The Democratic Socialist Running for Mayor of Los Angeles
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker.
This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. An incumbent mayor of Los Angeles hasn't lost a bid for reelection in a quarter century. And so under normal circumstances, this election should be pretty smooth sailing for a Democrat like Karen Bass. But Bass's first term has been full of bad headlines, headlines in particular about her handling of the devastating wildfires of last year, and also about a homelessness crisis that seems to many Angelenos to be absolutely out of control. A so-called jungle primary in June saw a surprisingly potent challenge from a conservative, the reality TV star Spencer Pratt, and also from a former ally of Bass's, Nithya Raman. Raman now faces Bass in the runoff.
She serves on L.A. 's city council, and when she won her seat in 2020, she defeated an incumbent in what the L.A. Times called a political earthquake. She's aligned herself with the Democratic Socialists of America. But Rahman isn't exactly leaning into that affiliation.
What is at stake in the Los Angeles mayoral race and who are the main contenders?
In fact, in our conversation, you'll see how she negotiates it. Her candidacy is powered above all by a frustration with Democratic Party leadership. And that's something that she shares with a lot of candidates across the country.
We aren't just running against an incumbent. We are running against the entire political machine. But we have something that they don't. We have a vision of the city that we know is worth fighting for.
I spoke with Nithya Raman about how to succeed where she thinks that other mayors have come up short. Tell me about the dynamics of the race that you face today.
Yeah. What was interesting about this primary was that it had the highest turnout for a primary that we'd seen. A huge number of voters voted.
And a very close one.
Yeah. And it was close. I mean, I got within five points of a sitting incumbent mayor. And Spencer Pratt got a significant portion of the vote. He sure did. Yes, he did. He did. So people turned out to vote in a mayoral primary who may not have voted in mayoral primaries in the past.
OK, you got to explain for non-Angelinos the phenomenon of Spencer Pratt voting. a reality TV personality, doesn't even begin to explain it, but who got a hell of a lot of votes. How do you go about even thinking about appealing to his voters?
I think what Spencer Pratt was speaking to is a very real frustration with the way that things are going here in the city of Los Angeles. He is speaking to frustrations around persistent homelessness. He is speaking to frustrations about kind of the lack of services around homelessness. the response to the fires. And so I think the frustrations that he was speaking to were very, very powerful.
How did the June jungle primary reshape the runoff dynamics for Karen Bass and Nithya Raman?
And yes, I'm here because I'm frustrated too.
You feel that even though, despite the, let's just put it this way, vast difference between you and Spencer Pratt, that you can somehow get his voters? Because it was about disaffection.
I'm hoping that at least some of them, some of them will stay home. I know that. They will say, oh, it's left and lefter. We're not voting for anyone here. But I hope that I can get some of them. And I know when I used to, when I was running for city council, I got Trump ramen voters. And the reason I got those voters was because I was speaking to what I would do directly for residents. And in my second election, what I had delivered for residents was
Now, you endorsed Karen Bass before deciding to run and challenge her. What motivated your decision? When did you decide you'd be a more effective mayor than Karen Bass?
When a sitting mayor asks a sitting council member for their endorsement, you generally provide it, as many of my fellow council members have, because you depend on the mayor to work with them in order to be able to move things forward in your district. And I didn't think much of it at the time, but I had been getting more frustrated with the direction of Los Angeles. I had been very excited about this mayor when she first ran. and campaigned for her and endorsed her and, you know, held events at my home for her.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–1:16
2
What is at stake in the Los Angeles mayoral race and who are the main contenders?
1:16–3:20
3
How did the June jungle primary reshape the runoff dynamics for Karen Bass and Nithya Raman?
3:20–12:42
4
Why did voters turn out for unconventional candidates like Spencer Pratt and what frustrations did they express?
12:42–16:04