We\u2019ve been covering the mayor\u2019s race for more than a year now, and we\u2019ve finally reached the final televised debate. Here are a few things we\u2019ll be watching for in tonight\u2019s head-to-head between Mayor Karen Bass and her challenger, Councilmember Nithya Raman.<\/p>\n
Police Chief Politics: Bass criticized Raman last week for appearing on an Instagram video where she used the phrase \u201conly you can stop fascist liars\u201d before calling for the removal of Police Chief Jim McDonnell.<\/p>\n
Raman countered that she used the words \u201cfascist liars\u201d to refer to President Trump, not McDonnell or the Los Angeles Police Department. She said an Instagram influencer had edited the video in a way that distorted her words.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll be looking to see how hard Bass will go after Raman on the issue, and whether Raman will clarify her timetable for replacing McDonnell.<\/p>\n
Stressed or Serene?: The last time these two candidates took the stage for an NBC4\/Telemundo52 debate, critics agreed that Raman struggled to find her footing. She stumbled over some of her answers, dealing with Bass\u2019 calm experience on one side and Spencer Pratt\u2019s bombastic, outsider energy on the other.<\/p>\n
With Raman now leading in several polls, keep an eye out for whether she is more comfortable on the debate stage than in the past. Meanwhile, will Bass ramp up the attacks even further than she did in the Sherman Oaks debate in August?<\/p>\n
Fire and Fury: The January 2025 wildfires haven\u2019t played a large part in any of the one-on-one debates between Bass and Raman, despite being one of the major reasons that Bass\u2019 favorability ratings tumbled last year.<\/p>\n
At the last NBC4\/Telemundo52 debate, which came before the June 2 primary, Bass was asked to defend her record over the wildfires, but it was Pratt (not Raman) who took the opportunity to critique the mayor over the fires.<\/p>\n
Tuesday could be Raman\u2019s last chance to remind voters of one of Bass\u2019 biggest liabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019ve been covering the mayor\u2019s race for more than a year now, and we\u2019ve finally reached the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3047,20381,4674,1043,192570,4132,24819,48,52,51,15608,47,50,49,63,123705,80054,7171,70556,192571,430],"class_list":["post-495346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-com","tag-coverage","tag-election-day","tag-event","tag-high-stakes-debate","tag-karen-bass","tag-l-a-times","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-laist","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-nbcla","tag-nithya-raman","tag-nov","tag-telemundo","tag-telemundo52-com","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495346","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=495346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}