ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:

We’re five days after the election. Results are still coming in in two big primary races for governor and for mayor of Los Angeles. In the race for governor, Democrat Xavier Becerra, who was President Biden’s health secretary, last night clinched one of two spots to run in the general election in November. The fight for second place is playing out between a Republican former Fox News host and another Democrat, a climate activist and billionaire.

In the race for LA mayor, the incumbent, Democrat Karen Bass, has also advanced, but who she will be up against is also an open question. We’re joined now by NPR – excuse me – by reporter Frank Stoltze from NPR member station LAist. Frank, welcome.

FRANK STOLTZE: Hi, Adrian.

FLORIDO: Hi. Let’s start with this latest news about the race for governor. By advancing to the runoff in November, Xavier Becerra is now well positioned to become the first Latino elected to lead the state if the guy in second, the Republican, also advances. But it is still a nail biter, isn’t it?

STOLTZE: It is, indeed. The Republican in second place is former Fox News host Steve Hilton. Billionaire Tom Steyer, a progressive Democrat, is in third place. The progressive vote is coming in later in California, so there’s still a chance Steyer could secure that second spot. Either way, it’s looking good for Democrats in the governor’s race. In other words, it’s either a Democrat versus a Democrat or a Democrat versus a Republican in a heavily Democratic state.

FLORIDO: Let’s turn to Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass. She came out on top in the primary, but it wasn’t a blowout. She has gotten only about a third of the vote. How did Mayor Bass become so vulnerable?

STOLTZE: Yeah. Voters in LA are discontent, and Bass is getting the blame. Even though homelessness has dropped by 18% under Bass, tent encampments abound. LA has more than 40,000 unhoused people the most in the nation. Housing also remains extremely expensive here. Streetlights and potholes aren’t getting fixed because of tight budgets, and people were generally unsatisfied with the mayor’s response to the giant Palisades Fire last year. She was gone on a diplomatic trip to Ghana when it started. Some say she should have stayed in the city amid warnings of severe fire danger.

And one more thing, Adrian. This is a nonpartisan race, but Bass is a Democrat, and political strategists are saying that people are increasingly frustrated with the Democratic coalitions that have run many big cities for the past 50 years.

FLORIDO: Well, there’s a Republican – a reality TV star, Spencer Pratt – trying to clinch a spot in the runoff against Bass. It’s a close race between him and a Democratic socialist, Nithya Raman, a councilwoman. How has Pratt’s presence in the race, though, changed the conversation in this election?

STOLTZE: Well, he’s amplified the voter frustration, especially as it relates to the fire. His own house burned down in the Palisades fire, so he was able to speak from a very personal point of view about the city’s lack of preparedness. But he also introduced misinformation. The Republican reality TV personality essentially has said, all homeless people are drug addicts, and he offered simple solutions, like, all we need to do is to force drug addicts into rehabilitation without addressing affordable housing, which experts say is the main driver of homelessness. To some extent, Pratt also drowned out city councilmember Nithya Raman – Bass’ other main rival, as you said – who, for her part, offered a detailed plan to build more affordable housing.

FLORIDO: And Spencer Pratt’s campaign also had a pretty notable social media presence, didn’t it?

STOLTZE: Yeah, it did. One of the most viewed AI videos featured Pratt as Batman and Bass as The Joker in a dystopian Los Angeles. Bass is presiding over a dinner of French royalty in the video, with common people pleading to remove homeless people from in front of schools and parks. At the end of the video, the people rise up and throw tomatoes at Bass, along with Governor Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris – again, kind of a critique of the Democratic establishment, as much as of Bass.

FLORIDO: Very briefly, Frank, what happens next?

STOLTZE: What happens next is that it’s up to whether or not Spencer Pratt or Nithya Raman will come in second and face Bass in the November runoff.

FLORIDO: I’ve been speaking with the LAist’s Frank Stoltze. Thank you, Frank, so much.

STOLTZE: Thank you.

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