Real estate broker Sahil Nandwani has launched a bid to recall Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as she continues to take heat for her response to the Pacific Palisades wildfire.
The Glendale-based agent for JohnHart Real Estate formed a fundraising committee to launch a recall campaign against Bass, who was elected in 2022, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing paperwork filed with the city and state.
The filing will allow him and his supporters to raise money to put a recall on the ballot.
Nandwani deflected questions about the committee to oust Bass, directing inquiries to political strategist Gerald Sirotnak, who didn’t immediately respond to the Times.
Bass, a Democrat and former congresswoman, was blasted for being out of the country when the Palisades fire ripped through thousands of homes beginning Jan. 7, as well as her struggle to answer questions when she flew home.
She’s been battling former fire chief, Kristin Crowley, who she fired on Feb. 21. Crowley has appealed her dismissal, with a City Council vote slated for today, March 4.
The mayor has also butted heads with L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who represents the Palisades. Steve Soboroff, her annointed recovery czar, recently said he was lied to about initial plans to pay him $500,000 for 90 days work, then denied the accusation.
Nandwani’s effort to bounce Bass could be a long shot, coming from a Republican group in a heavily Democratic city.
To trigger a recall election, opponents of Bass would need to collect around 330,000 signatures, or 15 percent of the city’s registered voters, within 120 days of the filing date. That percentage has proved an extremely high bar in recent years, according to the Times.
Nandwani has been a donor to the state Republican Party, the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee, Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, and San Diego Republican Kevin Faulconer’s gubernatorial bid during the 2021 attempted recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to federal campaign finance data reviewed by the Times.
While a student at USC, Nandwani was active with the College Republicans, where he was named “campaigner of the year” by the California Federation of College Republicans in 2019, according to the USC Republican Alumni Facebook page.
On his LinkedIn page, Sirotnak is listed as the executive director of the San Diego Republican Party. He also identified himself as a onetime campaign manager for Calvert, saying that victory “helped secure a majority in the House for the Republican Party.”
Douglas Herman, a political strategist for Bass, said in a statement that the recall committee’s filing is “nothing more than another extreme right-wing political stunt designed to divide Los Angeles when we need to move forward.”
Nandwani has served as an agent with JohnHart since 2017, according to his LinkedIn page, selling “capstone estates” in Beverly Hills to condominiums in the Inland Empire. He’s also managing partner of the Calafia Group, and will take to the stage this week as a speaker on family office investing at the Family Office Club’s Beverly Hills Supersummit conference.
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