The Los Angeles mayoral debate quickly turned combative when Mayor Karen Bass took direct aim at challenger Nithya Raman, accusing the city councilmember of being “lazy.”
Sitting beside Raman, Bass pointed to her own record on Hollywood and production incentives, saying, “I did the first tax credit when I was Speaker of the House. You were nowhere.”
Bass continued the attack by criticizing Raman’s attendance record, claiming that when votes affecting the entertainment industry came up, Raman “walked on votes” and had missed “several thousand votes” because, as Bass put it, she does not “show up to work.”
The sharp exchange unfolded Wednesday night in Sherman Oaks, injecting fresh intensity into the Los Angeles mayoral race as Election Day approaches and early voting sits less than two months away.
Raman, who serves on the Los Angeles City Council during Bass’s tenure as mayor, pushed to answer the accusation and conceded that she has missed some council meetings.
She argued, however, that the absences were tied to official responsibilities on outside boards, saying Bass knew that appointments made by both the previous mayor and the current administration sometimes overlapped with scheduled council sessions.
Raman then shifted the focus back to Bass, criticizing the mayor’s handling of Los Angeles homelessness and calling her signature Inside Safe housing initiative a failure.
“This mayor has spent $400 million on Inside Safe, refused audits,” Raman said, underscoring one of the central flashpoints in the campaign.
The incumbent mayor, Karen and Bass and council member, Nithya Raman faced off in a debate Wednesday night in Sherman Oaks as Election Day creeps closer, with less than two months remaining before early voting
Bass criticized Raman’s work ethic claiming she had missed thousands votes, which the councilwoman acknowledged before defending that it was due to her responsibilities to external boards
Raman also highlighted how her Fourth Council District experienced a 49 percent decrease in unsheltered homelessness as a result of her efforts.
Hollywood Hills, Sherman Oaks and parts of Reseda and Van Nuys, along with other neighborhoods, are encompassed within the Fourth Council District.
She promised to audit all city funds used for homelessness programs and track their performance, according to ABC 7.
Bass defended Inside Safe and argued that Los Angeles needed to transform the entire homelessness system.
‘If the city controls the system completely, we can have our own contracts with federally qualified health clinics to get people the health care that they need, especially in terms of drugs and mental health,’ she said.
An analysis by the Los Angeles Times found that, in the nearly four years since Inside Safe was launched, roughly 41 percent of unhoused people who participated in the program had returned to homelessness.
‘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,’ Bass said
The candidates debated the topics such as homelessness and policing while taking shots at one another throughout the 90-minute debate
The former allies also clashed over policing after Bass accused Raman of voting against increasing funding for the city’s police department.
‘You have a lot of nerve talking about the hiring of police officers when we finally reached the point where we had a decent-sized class and you voted against it,’ Bass said.
‘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,’ the mayor added.
Raman defended her vote, claiming that she had previously voted differently on measures that had ‘maintained and even expanded our police force.’
‘What I have voted against is a contract that bankrupted our city,’ the councilmember said.
Bass and Raman secured their places in the election after edging out reality television star Spencer Pratt in the primary.
The mayor placed first in the primary with 34 percent of the vote to Raman’s 29 percent.
Los Angeles County’s homeless population rose 1.2 percent from last year, reaching an estimated total of 73,040 people across the county, which comprises 85 cities
The fierce showdown comes shortly after the discovery that an opinion poll showing Bass with a wide lead was faked.
The survey, by a group calling itself Median Strategies, was reported on by several outlets and posted to Bass’s X account.
However, the survey group later admitted to the Los Angeles Times that the numbers were fabricated.
Median Strategies claimed it was a ‘social experiment to examine how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem.’
Following the revelation, a spokesperson for Bass’s campaign issued a statement noting that ‘bad-faith attempts to influence elections should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.’
The Los Angeles mayoral election will take place on November 3.
