Pratt out, Raman in: What Los Angeles can expect in the mayoral race

from Jim NewtonCalMatters

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As the results of the Los Angeles mayoral election piled up, the tide steadily turned against Spencer Pratt, ousting him from the runoff and giving the No. 2 seat to City Councilwoman Nithya Raman. on Monday, called it the Associated Press. The 44-year-old progressive, not Pratt, will face off against Mayor Karen Bass in November.

That outraged Pratt’s supporters, some of whom turned to conspiracy theories and outright stupidity to ignore the obvious: Pratt, a Republican who had the backing of President Donald Trump, was destined to lose this race. It was just a matter of when.

No need for conspiracies. A city that is roughly 15% Republican makes for inhospitable terrain. In Pratt’s case, his pitiful credentials, nonsense memoir and ridiculous jabs at policy ideas made him a bad candidate with a bad message in a hostile electorate.

For those who imagine that Pratt was robbed, it is important to recognize that these truths are not evidence of fraud, but evidence of politics.

Pratt campaigned on the idea that he would rally Angelenos, united in their anger, to City Hall. Instead, he found himself with the same level of support that Trump received in 2024 — in a city that hates the president. to to paraphrase the great George Carlincity ​​hall will brush Spencer Pratt off as a bad case of fleas.

Nor the city slow count of chicane evidence. California allows any ballot postmarked on Election Day to be included in the final tally. Some take days to arrive. This results in a long count, but does not mean that these ballots are suspect. They simply arrived late, and since late voters this cycle tended to be younger and more liberal than the general electorate, late ballots helped Raman more than Pratt.

Admittedly, I was surprised they broke more heavily on Raman than Bass, but that’s why we have picks, not just predictions. The results are sometimes surprising, and in this case, several issues likely drove the late, liberal vote: younger people waiting until Election Day to vote; liberals watching polls in gubernatorial race ahead of vote; a president who denigrates mail-in voting and whose supporters vote in-person instead, meaning in-person voters are more conservative than those who mail in their ballots.

Bass will have to answer her for the record

So now we turn to Raman vs. Bass, just the race Bass had been dreading — a challenge on the left from a candidate with real credentials (as opposed to one on the right from a crystal seller). That doesn’t mean the jig is up for the mayor. Voting cards in this election show that she has wide sections of the city in her political column and her early reactions in Raman’s second telegraphed the approach he would take.

Initial vote counts show Bass faring best in the bowels of the city, the concentration of black and brown voters in South and Central Los Angeles. This is not surprising. These areas are proud to support the first black woman to serve as mayor of Los Angeles, and they have also benefited from progress in recent decades as crime has declined and neighborhoods have become significantly safer.

Residents of Brentwood or Bel-Air may not feel these changes—murder and homelessness have never been big problems there—but working people in Central Los Angeles have known violence and despair, and they know what it’s like to be freed from those fears, too.

But that doesn’t mean Bass has an easy road ahead. Nearly two-thirds of voters last week voted against an incumbent mayor, and Raman presents a new kind of challenge for the former lawmaker and Congresswoman. Raman is young, smart and more progressive. She is able to ignite great enthusiasm around her campaign and is in tune with the urban electorate that has was moving steadily to the left in recent decades.

Her strength in last week’s election was evident in the Silver Lake, Hollywood, Echo Park and Glassel Park neighborhoods — diverse communities with many young people and renters. It gives her a foundation.

Raman will now turn the debate to the issues on which she has the most to say: affordability, including the very high cost of housing; anxiety about change; and alternative management strategies for urban policing and public safety.

Raman’s success in making the run-off – and the real challenge it presents – means Bass will have to deal with these issues. Are LAPD absorbing too much city spending, and are there better, more humane ways to police LA? Is the city, in its quest to protect neighborhoods, getting in the way of faster housing development? Should homeless encampments be broken up if some of the residents of these squalid neighborhoods have nowhere else to go?

These questions stand at the hinge between Democratic Party politics and democratic socialist ideals that capture the city’s evolving sense of itself — and challenge Democrats as a whole as the party considers its future.

Bass’s record in these areas is mixed. Crime is down, as is street homelessness, but many neighborhoods are troubled. Even where there has been progress, it has often been felt painfully slow. Raman, for his part, speaks of urgency, but is running with the dual challenge of proving he has fresh ideas and energy while serving as a 2020 city council member.

The good news for Los Angeles is that these are exactly the issues the city needs to talk about, as opposed to the angry, empty dialogue that Pratt’s runoff heralded. His candidacy offered barbs and bromides. Raman’s provides an opportunity for a real urban discussion about leadership and priorities.

But before we consign Pratt to the dustbin of history, one final question faces the two surviving candidates in this race: What happens to the 25 percent of voters who supported him?

It’s safe to say that most Pratt supporters face an unfortunate choice in the runoff. Those voters — not all, but certainly most — are conservative, and they rallied in anger at Bass and City Hall. Are they now voting for the mayor they think is responsible for the Palisades fire? Or are they supporting a candidate who identifies as a democratic socialist and whom Pratt personally vilifies at every turn?

Some will stay home, of course. For those determined not to sulk, Bass offers something closer to their politics. The outcome may depend, at least in part, on what those voters do.

The mayor’s first statement after Raman made the runoff was to call the council member someone who “allows encampments near schools and cuts the police force.” It’s the first step in Bass reminding the city that she’s now the conservative in this race. Only in Los Angeles.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.