Adding to Bass\u2019 low poll numbers are high unfavorability ratings.<\/p>\n
The mayor had 63% unfavorable ratings, the poll found, with 28% favorable and 9% having no opinion. By comparison, 40% had a favorable view of Raman, according to the poll, while 39% said they had an unfavorable view of her and 21% had no opinion.<\/p>\n
The survey released Wednesday was conducted online with a sample of 2,150 likely city voters between Sept. 15 and Sept. 20. It has a margin of error of about 3 percentage points. <\/p>\n
The poll represented the strongest showing yet for Raman, who trailed Bass in almost every poll during the primary campaign and who came in second to Bass<\/a> in the primary election, with 29% of the vote compared with Bass\u2019 34%.<\/p>\n Mayoral candidate and Councilmember Nithya Raman, center, enjoys a light moment with Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action members at La Cita Bar in downtown Los Angeles.<\/p>\n (Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Even so, DiCamillo said the large number of undecided voters means the race is far from over. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s extraordinarily unusual to see this many undecided voters at this point in the race,\u201d he said. Mail-in ballots will be sent out beginning Oct. 1, local elections officials say. <\/p>\n The large number of undecided voters can be linked to the elimination of mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt in the June 2 primary, according to DiCamillo. The former reality TV star received 26% of the vote in the primary, and most of the voters who cast ballots for him \u2014 63% \u2014 say they haven\u2019t decided <\/a>whom to vote for in the runoff, the poll found. <\/p>\n Among those Pratt voters <\/a>who have decided, 22% favored Bass compared with 16% for Raman.<\/p>\n One of the most significant findings in the poll was a massive \u201cgenerational divide\u201d among L.A. voters, DiCamillo said.<\/p>\n Raman, 45, dominated the 72-year-old Bass among younger voters, with 66% of likely voters ages 18 to 29 choosing the council member while just 4% chose Bass, according to the poll. <\/p>\n Raman also had 64% of likely voters ages 30 to 39 compared with Bass\u2019 12%, and the council member had 50% of likely voters ages 40 to 49 compared with Bass\u2019 18%. Raman also was leading among voters 50 to 64 years old by a slim margin of 35% to 33%. <\/p>\n Bass, meanwhile, led among the oldest set of voters \u2014 those 65 and up \u2014 but not by the same margins. Bass had 41% of likely voters in that group compared with Raman\u2019s 21%.<\/p>\n The mayor has had negative favorability ratings <\/a>since the 2025 Palisades fire.<\/p>\n According to the poll, 56% of likely voters thought Bass did a poor or very poor job responding to the disaster, which killed 12 people and destroyed more than 4,000 homes, including Pratt\u2019s.<\/p>\n Fourteen percent of the likely voters thought Bass had done either an excellent or a good job and 17% thought she had done a fair job.<\/p>\n Mayor Karen Bass campaigns at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park on Sunday.<\/p>\n (Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The most important issues to likely voters were fixing city infrastructure, moving homeless people indoors, crime and public safety, and building more affordable housing, the poll found.<\/p>\n The poll shows Raman leading in nearly every geographic area of the city. Bass was leading in South Los Angeles and the Harbor region, 37% to 34%, but central Los Angeles as well as northeast and the east side of Los Angeles broke strongly for Raman.<\/p>\n The San Fernando Valley went 34% to Raman and 26% to Bass with 40% still undecided. The Westside favored Raman by a single percentage point, at 35% to 34%.<\/p>\n Raman has led in other polls recently, though none by as wide a margin as in the Berkeley IGS\/L.A. Times poll. Shortly before the primary, a separate Berkeley IGS\/L.A. Times poll showed Raman leading Bass in a potential head-to-head matchup by just four percentage points, with 32% support compared with the mayor\u2019s 28%.<\/p>\n But the gap between the two has widened since then, the latest poll found, as Bass weathered a difficult news cycle<\/a>, including rising homelessness numbers<\/a> citywide as well as the fallout from the Lineage warehouse fire in Boyle Heights<\/a> that burned for nearly a week, leaving rotting food and a rancid stench in the neighborhood for more than a month. <\/p>\n Raman, meanwhile, picked up largely positive headlines this summer. She gained key endorsements from the carpenters\u2019 union<\/a> and Unite Here Local 11, the union representing hospitality workers at hotels and the airport, as well as an endorsement from the Democratic Socialists of America<\/a>. Street homelessness also dropped<\/a> in her district, which she said was due to her office\u2019s strong outreach, though the Bass campaign credited the mayor\u2019s Inside Safe program for the reduction in Raman\u2019s district. <\/p>\n On the negative side, Raman was booted from her position<\/a> in the council as chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee, a move she said was politically motivated.<\/p>\n In an internal Raman campaign poll from early September<\/a>, the council member was ahead, 44% to 39%, with 17% undecided. She was also leading, 38% to 32%, in a poll commissioned by the group Streets for All<\/a>, which is backing Raman.<\/p>\n![\"Nithya](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790161210_285_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790161210_792_.jpeg\")
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