The Grove has hosted multiple campaign events in recent weeks as Rick Caruso's Disney-esque mall has become an unlikely L.A. campaign destination.
Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our local elections newsletter. It’s Julia Wick, here with an assist from David Zahniser for our second to last dispatch before the primary.— has become an unlikely campaign destination in recent weeks.‘s mayoral campaign took its dying breaths a stone’s throw from an AMC multiplex.
The candidate’s malls are known for their spectacle and highly curated sense of place, and every detail in the offices was similarly accounted for. Campaign events in a candidate’s shopping mall are a surreal experience, even in a race upended by mountains of cash and a high-gloss production values. But is there anything actually untoward about it?, a Loyola Law School professor and former president of the L.A. City Ethics Commission, said she didn’t see any issues, as long as the Caruso campaign was paying for use of the space or properly recording it as an in-kind donation.
Caruso’s vast wealth and personal business brand are inextricable from his candidacy: He wouldn’t be able to blanket the city with his message without his personal fortune. And that message hinges on using his success as a businessman as reason to vote for him. But there was no promotional flogging of the mall at either event. In fact, it would be difficult to argue that Caruso is using his campaign for financial gain, given that he has already hemorrhaged tens of millions of dollars paying for it.