LA mayoral race still close between Bass, Raman

Our local elections here as we look at the race for Los Angeles mayor still too early to call still too close to call. Look at the numbers right there. Mayor Karen Bass ahead 50% to 49% for Nithya Raman there, but only 50% of the precincts reporting. So we are still watching this one and maybe watching it for days to come. Yeah, there's only about 8000 votes separating the two at this point. Let's check in with our Matthew Seedorf, he's at the Raman camp. This is in Griffith Park, Matthew, has she shown up? Yeah, not yet. We are seeing some surrogates showing up. There's about 2,000 people and I'm told that she could be speaking before 11 o'clock and that's could be. So it's still up in the air. They're preparing for a long night and possibly a long couple of days as these votes go in. But I think they're feeling very optimistic tonight because this is exactly what they were hoping for. They felt like. But they were within five percentage points or so at the end of tonight. They were going to call that a win, and they were going to take the lead with those mail-in ballots. So the fact that it's essentially tied at this point, I think they're thinking is a good sign. But joining us live tonight is City Controller Kenneth Mejia and a Raman supporter. Yes. How are you feeling tonight? I'm feeling super excited, very optimistic. As I was telling you earlier, I'm a numbers person, and I feel good. So you're a numbers person, and each of these ballots that they keep pushing in, the gap gets a little bit shorter every time. Correct, and it's actually very close, and usually when you have late voters, they usually tend to skew younger voters, and they vote late, like myself. I just voted this week, and it's favorable towards people like Nithya and myself, so we feel good. Now, you were a Mayor Bass supporter, you voted for her in the previous election. Yeah. What happened? Yeah, I supported her in 2022, I went to her launch, I have a photo with her. And because I believed in her, I really wanted her to be Fight for L.A. to change it materially in the four years that she had it. But it's just been very difficult, very difficult. And it's when you get into the city hall, it's very entrenched with special interests. And it's difficult to fight against that. And, you know, myself, I've had a tough time just trying to provide transparency and accountability on your tax dollars. And unfortunately, it just didn't work out. What is it about Nithya Raman that draws you to her, and respond to some concerns that some people have, and the fact that a lot of the council members are not going for her, they're going for Mayor Bass? Yeah, I mean, I'm the only one in City Hall that's supporting Nithya Raman. Everyone else is supporting the mayor, and I think for her, she is running on a vision for LA that I think everyone in City Council could agree on. Better sidewalks, filled potholes, animal shelters funded. Things that, like, everyone in this city want to see. Like a city that works, which is her motto. And, you know, I don't see her having any trouble leading this city. I think every city council member is, you know, it would be career-ending for them to go against, you know... The mayor, say Nithya, trying to pass something that would benefit everybody, it just doesn't make sense. Now, before we came on camera, it's unusual, but I saw the city controller here, you were dancing. Oh, yeah. How would you describe the mood here tonight for people at home and just the vibes overall for Nithya Raman and where this race is at? Hey, the vibes are like everyone is feeling good, happy. It's been so many months of just pouring in like blood, sweat and tears and people are feeling very vindicated and seeing their hard work pay off and so Los Angeles, I want to thank you all for seeing through that, through that vision and you know, so the vibes are happy. The vibes are dope. And you feel like the supporters here are optimistic. Super optimistic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh oh. Here we go. All right. Thank you so much for your time. All right. Appreciate it. The campaign was telling us that they had more than 10,000 volunteers knock on over 130,000 doors across the city of LA, and that's just since June. So they feel like they put in the work and they're feeling more and more optimistic as the night is going forward that Raman could win. I'll go ahead and send it back to you. Are they seeing themselves on television or do they have eyes on Raman right now? I'm thinking they're seeing themselves on TV, and right now, if you can take a look and take a listen, they're chanting Nithya, and they're feeling very optimistic looking ahead to tonight and those ballot drops that are coming in. Each one puts the gap a little bit closer in their direction, and again, it's still way too close to call, about 50-50. Talking with the city controller there, Kenneth Mejia, reminded me that he is a younger member of the political arena. And he also tapped really into social media, which Nithya Raman did as well. We're watching some commotion there, some movement there. Not sure if it's her family members or more staffers. Do you have better eyes on that, Matthew? Yeah, it looks like people are just happy to see themselves on TV and they're feeling the energy. We've been seeing people singing and dancing here all night long and really they are feeling very optimistic about what they've seen with all these numbers that are coming in. When you talk about the city controller, he was talking to me about being a millennial and he also was saying that a lot of the voters for Nithya Raman are progressive and younger voters and he feels like those are the late mail-in ballots that we're going to see and that's why he's feeling... He's feeling so confident tonight. All right, Matthew Sudor live for us there with the Raman camp. Thank you so much.