Nithya Raman edges out Spencer Pratt, advances to L.A. mayor runoff against Karen Bass

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Nithya Raman had 115 days to make her case to Los Angeles voters.The sitting councilmember made a surprise late entry into the mayor’s race, the last of the major candidates to file for the primary.

That left little time for her to form a campaign team, build her name recognition and persuade voters that she would be the best choice to lead the city.On Monday, the Associated Press called the race, concluding that Raman would have enough votes to make a Nov.3 runoff against Mayor Karen Bass, the first-place finisher who secured her spot in the showdown last week.

Reality television personality Spencer Pratt, who was in second place on election night, saw his lead over Raman steadily erode as mail-in ballots postmarked as late as June 2 were counted.On Monday, Raman widened her gap over Pratt to nearly 3 percentage points.Bass had 34.3% of the vote, compared to 28.6% for Raman and 25.8% for Pratt, the latest results showed.Raman, in a statement, said she was “incredibly honored” by the results, and invited Angelenos who are “frustrated by the broken status quo” to join her campaign.“For too long, City Hall has prioritized giving political advantage to powerful interests that fund elections.

Meanwhile, working people pay the price in higher rents, depleted services, and a city that has stopped working for them,” she said.Raman led Pratt by 21,819 votes, 229,576 to 207,757, elections officials reported Monday evening, with an estimated 148,100 votes countywide still outstanding.Pratt, a Republican and onetime star of MTV’s “The Hills,” grabbed much of the national spotlight, appearing on “Fox & Friends” and chatting up podcaster Joe Rogan.He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Bass strategist Douglas Herman responded to Monday’s results by issuing a broadside against Raman.“A campaign against Nithya Raman, who allows encampments nea...