Raman's polling lead puts pressure on Bass to win undecided voters and go negative

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Set us as preferred A stunning new poll showing Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman gaining a double-digit lead over incumbent Karen Bass in the mayor’s race is increasing pressure on Bass and her allies to go sharply negative against her opponent and to seek support from conservative and undecided voters to narrow the gap.The poll, conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times, showed Bass trailing Raman by 11 percentage points — with 28% of likely voters saying they supported the mayor while 39% said they would vote for Raman.The remaining 33% were undecided, an unusually high number this close to the Nov.

3 election.“The bottom line is this is a huge shot in the arm politically for Raman — and it’s not a good day for the mayor,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, a former L.A.

City Council member who now runs the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.Dan Schnur, a former Republican political consultant, said the poll could have instant negative effects for the mayor’s fundraising ability as potential supporters might now view Raman as the favorite in the race.“The most immediate tangible result of a poll like this is that Bass’ greatest advantage was her fundraising and it now becomes much more challenging to raise money,” he said.Bass, appearing Wednesday at a news conference in Hollywood, said she’s seen multiple polls that show a tight race.She said that Raman is “absolutely not” the front-runner in the race.

The mayor said she is working to highlight the city’s progress in making rent more affordable, pointing to newly released numbers that show that more than 10,000 units of housing with restricted rents have been built since she took office in December 2022.“The No.1 issue to Angelenos continues to be lack of affordability, and our primary way of addressing that from the city is housing,” she said....