LA mayor's race: Raman widens lead over Bass

Mayoral race. It remains tight this morning. We'll find out in just a few hours whether Councilwoman Nithya Raman loses ground or expands her lead over Mayor Karen Bass. A look at the latest figures this morning with 72 percent reporting. Rahman at 52 percent with 405,000 votes and Karen Bass coming in at 48 percent. With 379,000 votes. All right, Mario Ramirez joins us now from the ballot processing center where they've been hard at work. He's got more on when the next ballot count update is going to come out, Mario. That's right. In the next few hours, Jen and Bob, good morning. And we're talking about a race that could reshape everything in the city from homelessness to policing to housing and immigration enforcement for the next four years. Now, both camps this morning saying they remain optimistic here as the numbers have been showing exactly who's in lead. We know earlier in the election on election night, Bass had a lead and now it goes to Rahman. So let's take a look here at the candidates, go over where they stand this morning and what we can expect. So the differences are stark. Bass wants to hire hundreds more LAPD officers. Rahman opposing additional police hiring funding favoring unarmed crisis response teams. And on homelessness, Bass wants to continue her Inside Safe encampment clearances, while Rahman wants greater oversight on homelessness spending, more housing options. And when it comes to immigration, Bass has stood by LAPD Chief Jim McDonald, while Rahman wants him out and tougher safeguards against sharing information with federal immigration authorities. Now remember, as the ballots are still being counted this morning, Bass had a 10-point lead on election night. Meanwhile, one of Rahman's biggest supporters, L.A. County Supervisor Lindsay Horvath, says she's impressed by Rahman's approach to tackling homelessness and her push for change at City Hall with the momentum that she's seeing. I'm excited about how she's prioritizing what she wants to do. I'm excited about just hearing her joyful energy and just she's already ready to dig in and get to work. I think the numbers are concerning for the mayor in terms of her ability to Thank have them fair in her favor. I think we've historically seen that as Later numbers come in that they run slightly more progressive and younger in the turnout. Now, Rahman entered this race facing an uphill battle. Bass had the backing of most of her colleagues on the city council, you. along with major labor unions and some of the biggest names in Democratic politics. But Rahman has managed to build that momentum. She now has the lead. And if we come back out here to the lobby, you can see all the ballots that are still at this processing center. And some news outlets, the Hollywood Reporter and The Hill, are projecting Nithya Rahman as the winner. But, you know, we're still holding off. Thousands of ballots still outstanding. And the remaining votes have to be evaluated before the race is officially called So as of this morning, county-wide, there are an estimated 842,000 ballots that still need to be counted, and not all of those ballots will be counted in the mayoral race, but at 9 o'clock, between 9 and 10, we're going to get another update, another ballot update on the tallies, and we'll learn exactly where things stand. So we'll keep you updated on that for now, live in the City of Industry. Back to you. All right. Yeah, that could be a pretty big update there, Mario. So we will watch for that very closely. Thank you. Thank you. Two other races. And Los Angeles do remain too close to call. They are races for L.A.'s third and ninth council districts. Businessman Tim Gaspar holds a slim lead over Barry Worth-Gervon in the third district. Gaspar and Worth-Gervon are seeking to represent the district that includes Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Canoga Park, Reseda, and Winnetka. Longtime council member Bob Blumenfield is termed out. Taking you now to Council District 9, this stretches from downtown L.A. to south L.A., Estuardo Mazariegos and Jose Ugarte are vying to succeed Curren Price, who is also termed out. The winner will be the first Latino to represent that district since 1962.