Bass and Raman face off in heated debate over homelessness, public safety and business policies

Despite being knocked out in the primary, former reality TV star Spencer Pratt tuned in — and took shots — at both remaining mayoral candidates during the debate.

It’s unclear which camp Pratt voters may land in come November. Pratt has been more vocal — and vicious — on social media since his campaign ended, and continued that with commentary on X Wednesday.

“If Karen Basura actually governed the way she’s talking right now, we wouldn’t be living in such a crap hole,” one post read. Another live post came during Nithya Raman’s closing remarks: “OMG Nithya is reading a script. Literally.”

Most other trending posts on Twitter about the debate were lamenting that the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. Zoom livestream reached capacity, leaving some viewers to listen to the debate over public radio.

“The Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association didn’t spring for a professional Zoom account, so sorry, you can’t watch the Mayoral debate if you’re just logging in now,” one user wrote on X.

When Karen Bass took office four years ago, she said Los Angeles was coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and grappling with decades of failed policies on housing and public safety.

“We need to have a city that is safe, that is affordable, and we have an abundance of opportunities in this city,” she said, adding that Angelenos deserve a mayor who is honest.

Bass said that, during her tenure, she has helped hundreds of people get off the street and fast-tracked 42,000 units of housing.

Her opponent, she said, “does not have the support of not one of her colleagues.”

“How is she going to govern the city when you have to govern with the city council?” Bass asked.

In a statement closing the debate, Nithya Raman said she’s running for mayor because she loves Los Angeles, but the city feels “rudderless” with Karen Bass at its helm.

“My 10-year-old twins only get one chance to grow up here. They can’t wait four years for change. Angelenos, we should raise our expectations,” she said.

She credited Bass’ long career of public service, but said the election has to be focused on results.

“Los Angeles can be affordable, functional, safe, joyful, ambitious. And if you’re ready for change, I want to invite you all to join us.”

Nithya Raman criticized LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell over the department’s response to federal immigration raids, but declined to say whether she would fire him if she wins the mayor’s seat.

“Firing a police officer is hard to do for a mayor,” she said, adding that she doesn’t believe “his response to the ICE raids on our streets have met the moment.”

Karen Bass, however, noted “it is not hard to fire the police chief if you want to.”

McDonnell has drawn criticism from some for following the departmental status quo of not getting involved in civil immigration enforcement amid the immigration raids and protests that loomed over the city in 2025.

The councilmember said she feels that the city needs police leadership that respects and honors the immigrant community.

“LAPD on our streets was often seen to be protecting ICE officers who were doing terrible things to our residents,” Raman said.

Karen Bass claimed she has had to step in to take care of constituents that Nithya Raman failed to respond to. Raman defended her team before striking Bass’ unpopularity as an incumbent.

Of Raman, Bass said, “They were very concerned when you decided to run for mayor, because their concern was if you treated them this way and they were your voters, then how on earth were you going to manage the city?”

Raman said that the mayor’s job is the hardest in the city, but that she has heard from constituents all over the city who feel let down by Bass’ office.

“Two thirds of voters in this primary chose against an incumbent mayor — that is very rare,” Raman said. “In one of the highest-turnout primaries that we’ve seen in L.A., people are really dissatisfied.”

“I have an incredibly responsive team,” she added. “We show up to meetings. We work really hard. We resolve complaints.”

Nithya Raman claimed poor fiscal decisions in L.A. have resulted in tens of thousands of broken streetlights, unattended potholes and fewer streets being repaved.

Every Angeleno she speaks to, “no matter what part of the city they live in, have seen a sharp drop in services that we’ve had under this mayor’s leadership,” she said, citing “disastrous fiscal mismanagement.”

Karen Bass rebutted by saying that the mayor proposes the budget to the City Council, and Raman has been active in that process.

“You have lots of plans and lots of ideas, but have done very little,” Bass said.

In the first half hour of the debate, Nithya Raman and Karen Bass sparred over some of Los Angeles’ most expensive commitments and responsibilities: homelessness, court settlements, the L.A. Police Department and a $2.6-billion Convention Center expansion.

“We absolutely have a spending problem at the city, and one of the big reasons that I ran was because I think so much of the spending in our city is politically motivated,” Raman said, alleging that downtown business interests are funding the mayor’s reelection campaign and support expensive projects like the Convention Center expansion.

Bass pushed back, arguing that “the nation’s second-largest city needs a convention center to attract conventions.” She said that 15 new conventions have signed up for future events, despite the project not yet being finished.

Both candidates outlined how they would make Los Angeles a business-friendly city — specifically as it relates to filming and housing.

Mayor Karen Bass said she had appointed a local film czar “because filming in L.A. is obviously our critical business,” and said her administration had moved to fast-track 42,000 units of housing and pursue adaptive reuse to change empty office space into housing.

Councilmember Nithya Raman poked back, though, saying saying the city had lost 40,000 film jobs under Bass’ leadership.

“We need a tax credit and advocacy in Sacramento for the kind of tax credit that is the same that Georgia has, that’s the same that New Jersey has, that’s taking jobs away from here,” Raman said. “This is the kind of tax credit that Angelinos deserve, and one that I would be the loudest and strongest advocate for.”

Bass retorted, “You’ve been a City Hall twice as long as I have. I realize you want to pitch yourself as somebody from the outside, but where were you?”

Nithya Raman came into tonight’s debate with a big problem: The last two times she faced off against Karen Bass, the mayor beat her. Badly.

Before the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. in May, the councilmember hemmed and hawed and stumbled around as Bass answered questions with ease. During a debate with Bass and then-candidate Spencer Pratt at the Skirball Cultural Center later that same week, Raman offered constant word salads when her opponents and even the moderators weren’t leaving her flustered.

Tonight, Raman came ready to fight.

Her voice was strong and steady in the first part of the debate as she kept her comments short and offered concrete answers to questions offered by moderator and Fox 11 reporter Phil Shuman. She kept unprovoked critiques against Bass to a minimum and didn’t take the mayor’s constant baiting, even though Bass was setting up lures like someone fishing off the Newport Beach Pier.

The best example of the new Raman came when Bass pointed out that Raman had missed the second-most council meetings of all councilmembers during her time in office. When Raman said that she had missed meetings because of her responsibility to other governmental boards, Bass responded that other councilmembers had done the same yet “they find their way to work,” drawing ooohs from the audience.

Raman cracked that if she was such a bad councilmember, “Why did you appoint me to all these external boards?

“Well, we need to work at that,” Bass said, before asking Raman if she was “getting ready to resign.”

“Excuse me?” Raman responded, and left it at that as Shuman moved on.

Karen Bass hammered Nithya Raman for her views on police hiring, noting that Raman declared “defund the police” in a 2020 social media post, but now says the number of police officers should remain the same.

“She’s irresponsible in what she talks about,” Bass said, “because she talks out of both sides of her mouth.”

Raman for her part criticized Bass for backing a big raise for LAPD officers, saying it contributed to a $1 billion deficit and deprived the city of money to fix potholes and provide other services.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was riding relatively high two months ago, weathering pitched challenges from Spencer Pratt on the right and Nithya Raman on the left to emerge as the top vote-getter in the city’s June 2 mayoral primary.

“Tomorrow begins the second half of this journey,” an ebullient Bass told supporters at the Line Hotel in Koreatown on election night.

The debate is a high-interest affair. Access to the Zoom stream was blocked due to capacity constraints, with organizers saying more than 700 people were tuned in to watch Mayor Karen Bass face off with City Councilmember Nithya Raman.

Early debate topics will include homelessness, public safety, and the economy.

Raman made a surprise late entry into the mayor’s race. She and Bass were generally viewed as allies up until then.

Bass had campaigned for Raman in 2024, when the councilmember was facing a tough reelection fight. Raman, in turn, was a Bass supporter when she faced real estate developer Rick Caruso.

The number of people living on the street, both in the city of Los Angeles and across much of Los Angeles County, is up compared to the previous year, dealing a fresh blow to Mayor Karen Bass as she runs for reelection.

L.A.’s unsheltered homeless population — those living outdoors or in their vehicles — went up by 7.9% after two consecutive years of decreases, according to two people familiar with the numbers presented by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority in closed-door briefings.

California voters are more inclined to back progressives running for office than mainstream Democrats, a new poll found, though a marked generational divide separates those who favor each camp.

Registered Democratic voters over 65 were overwhelmingly more inclined to support a candidate identified as a mainstream Democrat, whereas more voters under 40 favored those more aligned with the party’s left wing, including democratic socialists.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman is expected to lose her leadership role on the L.A. City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, which she has chaired since 2023, according to people familiar with the situation.

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson is planning to announce this week that the committee will be split into a housing committee and a homelessness committee — neither of which will be led by Raman, the people said.

The first mayor’s debate of the general election is likely to focus on some key issues facing the city:

• Homelessness: a new report shows that homelessness in the city rose for the first time in three years. Mayor Karen Bass has pointed to previous reductions in the homeless count as a key reason she deserves reelection. What are the numbers? Well, it’s complicated. Challenger Nithya Raman might also come under some tough questioning over her leadership of the L.A. City Council’s homelessness committee — and her stance on the city’s anti-camping law.

• Boyle Heights fire: A massive fire that burned for days at an Eastside warehouse has become a summer political drama involving health concerns over rotting meat and poor air quality. Now, questions linger over whether the warehouse should be rebuilt.
  
• Wildfire recovery: Bass struggled in the months after the 2025 Palisades fire amid concerns about the city’s preparedness. Rebuilding is going on, and the Palisades is beginning to come back to life. But is it enough?
  
• State of the city: Polls show Angelenos are not happy with the state of the city. By most measures, the region successfully hosted the World Cup, a good sign for the 2028 Olympics. But the upcoming Games also pose a financial risk to city taxpayers. The Wilshire subway extension opened, but the Automated People Mover at LAX keeps getting delayed.

Karen Bass’ campaign and its supporters tried out a new line of attack against Nithya Raman Wednesday, saying she missed nearly 3,000 L.A. City Council votes from when she took office in late 2020 through this summer, according to a tally kept in city files.

Raman’s team cited her role as the city’s representative on the South Coast Air Quality Management District as the reason for most of her absences.

Bass’ camp said Raman missed about 14% of all votes.

According to a survey by The Times, Raman missed the second-most meetings of all councilmembers between the start of 2025 and summer of 2026. The only councilmember who missed more was Councilmember Curren Price, who was ill for much of that time.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman plans to hire the controversial progressive consulting group Fight Agency to produce television advertisements for her mayoral campaign, a spokesperson said Wednesday, drawing a quick condemnation from the rival campaign of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.

Fight Agency is best known for its work on campaigns for New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and for Graham Platner, the former Democratic primary candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Maine who withdrew after a woman claimed he sexually assaulted her. Platner denied the allegation.

Tonight’s debate in some ways mark the beginning of the Los Angeles mayor’s race.

While both candidates have been campaigning, this will be the first time since the primary they have been on-stage to debate issues.

So what is the state of the race?

• There has been no public, credible polling in the head-to-head between Bass and Raman. Bass out-polled Raman in the primary. But polls suggested Raman would pose a significant challenge to the incumbent if she made it into the runoff.
  
• Bass out-raised Raman by more than $300,000 in the first fundraising period of the general election. The mayor took in more than $510,000 in June, which her campaign said was the most they had raised in a single month throughout her campaign for reelection. Raman raised just over $170,000 in the same reporting period, which covers contributions through June 30.
  
• The primary debates had multiple candidates, so it could feel like a free-for-all at times. When Spencer Pratt was on stage, he got a lot of attention and focused much of his attention on attacking Bass and Raman. Pratt came in third place. Tonight’s debate will give us a sense of how they interact without him there.

One person who won’t be on the debate stage is Spencer Pratt, who came in third in the June 2 primary election.

But Pratt still has plenty of thoughts!

“Tonight we have to endure a “debate” between 2 clowns who are currently in charge of Los Angeles, but both trying to convince you they have no power, whatsoever, so they can dodge responsibility for the most objectively screwed city in the country,” Pratt wrote on his Substack. “One clown has been pretending that she simply needs more time to “finish the job” (whatever that means), and the other is pretending that she’s had zero role in government, whatsoever.”

The breakout candidate came out of nowhere to dominate the public’s attention earlier this year. He had viral moments during a televised debate with Bass and Raman. Even more grabbing were the online videos that portrayed him as a superhero saving L.A. from Bass and other high-profile Democrats.

Pratt, who received almost 26% of the vote, has not endorsed in the race.

Recently, he said he met with President Trump about federal tax credits for Hollywood.

Pratt was seen as doing well during his debates with Bass and Raman. And on his Substack, he makes clear he feels he won those debates handily.

Will he watch the debate? And where will his supporters go?

In June, we asked some of them that question.

It’s expected to be a standing room-only crowd this evening at the Sherman Oaks East Valley Adult Center, as Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman face off in their first debate since the June primary.

Both mayoral candidates come in facing the gale force of an angry electorate in a year when American voters have decided they’re tired of the powers that be, whether the incumbents are moderate Democrats or MAGA Republicans.

But there are other political winds that both Bass and Raman must handle successfully — and fast — to win in November and which they must begin to tame for real at tonight’s faceoff.

Before the debate, supporters of Karen Bass and Nithya Rama engage in a spirited but civil shouting match on Aug. 19, 2026 in Sherman Oaks. The Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association hosts a debate for the upcoming mayoral election between incumbent Karen Bass and the challenger councilwoman Nithya Raman.

(David Butow / For the Times)

Literal and metaphorical winds have defined Bass’ first term, from the gusts that fueled the Palisades fire to the ICE and Border Patrol tyrannical tornados that leveled swaths of the Southland to the breezes that have swept through the ruins of the Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights and enveloped the Eastside and beyond with a gag-inducing stench every day since mid-June. Then there was the political whoopie cushion that the Bass campaign farted out last week when her social media account celebrated a poll that said she was ahead of Raman by 17 points only to have to delete the post when my Times colleague Noah Goldberg reported the survey was as fake as Spencer Pratt’s vow to leave Los Angeles if he didn’t become L.A.’s next mayor.

The Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association hosts a debate for the upcoming mayoral election between incumbent Karen Bass and the challenger councilwoman Nithya Raman on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026 in Sherman Oaks.

(David Butow / For the Times)

Raman, meanwhile, must decide how hard will she hitch her sails to the democratic socialist currents that have upended the Democratic Party establishment nationwide. The two-term councilmember was a pioneer in that movement, scoring an upset victory in 2020 and ushering in an era where she and three other members of the Democratic Socialist of America’s L.A. chapter sit on the city council. But those colleagues — Eunisses Hernandez, Hugo Soto-Martínez and Ysabel Jurado —have all publicly endorsed Bass, something Raman had also done until she decided to challenge the mayor. And while her supporters are enthusiastic and committed, Raman has to win over Pratt supporters and Latino voters who think democratic socialism is a scary commie cyclone that cannot further establish itself in L.A.

Both candidates keep trying and failing to find a calming zephyr that will guide their campaigns to victory. Will Bass or Raman find their winning jet streams tonight — or will they both just blow a lot of hot air?

This will be the first debate between Raman and Bass since they made it to L.A.’s mayoral runoff in June.

The primary election ended with Bass winning 34% of the vote, Raman at 29% and Spencer Pratt at 26%.

Bass and Raman, both Democrats, were once allies at City Hall until Raman decided to challenge the incumbent mayor.

A wild card is where the the Pratt voters will go in November.

Pratt, a onetime reality TV star who lost his home in the Palisades fire, slammed both Bass and Raman.

Raman, generally speaking, is running to the left of Bass on such issues as policing and homelessness.

How did your neighborhood vote in the primary election? Check out out analysis and map.

The debate is being hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. and begins Wednesday at 7 p.m.

More information can be found about the debate and how to stream it on zoom at the group’s website.

Audio of the debate between Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman also will be streamed on LAist.com.