Potential Mayoral Contender Rick Caruso Contracts COVID-19

LOS ANGELES, CA — Like more than 2 million other Angelenos, Real estate mogul and possible Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso contracted the coronavirus last month, a Caruso spokesperson acknowledged Wednesday.

Caruso, who has about a week left to enter the Los Angeles mayor's race, tested positive for COVID-19 in January but experienced only mild symptoms.

"Rick is fully vaccinated and boosted, and he recently contracted what was, fortunately, a mild case of COVID. Rick is grateful to have fully recovered, and throughout he has not missed a beat on his daily political and business Zoom calls," the representative said.

Caruso's camp did not announce his illness. Rather the Los Angeles Times confirmed the diagnosis after the billionaire developer canced a meeting.

According to The Times, Caruso refused to be interviewed about his conditon, declining to confirm the date he tested positive, what treatment he received and how many people he had to notify about potential exposure to him, the Times reported.

Caruso is considering running for mayor of Los Angeles and recently changed his voter registration to Democrat after a decade of being registered with no party preference.

The filing deadline to run for mayor is Feb. 12.

If Caruso announces a run for mayor, he'll join a field of candidates that includes Rep. Karen Bass, L.A. City Councilmen Joe Buscaino and Kevin de León, City Attorney Mike Feuer, business leaders Jessica Lall, real estate agent Mel Wilson, entrepreneur Ramit Varma and marketing executive Craig Greiwe.

The primary for the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election will take place on June 7, with the top two finishers squaring off in the election on Nov. 8.

City News Service contributed to this report.