Bass banks huge fundraising lead heading into mayoral runoff

Mayor Karen Bass is flexing her financial muscle in the race for City Hall, hauling in nearly three times as much cash as challenger Nithya Raman in the first fundraising stretch since the June primary.Campaign finance filings released Friday show Bass raised $511,687 after the primary, dwarfing Raman’s $172,927 and giving the incumbent an early fundraising edge heading into the November showdown.The latest filings also reinforce Bass’ overall financial dominance.Since launching her reelection campaign, Bass has raised $3.77 million, compared with $1.19 million for Raman, a gap of nearly $2.6 million.The candidates continued to draw support from different sectors of Los Angeles.Raman’s contributors included television writers, producers, entertainment executives and technology workers, including her husband, Universal Television writer Vali Chandrasekaran.Bass, meanwhile, attracted donations from attorneys, nonprofit executives, healthcare leaders, real estate professionals and longtime civic and political figures.The report offers the first snapshot of fundraising after voters narrowed the race to Bass and Raman in the June primary.It also marks a dramatic shift from the closing weeks of the primary, when former reality television star Spencer Pratt led all candidates in fundraising.Between April 19 and May 16, Pratt raised $2.72 million, while Raman collected about $401,000, including a $60,000 loan to her own campaign.Bass raised just $283,000 during the same period.With the crowded primary field now gone, Bass has quickly reclaimed the fundraising lead.Bass’ campaign called June its strongest fundraising month of the election cycle.“It’s no accident that June was our strongest month of the entire campaign.

It shows that Angelenos understand the stakes of this election and are fully invested in winning this race in November,” Bass said in a statement.The campaign also announced it qualified for an additional $675,368 in public matching funds, bring...