A new poll shows the Los Angeles mayoral race is deadlocked with less than a week until Election Day in California.
The UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies poll, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, released Wednesday, shows that incumbent Karen Bass and her challenger Nithya Raman both enjoy support from 40 percent of likely Los Angeles voters. Nineteen percent remain undecided, according to the poll.
The numbers represent a dramatic turnaround from the last Berkeley IGS/LA Times poll in the closely watched mayoral race, which gave Councilman Raman, a former Bass ally, a double-digit lead. In the previous poll published at the end of September, 33% of likely voters were undecided.
Raman, who placed second to Bass in the June primary, was favored by 39 percent of likely Los Angeles voters, compared to Bass at 28 percent in the September poll.
The drop in the number of undecided voters since then likely contributed to the comeback of Bass, who has never lost an election for public office, according to the poll director. That drop in undecided voters was significant among conservative voters who supported reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the June primary, director Mark DiCamillo told the Times.
In the September poll, 22% of Pratt voters indicated they planned to vote for Bass and 16% said they would vote for Raman. That left 63 percent of Pratt voters undecided.
In the latest poll, 41 percent of Pratt voters said they planned to support Bass over the candidate backed by the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Support for Raman among Pratt voters was 14 percent in the October poll. Forty-five percent of Pratt voters remained undecided, according to the poll.
The poll released Wednesday was conducted online Oct. 19 and 25 in English and Spanish among a sample of 2,197 likely voters in the city of Los Angeles. The margin of error is about 3 percentage points, according to the Times.
“If you want to end street homelessness, if you want the city to be more affordable, if you want the city to be safer, then vote for Karen Bass for mayor,” Bass said Wednesday morning.
Favorable ratings for the mayor, which saw a significant decline after the January 2025 wildfires, remained low with 65% of respondents viewing her unfavorably. This figure was 64% in the September poll. According to the latest poll, 32% have a positive opinion of the mayor, compared to 28% in the previous poll.
In a statement, Raman’s campaign highlighted the mayor’s favorable ratings.
“After a month of offensive advertising and millions from her allies, Karen Bass still cannot move forward,” the campaign says. “Today’s IGS/LA Times poll from UC Berkeley shows her tied with Nithya Raman and Bass’s disapproval rating rising to 65 percent.
“I repeat: the outgoing mayor is even more unpopular in this poll than last month. And Nithya retains the lead among Latino voters, with 43% support, compared to 40% for Bass.”
Bass finished with 34% of the vote in the June primary election, with Raman finishing second, good enough to join the November runoff, with 29%. Pratt finished third with 25.5%.
Bass was asked about the poll’s favorable ratings.
“It’s interesting because we’re in a time in our country where people are just fed up and dissatisfied and frustrated, and I understand that 100 percent,” Bass said. “In my four years I have made mistakes, but we have laid a very solid foundation to move into the future.”
The poll, the first since the two candidates met in an Oct. 13 debate hosted by NBC4 and Telemundo 52, also asked voters about their top priorities for the next Los Angeles mayor. Reducing homeless encampments was by far the most important priority (43%), along with ensuring public safety and building more affordable housing (both 29%), among others.
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