In Los Angeles, shilling for Scientology becomes issue in mayor’s race

Sep 27, 2022

We’ve said it many times over the years: Scientology tries to convince local politicians to come to its events, and some of them do, not bothering to research Scientology’s long history of scandals and abuses.

Now, this has become an issue in the contentious final weeks of a mayoral race in Los Angeles, and we’ve been hearing from television viewers there who have been stunned to see Scientology featured in a new campaign ad produced by billionaire Rick Caruso, attacking his opponent, former US representative Karen Bass.

The ad targets Bass by showing footage of her giving an embarrassingly obeisant address to Scientology as its leader, David Miscavige, opened a new “Ideal Org” in Los Angeles on April 24, 2010. The footage is intercut by Caruso’s campaign with quotes from publications such as Time magazine, which in 1991 said that “Scientology poses as a religion but really is a ruthless global scam.”

This isn’t the first time that the footage has been controversial for Bass.

Two years ago, when word began to spread that she might be on the short list to become Joe Biden’s running mate, the conservative publication Breitbart wrote about the footage and pointed out that Bass had promoted Scientology.

Bass responded by putting out a statement saying that she was a Baptist, that she had gone to the opening of the new facility because it was in her district, and that revelations about Scientology in recent years (such as Leah Remini’s series) had educated everyone about the group.

We then posted a story pointing out that, in fact, the new Ideal Org was not in Bass’s district in 2010, and also that it was ludicrous to say that Scientology’s abuses had only become known in the last few years.

Bass then had to put out another statement, admitting that her previous statement was written by one of her staffers, and yes, that the Ideal Org wasn’t in her district.

It was an embarrassing incident and handled poorly by Bass, who was ultimately not chosen to be Biden’s running mate. However, we also pointed out that Bass was at least criticizing Scientology openly and did not appear to have any ties with it.

Now she’s running for mayor, and local press reports have her leading Caruso after the two of them qualified for a run-off after being the top two vote-getters in a primary.

Both are Democrats, but Caruso was a Republican in the past and his opponents charge him with not being progressive enough in the Democrat-heavy city. Bass has progressive bona fides, but both candidates have been caught up in scandals tied to USC.

With Bass supposedly leading before the November election, she characterized Caruso’s ad as an act of desperation, and told ABC-7 that it was a distortion of her views.

“I am a Baptist. My minister is Norman Johnson, and I have never ever been affiliated with Scientology and absolutely condemn their practices,” she told the station.

ABC-7 asked us about the ad, and we pointed out that it was not unfair to juxtapose Bass’s 2010 speech praising Scientology with quotes from Time’s 1991 article: Bass should have done her homework and avoided lavishing so much praise on Scientology.

However, we told the station that we did think using the footage as a campaign ad and trying to give the impression that Bass still has ties to Scientology did seem unfair.

Here’s the ad. Give it a look and let us know what you think.

And here’s ABC-7’s report from yesterday, which includes Bass’s unequivocal denunciation of Scientology.

Scientology watchers can at least take some heart from this ugly episode: Both mayoral candidates in Los Angeles have openly called Scientology a menace.

Now, will whoever wins end up doing something about it?

Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

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Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

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