Voters in Los Angeles remain largely undecided in the mayor’s race, with 40% still weighing their options ahead of the June 2 primary, according to a UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs poll released Friday.
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass led the field with 25% support, followed by reality television personality Spencer Pratt at 11% and City Councilmember Nithya Raman at 9%.
The poll showed housing advocate Rae Chen Huang and nonprofit executive Adam Miller each drew 3%, while 9% of respondents said they would support another candidate. Fourteen candidates are running for mayor.
If no candidate wins a majority in the primary, the top two finishers will advance to a November runoff.
“It is unusual for 40% of likely voters to be unsure of their choice just two months before an L.A. mayoralty election,” former City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, currently the director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, said in a statement.
“Although Mayor Bass faces the most challenging reelection of an incumbent mayor in decades, it is highly likely that this election will be decided in a November runoff. A lot can change between now and then, so it’s a wide-open race.”
The poll surveyed 813 likely voters between March 15 and March 29 and has a margin of error of 4%, poll officials said.
Demographic results showed:
— Bass with strong backing among African American voters at 53%, with 29% undecided;
— Among white, Latino, and Asian and Pacific Islander voters, undecided respondents outpaced support for any single candidate;
— By age, Bass received 31% support among voters 65 and older, compared to 36% undecided;
— Among voters ages 40 to 64, Bass had 23% support, while her top opponents collectively drew 30%; and
— Among voters ages 18 to 39, Bass had 21% support, compared to 29% combined support for her leading challengers.
Undecided voters were the largest share across all age groups.
Alex Stack, a campaign spokesman for Bass, told City News Service that UCLA’s poll aligns with others out there that the incumbent is in the lead. At the same time, UCLA’s poll showed that Bass has some work to do, he added.
“Mayor Karen Bass is leading because she is laser-focused on changing Los Angeles by building affordable housing, lowering costs for Angelenos, and making communities safer. This poll shows that’s what Angelenos want for mayor, not candidates focused on their own narrow political agendas,” Stack said in an email to CNS.
A recent poll produced by Loyola Marymount University had named Raman as the forerunner in the mayoral race followed by Bass, trailed behind by mayoral candidates Rae Huang, Adam Miller and Spencer Pratt.
The poll’s director, Fernando Guerra, had cautioned that it did not give the whole picture. Other polls have shown Bass in first place.
In response to UCLA’s poll, Raman in statement to CNS said it “reflects the frustrations that led me to run for mayor, that things are not going well here in L.A.”
“Although I’ve only been in the race for less than two months, voters are responding to our campaign to make L.A. more affordable, and to govern with urgency and accountability,” Raman said in her statement.
Representatives for Huang, Miller and Pratt’s campaigns did not immediately respond to a request for comment.