LOS ANGELES | Politics, Economics, and Business Development

[ChelseaFC]

The battle for the progressive vote amongst Bass, Huang, and Raman will be fascinating. The addition of Raman significantly increases the chances of Bass not making the top two.

I could see something like Raman 30, Bass 20, Pratt 20, Huang 15, Miller 10, Others 5.

[kittyhawk28]

Nithya Raman is promising. I don't agree with her on everything obviously (e.g. rent control, catalytic converter and copper wire theft solutions), but in terms of housing, she's shown great promise recently with her support for SB79, reforming ULA to exempt multifamily and commercial investments, spearheading transit signal priority for light rail, and reforming notoriously bad LADWP permitting processes. It remains to be seen how she will campaign, but quite a few private developers online have talked about positive private experiences with her, where she has been quite pragmatic and willing to listen to their concerns and change course when wrong about issues.

[ChelseaFC]

Yay finally some polling! I nailed the Bass number if that's her ceiling haha.

Not sure — 50%
Karen Bass (inc) — 20%
Spencer Pratt — 10%
Nithya Raman — 9%
Adam Miller — 4%
Rae Huang — 3%

https://emersoncollegepolling.com/califo...decided-election-for-la-mayor-wide-open/

[38 Geary]

That would be pretty wild if Spencer Pratt was the mayor of LA.

[38 Geary]

Four-story buildings allowed in some single-family zones under L.A.'s plan to delay SB 79
Jack Flemming
Tue, March 24, 2026 at 2:07 PM PDT

Since Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 79 into law last year, L.A. officials have been developing a strategy to stop its upzoning effects: Delay. The historic bill, which overrides local zoning laws to allow for taller, denser buildings near transit stops, represented a jarring shift for Southern California, a region built on the promise of suburban sprawl and single-family housing. But the bill's authors included some flexibility for cities, including the ability to delay the upzoning until 2030 if cities add density on their own terms. That's exactly what L.A. is planning to do.

On Tuesday, City Council voted to adopt a strategy that would delay the effects of SB 79 citywide by upzoning 55 single-family and low-density areas, allowing for 4-16 unit buildings up to four stories tall. The 55 areas are mostly in Central L.A., West L.A., the Eastside and the San Fernando Valley. In other words, it adds a little density, but not as much as SB 79, which allows developers to build up to nine stories for buildings adjacent to certain transit stops, seven stories for buildings within a quarter-mile and six stories for buildings within a half-mile.

...

The plan, pushed by homeowners wanting to mitigate the upzoning, was one of three options developed by the Department of City Planning that the council was considering. It offers the potential for density in areas where it hasn't been allowed, but pro-housing advocates say the plan is the least ambitious of the three. The second option would have added the same provisions as the first, but also permitted buildings as tall as eight stories within a half-mile of 23 transit stops around L.A. The third option, pushed by housing groups, was the most aggressive, adding the same provisions as the first but permitting buildings as tall as eight stories within a half-mile of 55 transit stops. SB 79 allows local governments to develop alternate plans to maintain local control of density near transit stops. Assuming there's no pushback from Sacramento, the plan adopted by City Council will allow L.A. to kick the proverbial can down the road, delaying SB 79 until 2030. If the council hadn't adopted a plan, the area surrounding 141 transit stops across L.A. would have immediately been upzoned when the bill kicks in on July 1.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/four-story-buildings-allowed-single-210730496.html

[38 Geary]

It looks like Raman was one of the 5 in this 8-5 vote. This is consistent with past votes in support of SB79.

[38 Geary]

Bass leads the pack for LA mayor in new poll, but many surveyed have unfavorable view
By Josh Haskell
Monday, March 23, 2026 8:37PM

...

In the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies/Los Angeles Times poll, Bass is in the lead at 25% with councilmember Nithya Raman at 17%, reality tv star and Palisades Fire victim Spencer Pratt at 14%, community organizer Rae Huang at 8% and tech entrepreneur Adam Miller at 6%. Roughly 25% of voters are undecided.

"Generally speaking, throughout history, Angelenos tend to re-elect their mayors. You have to go back more than 20 years, back to 2005, to find the last mayor, James Hahn, who was not re-elected to office. So voters in Los Angeles tend to be pretty forgiving, even if they're not seeing dramatic progress. But this poll, and this election, isn't about broader progress on issues like housing and homelessness," said Dan Schnur, a political communications lecturer at USC and UC Berkeley.

Schnur says this race is very much about Bass' response to the Palisades Fire. And what she should be most concerned about is that only 31% of those polled view her favorably. More than half, 56%, have an unfavorable view of the incumbent mayor.

...

The primary election is on June 2. If a candidate doesn't receive more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will move on to November.

https://abc7.com/post/mayor-karen-bass-l...surveyed-have-unfavorable-view/18758292/

[ChelseaFC]

LMU poll just released today:

Nithya Raman 32.5%
Karen Bass 17.0%
Rae Huang 16.6%
Adam Miller 13.4%
Spencer Pratt 11.5%
Other 8.9%

Would be crazy if Raman was somehow able to squeek out 50% and avoid a runoff, though that still seems unlikely.

[ChelseaFC]

A UCLA poll released today:

Karen Bass 25%
Spencer Pratt 11%
Nithya Raman 9%
Rae Huang 3%
Adam Miller 3%
Other 9%
Undecided 40%

https://luskin.ucla.edu/volatility-ahead...luskin-poll-finds-40-of-voters-undecided

[38 Geary]

Y'all ready to MLAGA?

Could Spencer Pratt — yes, that Spencer Pratt — really be L.A.'s next mayor?
Probably not. But he's taking notes from Trump's playbook in the race against unpopular incumbent Karen Bass.
Andrew Romano, Reporter
Updated Tue, June 2, 2026 at 6:47 AM PDT

If the latest polls are to be believed, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt — formerly known as reality TV villain Spencer Pratt — has a real chance of advancing to a Nov. 3 runoff against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.

...

A longtime state lawmaker and former member of Congress, Bass is likely to place first in L.A.’s June 2 primary. But her current job-approval rating is so low — just 24% — that she has little chance of avoiding a runoff. In theory, Pratt could advance alongside her. The three local polls conducted since the start of May all show him in — or effectively tied for — second place, trailing by anywhere from three to 12 percentage points.

But a third candidate — the progressive city council member Nithya Raman, who has drawn comparisons to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani — is just a point or two behind Pratt, on average, suggesting the sprint for second could come down to a photo finish.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/arti...-really-be-las-next-mayor-191107811.html