Bass, Raman trade jabs in new ads and speeches a week before LA mayoral election

Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman traded jabs in new ads and speeches ahead of next week's election.

In her new ad, Bass attacked her opponent over her stance on public safety and a CNN interview in which she walked back her "gold standard" comment about former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates, as recent polls show the incumbent trailing her challenger. 

Raman also went on the offensive, taking the fight to the LA Department of Water and Power headquarters in downtown, where she blamed Bass for allowing utility bills to skyrocket over the summer.

"Because of this mayor's unwillingness to bring these questions in front of the council, we don't even know how we can address these costs," Raman said. 

Meanwhile, Bass stood at City Hall to announce the launch of a new program meant to streamline homeless services. She wants the city to have full control over housing the homeless by cutting out LA County. 

"It is very hard to have a system that's transparent if you have multiple layers of government that are all operating the same system," she said. 

As of Tuesday night, about 11% of voters in the city have cast a ballot, according to the political data tracking firm PDI. While recent polls show Raman leading by several points, a significant number of voters remain undecided.

"I think some of the bigger questions will be the LA mayor's race," GOP political strategist Mike Madrid said. "We have two very unpopular candidates. Do people kind of just sit it out, or do they show up? Most of the evidence, most of the momentum shows that even if people aren't happy about their candidates on the local level, they still want to make their voices heard."

So far, both Democrats and Republicans in LA are outpacing their turnout compared to the last midterms in 2022. PDI reports that voters over 65 have the highest return rate so far.