LOS ANGELES — Rick Caruso dumped $40 million of his fortune and rolled out a host of celebrity endorsements in his campaign for LA mayor — only to finish second in the primary. Then the billionaire developer all but disappeared from the airwaves and the campaign trail.

Now, as Caruso gears up for a final push before the election, it already looks too late. Polls show him trailing far behind Rep. Karen Bass in their race to lead America’s second-largest city.

“He’s basically a walking zombie corpse,” says Michael Trujillo, a Democratic consultant who ran LA City Councilmember Joe Buscaino’s campaign for mayor before he dropped out and endorsed Caruso. “That campaign’s been dead a long time.”

Caruso’s predicament is a reminder of a bitter truth about politics: Money can get you only so far. It reflects the fact that in a deeply Democratic city, many are apparently unwilling to support a former Republican-turned-Democrat who, despite his insistence that he supports the right to abortion, has donated to anti-abortion candidates in the past.

There’s also the reality that Caruso faces a shifting mood less favorable to his relatively conservative message — and a strong candidate in Bass, a highly regarded congresswoman who almost ended up as President Joe Biden’s vice president.

“The conversation has shifted in ways that are helpful for Bass,” said Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor and elections expert.

The Caruso campaign insists it’s way too soon for a post mortem.

“It’s a little short-sighted to say ‘Well, he spent $40 million and then came in second,'” said Areen Ibranossian, a senior adviser to the campaign. “Anybody who counts us out is not really looking at the dynamics of the race.”

At the start of the year, Caruso seemed primed for a run at an office he had eyed for years. He had money, powerful connections from his decades as a developer of high-end shopping centers and celebrity friends like Kim Kardashian. He also had an electorate in a sour mood after two years of pandemic that seemed receptive to his message, which centered around fears of rising crime and the increased presence of homeless people around LA.

But the bubble bursted on primary night when Bass beat him by 7 points in a field of 12. Since neither won 50 percent, the top two candidates advanced to the general election. Recent polls suggest Caruso faces an even bigger defeat in November.

Caruso’s second-place finish in the primary and gloomy poll numbers underscore the fact that Los Angeles is still a town dominated by liberal Democrats who aren’t ready to embrace someone like Caruso, especially when the alternative is the progressive Bass. The dynamic stands in contrast to New York’s election last year of Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat who beat out a crowded primary field with a law-and-order message.

Bass was up 12 points over Caruso, 43 percent to 31 percent, according to a Los Angeles Times/UC Berkeley poll published Friday. The congresswoman expanded her previous 7 percent margin by picking up supporters of other primary candidates and has nearly erased the mall developer’s lead in the largely suburban San Fernando Valley.

The congresswoman had an 11-point advantage in an Aug. 19 poll commissioned by Communities United for Karen Bass, a PAC supporting her campaign.

Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) speaks at her primary night event at W Hollywood on June 7, 2022 in Hollywood, Calif.