Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has built a double-digit advantage over City Councilwoman Nithya Raman in the city’s November runoff, a new poll shows, with a large share of former Spencer Pratt supporters now lining up behind the incumbent.
About 85 percent of voters who backed Spencer Pratt are now supporting Karen Bass over Democratic Socialist candidate Nithya Raman.
Bass is ahead of Raman 50.2% to 38.4% among likely runoff voters surveyed by Median Strategies from July 30 through Aug. 5, putting the mayor up by 11.8 points.
An additional 11.4% of respondents said they are still undecided.
The results place Bass slightly above the 50% threshold she would need to secure victory outright if that level of support holds through Election Day.
A central finding in the survey is the direction of Pratt’s former supporters after the reality-TV personality was knocked out in the June primary.
Among Pratt voters included in the poll, 85.2% now favor Bass, while only 6.8% support Raman. The remaining 8% have yet to choose a candidate.
The latest numbers suggest Pratt’s voters are largely viewing Bass as the more moderate choice in the runoff.
Bass is strongest in South LA, where she leads Raman 55.7% to 33.9%.
She also holds a commanding advantage in the San Fernando Valley, leading 53.9% to 37.1%.
Raman has a narrow lead in Eastside and Northeast LA, 45.8% to 44.6% — an area that overlaps with her City Council district.
The candidates are deadlocked in Harbor/South Bay at 38.8% apiece, while that region has the race’s highest share of undecided voters at 22.4%.
Raman was recently stripped of her position on the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee on Tuesday after a 13-1 vote, with one Democrats accusing her of being ineffective.
“The months that I served on that committee under your leadership were the most unproductive time I’ve had on council. You ran it like a lecture hall at a university, not a place of government decision making,” Councilmember Imedla Padilla said.
“You were removed because of your inability to lead and get things done. The homeless crisis does not need a chair that is all talk and no action,” she continued.
The poll also suggests November’s turnout could look dramatically different from the June primary.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
560 voters were surveyed and 64 of them still remain undecided ahead of the November mayoral election.
