Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman closed in on reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, cutting his lead to about 3 percentage points, as both vie for second place in the mayoral primary, according to the latest results released Friday.
Raman has steadily carved into Pratt’s margin over three days of election updates. She now trails him by 20,672 votes in the race to compete against Mayor Karen Bass in the Nov. 3 runoff election.
Unless a mayoral candidate secures a majority of the vote, the top two face off in a second round.
Bass, who is running for a second four-year term, was in first place on election night and has held on to her perch since then. Friday’s update showed her with 35% of the vote, compared with 28% for Pratt and 25% for Raman.
Mail-in ballots with an election day postmark will continue to be accepted by county election officials through Tuesday. The county plans to release updated results every day through June 12.
After that, the updates will be more sporadic.
Of the nine incumbents at City Hall seeking reelection this year, Bass is the only one to be pushed into a second round. City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto failed to make the runoff, trailing Deputy Atty. Gen. Marissa Roy and Deputy Dist. Atty. John McKinney.
In an email sent Friday to supporters, Feldstein Soto said the voters had spoken. “Respecting the voice of the people is at the heart of our democracy,” she wrote.
City Controller Kenneth Mejia easily fended off a challenge from real estate executive Zach Sokoloff, whose campaign was bolstered by $7.5 million in outside spending by his mother.
Half a dozen council members also won reelection. Of the six, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez had the most competitive, facing four challengers. She declared victory Friday in an Instagram post, thanking the volunteers, supporters and neighbors who helped her campaign.
“Together, we earned another term for our community and our movement,” she wrote.
Hernandez currently has 54% of the vote, according to Friday’s update.
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