Caruso to 'decide soon' on race for mayor

Developer Rick Caruso told a sell-out crowd of enthusiastic Republicans Friday night that he would decide "soon" whether to run against Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa next spring. Caruso was honored by the Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs as their 2008 Spirit of Lincoln award winner at a dinner held at the historic Casa Del Mar hotel in Santa Monica. Red County

The Lincoln Clubs are a Republican major donor organization founded by members of Ronald Reagan's "Kitchen Cabinet" in the 1960's. Today it has 300 members in eleven chapters throughout Los Angeles County, and is the most influential Republican organization countywide.

Caruso got a lot of encouragement to run at the event. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich publicly asked him to, and Lincoln Clubs Chairman Robert A. Virtue noted in giving him the Spirit of Lincoln award that the organization was honoring him "as much for what you will do in the future as what you have done in the past"