The devastating fires that devoured parts of Los Angeles, California, over the past 10 days have brought condemnation to the incompetence and corruption of the Democrats running the cities in Los Angeles County and the state of California in general. Residents are now asking to recall the Democrat mayor of Los Angeles.
On the popular activism site Change.org, a member going by the name “Frustrated Californian” launched a petition titled “Demand the Immediate Resignation of Mayor Karen Bass” on January 8, 2025. The petition, addressed to Mayor Bass and two members of the Los Angeles City Council – Hugo Soto-Martinez and Monica Rodriguez – reads:
We, the undersigned residents of Los Angeles and concerned citizens, urgently call for the immediate recall of Mayor Karen Bass due to her gross mismanagement and failure to effectively respond to the devastating 2025 fires in and around the city of Los Angeles.
The petition, at the time of this writing, has gathered over 146,000 signatures. Loads of comments left on the petition page by angry Californians, who signed the recall petition, called for not only the immediate resignation of Mayor Bass but also holding her as well as California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom accountable for the destruction of Los Angeles.
Reporting on the petition to recall Mayor Bass, Townhall wrote (January 12) that voters are demanding accountability and they want change as they see their mayor’s “gross mismanagement” responsible for the fires going out of control to destroy homes, businesses, and people’s lives. The story wrote:
Bass cut $17.6 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year— a move critics have condemned as “a poor decision.”
On Wednesday (January 15), Newsweek reported that Mayor Bass is facing increasing criticism after photos appeared on social media showing her attending a cocktail party in Ghana while the Palisades burnt. The story reminded that Bass backtracked on her own promise not to travel internationally while serving as mayor:
Her decision to leave Los Angeles during a weather warning and the timing of her return has drawn sharp criticism, especially given her earlier pledge not to travel internationally during her tenure as mayor.
Investigations into the Los Angeles fires have not conclusively found the actual reason(s) behind the fires that killed some two dozen people and caused damage worth an estimated $250 billion (AccuWeather, January 16, 2025). Some reports, as those shared in the New York Post (January 12), point to the possibility of remnants of New Year fireworks starting the fire that later spiraled out of control by strong winds.
Also on Wednesday, NYP reported that the Los Angeles police arrested four people on arson charges as the suspects tried to ignite new fires in separate incidents.
In August 2023, the Democrat-run state of Hawaii suffered devastating fires that spread through the historic Maui town of Lahaina and killed more than 100 people. AccuWeather estimated the total damage and economic toll of the fires at $14 billion.