This December, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass officially launched her reelection campaign, surrounded by her political allies, including Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, Senator Maria Elena Durazo, former Assembly Leader Fabian Nunez, and of course, Angelica Salas, the leader of CHIRLA.

Among the African American leaders were the council members Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Curren Price, and Yvonne Wheeler of the Los Angeles County Federation of Unions.

The absence of former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has been her most consistent politically, was noticeable.

Bass presented as her reelection campaign promises the fight against homelessness, which she claims is unprecedented in decades, the reduction of crime, and the acceleration of affordable housing construction.

And you won't believe it, but there are 18 candidates for mayor of Los Angeles. Among the best known are Austin Beautner, former superintendent of education, and Assad Alnajjar, who has worked as a city engineer since the 1980s.

It's no secret that Angelenos are disillusioned with Mayor Bass; And it's not just because of the handling of the Pacific Palisades fire, but because its priority, homelessness, hasn't been reduced as she promised at the beginning of her campaign and has worsened to alarming levels in places like MacArthur Park and some areas of the city center. Despite this frustration, Bass will most likely be re-elected by default simply because she has no serious opponents, and because the unions and the Democratic establishment, with all the power that money provides, back her. Rick Caruso, who could challenge her, might be wondering if it's worth throwing away another millions of dollars with no guarantee of winning, because it's difficult to beat Bass with union support. So, most likely, we'll have Bass for another four years, and also because no other Democrat dares to challenge her.

Villaraigosa is recovering

It is widely known that former Mayor Villaraigosa is not doing well in terms of the money he needs to campaign for governor. However, it has just come to light that he has already raised $5 million.The problem was that it took him a year and a half to collect it. And for his rival, the billionaire Tom Steyer, that sum is like taking a hair from a cat; he pulls it out of his wallet in seconds. And Villaraigosa is firing shots from all sides. He just shared a news story that exposes the absenteeism of the unknown Congressman Erick Swalwell, who has just joined the race for governor and, in an unusual case, magically appeared as the leader in the polls. Since the federal government reopened after the shutdown, Swalwell has not shown up at the Capitol and has failed to vote five times. In fact, he has been the only member of the California congressional delegation not to vote on a resolution to impeach President Trump. Swalwell will say that if Obama and Harris lost a large number of important votes when they were campaigning for the presidency, why shouldn't he? Because he's not Obama or Harris.

Campaigns are getting cheaper

Comptroller Kenneth Mexia's Corgi dogs became the central figures of his reelection campaign after his opponent, former Senator Isadore Hall, accused him before the Municipal Ethics Commission of using his pets' image both in his offices and for his campaign.

According to Isadore, the comptroller's campaign logo and other design elements match the image of the city's official website, giving the impression that the city endorses his reelection.

It is anticipated that although the complaint may have merit, it won't go anywhere because it's not really a serious matter; Mexia responded that these are cheap attacks, and said that his Corgis will continue to be part of the campaign, even if he has to disguise them.

This canine campaign issue shows us how cheap campaigns are getting.