Commentary: Karen Bass says L.A.'s political establishment doesn't like Raman. Well, boo hoo

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Set us as preferred With three weeks left to go until Election Day and polls showing her on the brink of losing, Mayor Karen Bass has begun to channel the Sun King himself, Louis XIV:L’État, c’est moi.Gaslighting voters by insisting the political establishment that has left Los Angeles a mess and that she personifies is worth keeping in office for four more years is her only hope for victory.It’s a wild strategy that reached a crescendo during last night’s debate, as Bass kept bringing up the fact that L.A.’s ancien régime just doesn’t like her democratic socialist opponent, Nithya Raman.“Your colleagues have a very difficult time working with you,” Bass snapped at one point, later on claiming that Raman’s constituents don’t care for her even though the council member won her reelection outright two years ago.

The mayor twice bragged that immigrant rights groups support her, twice referenced Imelda Padilla, the moderate San Fernando Valley council member whose Internet dragging of Raman has been out of the Burn Book from “Mean Girls,” and also described her opponent as “not ready for prime time.”Well, the way the mayor’s term has gone in the last couple of years, if it was prime time TV show it might be called “Breaking Bad 2.” And it wouldn’t exactly be a hit.If it were, two thirds of Angeles wouldn’t have decided to vote for anyone but Bass in the primary.

California Bass portrayed Raman as someone who isn’t ready to lead the city, while Raman described the mayor as being ‘missing in action’ during fires in Pacific Palisades and Boyle Heights.Bass arguably won the debate Tuesday night, but it felt like the technical “victory” — and that’s probably the wrong word — of a politician who is simply more polished.The mayor really needed a knockout punch, and that she did n...