September 23, 2026 / 5:30 PM PDT / CBS LA
A new poll shows Councilwoman Nithya Raman leading Mayor Karen Bass by double digits in the Los Angeles mayoral race.
The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies-LA Times poll has 39% of likely voters backing Raman compared to Bass' 28%, but roughly 33% of the electorate remains undecided.
"We're excited. We're grateful," Raman said. "Give us a chance to earn your vote. I know that I want to work as hard as Angelenos deserve to deliver on the results that they need in their neighborhoods."
While Raman pointed to the poll as evidence of her momentum, Bass' campaign downplayed the numbers, arguing that it's just one poll.
"I do not view her as the frontrunner," Bass said. "I've seen a lot of polls, and one thing that we knew about all the polls that we've seen is that this is going to be a tight race."
The mayor touted her record on affordable housing on Wednesday, which is one of the top issues identified in the recent poll, as well as crime and infrastructure.
Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS poll, said the numbers point to a bigger challenge for Bass: voters' perception of her.
"One of the reasons Bass is trailing is that her image among voters is highly negative, much more negative than Raman," DiCamillo said. "Raman's voters are about evenly divided. About 40% favorable, about 40% unfavorable. But Bass, it's almost 2.5 to 1 negative."
DiCamillo suggested that Bass could appeal to the large number of undecided voters linked to the elimination of candidate Spencer Pratt.
"It's interesting though, when you look at the people, the Pratt voters who did in fact make a choice, Bass was slightly ahead by four points," he said
Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the LA Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said the poll appears to be an outlier among other recent surveys showing a much closer race. He believes many votes are still up for grabs.
"Nobody is in a position to declare victory or defeat based on this poll," Yaroslavsky said. "There's 41 days left to go. The mayor's challenge, as it is Raman's challenge, is to articulate a vision for the next four years. I don't think that's happened yet."
The UC Berkeley IGS poll said it sampled about 2,100 likely voters in the city over five days earlier in September. The poll has a margin of error of about three percentage points.