The race for Los Angeles mayor intensified Wednesday night as incumbent Karen Bass and challenger Nithya Raman engaged in a heated debate, trading sharp criticisms on homelessness, policing, and each other's professional conduct. The exchange took place in Sherman Oaks with early voting less than two months away.
Bass directly accused Raman, a city councilmember, of being lazy and absent from her duties, citing missed votes and a lack of engagement. "You were nowhere," Bass stated, referencing her own legislative work. "Even when it came time to vote for the entertainment industry, you walked on votes. As a matter of fact, I believe you have missed several thousand votes because you don't show up to work."
Raman acknowledged missing council meetings but attributed these absences to her appointments on external boards, which she stated sometimes conflicted with council schedules. She also pivoted to criticize Bass's signature homelessness initiative, Inside Safe, calling it a failure and noting that the program had spent $400 million without audits. Raman highlighted her own district's reported 49 percent decrease in unsheltered homelessness, promising to audit all city funds dedicated to homelessness programs.
Bass defended Inside Safe, arguing for a comprehensive overhaul of the city's homelessness system to allow for direct contracts with healthcare providers. However, an analysis by the Los Angeles Times indicated that approximately 41 percent of participants in the Inside Safe program had returned to homelessness in the nearly four years since its inception.
The debate also saw clashes over public safety. Bass accused Raman of voting against measures to increase funding for the Los Angeles Police Department. "She talks out of both sides of her mouth. She wants to study everything. I believe in data. But the City Council and the city of L.A. are not academic institutions. We need to act," Bass asserted.
Raman countered that her votes were against contracts that she believed would bankrupt the city, and that she had previously supported measures to maintain or expand the police force. "What I have voted against is a contract that bankrupted our city," she said.
Both Bass and Raman advanced to the general election after securing the top two spots in the primary, with Bass receiving 34 percent of the vote to Raman's 29 percent. The election is scheduled for November 5.
The contentious debate occurred in the wake of a fabricated opinion poll that had initially shown Bass with a significant lead. The polling group, Median Strategies, later admitted to fabricating the numbers as a "social experiment." A spokesperson for Bass's campaign called for investigations into such "bad-faith attempts to influence elections."