing that.”

As for the current news about Bass, one political operative said that while observers may think they see the firm’s imprint, stories about the scandal-plagued university could also invite uncomfortable questions for Caruso, who chaired the university’s board of trustees until recently.

“That’s the logical conclusion, but Caruso is far from untouched by USC scandal,” said one Northern California operative.

One strategist who worked alongside the founder of Bearstar Strategies for years dismissed the idea and echoed others who say the team’s fearsome reputation is overstated.

“Ace couldn’t compel the [Los Angeles Times] to bug prosecutors to break this story,” a Democratic consultant in the city said of Ace Smith — a longtime adviser to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Harris, and others — who is credited with securing Hillary Clinton’s California primary victory over then-Sen. Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination contest. “This is the [Los Angeles Times] doing their leg work.”

“He gets credit for many brilliant things he’s done and credit for many brilliant things he had nothing to do with,” the Northern California operative added, “and often escapes blame.”

After winning the June primary by 7 percentage points, Bass now leads the runoff by double digits, polls indicate. But strategists have been reluctant to call the race for her with weeks still to go.

Caruso has spent more than $40 million to outmaneuver Bass and is trailing her by 12 points, 43% to 31%, according to a recent Los Angeles Times-University of California, Berkeley poll, with 24% of voters still undecided.

But the developer is expected to continue plowing millions more into the contest as it heats up after a slow summer, hoping to alter his trajectory.

And as the case heats up ahead of a November trial, Bass’s scholarship and involvement with USC could provide her opponent with a new line of attack.

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Previous reports have also drawn attention to a yearslong delay by Bass in reporting the scholarship. Despite beginning classes in 2012, Bass did not report the $95,000 scholarship in her financial disclosures until 2019 and later blamed the oversight on a former aide.

Bass also told the Los Angeles Times that the award did not influence her policymaking. “I did not author any legislation that benefited USC,” she said.