Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her challenger Nithya Raman darted across the city over the weekend, foraging for votes as the clock ticks down before Tuesday’s election.
The former allies, and now competitors, took veiled shots at each other as they each hit multiple campaign stops Sunday morning, with both attending church services and other events.
Bass’ first stop Sunday morning was at South L.A. Cafe, where she spoke with alumnae of the Divine Nine, a group of historically Black fraternities and sororities. She then did a hit on the KBLA-AM (1580) radio station.
“You know who I am. I am the same person as I have been,” Bass said, citing her roots in South L.A., where she was a community organizer as a young adult. “No matter what position I have held, this community — my community — has always been front and center of the work that I have done.”
Woodrow Bailey, a 63-year-old University of Southern California grad who was a member of Phi Beta Sigma, said he knew Bass when she was working at her nonprofit Community Coalition in the 1990s, just down the street from where South L.A. Cafe now stands. His long relationship with Bass made him confident in her leadership.
“I understand what she’s trying to accomplish here,” Bailey said.
After the event Bass left to attend religious services at four churches and one Sikh temple. She also planned to cast her ballot Sunday.
Raman started the day in Boyle Heights at Dolores Mission Catholic Church. The council member has spent significant time in Boyle Heights following the Lineage fire, which burned down a massive cold food storage facility, sending noxious smoke into the heavily Latino neighborhood.
Raman attended Mass at 9 a.m., then chatted with parishioners in English and Spanish and grabbed food from a taco stand set up in the church’s courtyard. Children splashed in the fountain and played with a soccer ball as the mayoral hopeful introduced herself to voters.
“My calendar is so packed. I’m actually scared to look at it,” Raman told reporters outside the church, before noting she was going to a canvass in Northridge and at a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) event in Canoga Park. The council member added that she was taking a brief pause in the middle of the day to go to an 11th birthday bowling party for her twins.
“L.A. is frustrated and I will bring change,” Raman said. “I brought that urgency to services in my district. I’ve reduced homelessness. I’ve addressed the residents’ issues that they’ve brought to me, and I want to bring that same responsiveness and urgency to every block of Los Angeles.”
The campaigns last week reported their final fundraising numbers before election day. Bass has now raised a total of just over $5.4 million, compared with $2.7 million for Raman.
In the final period, between Oct. 18 and 28, Bass reported raising $139,737.28 while Raman took in $122,498.83.
Bass and Raman are locked in a dead heat, with the final poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, cosponsored by The Times, finding that 40% of likely L.A. voters said they supported Raman, while 40% supported Bass. But 19% were still undecided.
Times data and graphics journalist Sandhya Kambhampati contributed to this report.
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