Tom Steyer<\/a> for governor \u201cby default,\u201d and would likely vote for the progressive City Council member Nithya Raman for mayor \u201cto give her a chance.\u201d<\/p>\nDaniel Gomez, 22, a maintenance worker who lives in the Elysian Valley neighborhood, was taking a more strategic approach. He said that he liked Ms. Raman, but felt that she could not win. He cast his vote for the incumbent mayor, Karen Bass, because he thought she had the best chance of beating Spencer Pratt, a Republican and former reality TV star.<\/p>\n
Sara Sadhwani, a political science professor at Pomona College who closely follows Los Angeles politics, said that the primaries for Los Angeles mayor and California governor could offer clues to what California voters, particularly its Democratic majority, want from their elected officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo California Democrats want to move further to the left? Move further to the center? Or do they simply want to maintain the status quo?\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t believe we know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patty Dryden has lived in Whitley Heights, a historic Los Angeles neighborhood tucked in the Hollywood Hills, for a quarter of a century. She said her council representative, Ms. Raman, would make a great college professor, but she was unconvinced about her ability to lead the city. Mr. Pratt, she added, has a talent for identifying problems, but has offered no solutions.<\/p>\n
This left Ms. Dryden, 75, to cast her ballot for Ms. Bass. It was her first time voting for the mayor; four years ago, Ms. Dryden had enthusiastically backed Ms. Bass\u2019s opponent, the billionaire developer Rick Caruso.<\/p>\n
As for governor, Ms. Dryden said she had been hopeful about Eric Swalwell, the former Democratic congressman who dropped out of the race in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations. Now, she said, she would likely vote for Xavier Becerra, a former Biden administration official.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my mind, he has zero charisma,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I feel like I\u2019m not crazy about Gavin Newsom, but he\u2019s got tons of charisma.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Simon, a 40-year-old who works in the film industry, said he was casting a ballot for Ms. Raman, but he did not believe that whoever became mayor would make much of a difference to Hollywood\u2019s continuing job losses.<\/p>\n
Neither Mr. Simon nor his husband felt great voting for Mr. Steyer for governor. But friends had been encouraging them to choose \u201cthe billionaire,\u201d Mr. Simon said, and Mr. Steyer had endorsements from progressives that they found compelling.<\/p>\n
Gerry Huffman, a 68-year-old Democrat who lives in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, said he was worried he threw away his vote for governor by picking San Jose\u2019s young mayor, Matt Mahan, who has trailed in the polls. But he went with his heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so tired of the far right and so tired of the far left,\u201d Mr. Huffman said. \u201cI am just looking for people who can get something accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reid Herrick, a 52-year-old Democrat who lives in and owns a business in downtown Los Angeles, took a different tack: He voted for two Republicans \u2014 Mr. Pratt for mayor and Chad Bianco, the conservative sheriff of Riverside County, for governor \u2014 to send a message of protest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like we\u2019ve been abandoned by government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mimi Dwyercontributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voters across Los Angeles were dispirited and a little resigned about their options, despite the tight races to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[12858,16854,7,54379,57092,989,131849,12137,4594,135420,48,52,51,47,4384,50,49,11538,76717,53205,86842,3290,80903,36877,32081,141371,37232,38107,38105,129245,4510],"class_list":["post-343858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bass","tag-bianco","tag-california","tag-caruso","tag-chad","tag-elections","tag-eric-m","tag-gavin","tag-governors","tag-karen-ruth","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-calif","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mahan","tag-matt","tag-mayors","tag-midterm-elections-2026","tag-newsom","tag-nithya","tag-pratt","tag-raman","tag-rick-j","tag-spencer","tag-steyer","tag-swalwell","tag-thomas-f","tag-united-states-politics-and-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}