Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is currently leading her race for re-election despite having a disapproval rating of more than 50 percent among likely voters.
A poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times found that Bass leads the race with 25 percent support from likely voters, followed by Councilman Nithya Raman with 17 percent and reality TV star Spencer Pratt (the hills) to 14 percent. About a quarter of voters remain undecided. The poll also found that 56 percent of likely voters had an unfavorable opinion of the mayor, while only 31 percent viewed her favorably.
Dan Schnur, a politics professor at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine, said the poll is “almost catastrophic” for Bass despite his lead.
“That she’s having so much trouble against this field, against such an unfamiliar field of opponents, bodes very, very bad for her,” Schnur said. “The only saving grace for her right now is that the top tier of potential candidates who were considering running against her decided to sit out this race.”
The survey comes after several sources confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that Mayor Karen Bass ordered the after-action report to be watered down to provide a clearer picture than what happened after the devastating Palisades Fire in early 2025.
The first draft of the August report, overseen by then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva after Mayor Karen Bass fired Kristin Crowley, also had side notes with suggestions to replace the cover with a “negative” photo of burning palm trees with a “positive” photo of firefighters hard at work. Up to seven drafts of the report were created before final publication. No names were attached to the edited drafts.
According to a report from Los Angeles Timesthose edits were ordered by Mayor Karen Bass, most notably, regarding the city’s “failure to fully staff and pre-deploy all available engines ahead of dangerously high winds.” Although Mayor Bass consistently denied ordering the edits, two sources indicated that she did:
Two sources with knowledge of Bass’s office said that after receiving an initial draft, the mayor told then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva that the report could expose the city to legal liability for those failures. Bass wanted key findings about the LAFD’s actions removed or watered down before the report was made public, sources said, and that’s what happened.
Sources told The Times that two people close to Bass briefed them on the mayor’s behind-the-scenes role in watering down the report. A source spoke to both people; the other spoke with one of them. The sources requested anonymity to speak candidly about the mayor’s private conversations with Villanueva and others.
One source said flatly that Bass “wasn’t telling the truth when he said he had nothing to do with changing the report,” and the source said a close confidant of Bass said altering the report “was a bad idea.”
Sources said two confidants would testify under oath if the matter were litigated in court.
“All the changes [the Times] reported were the ones Karen wanted,” a source said.
Bass’s office denied that the mayor ever demanded changes. The statement said:
The mayor has been clear about her concerns regarding the LAFD’s pre-deployment and response to the fire, which is why there is new leadership at the LAFD and why she called for an independent review of the Lachman Fire cleanup. There is absolutely no reason why she would request that those details be changed or deleted when she herself has criticized the response to the fire, period. She’s been saying it for months.
“This is scandal journalism in its lowest form. It is dangerous and irresponsible for Los Angeles Times “Reporters rely on unsourced third-party information to make baseless attacks on their characters and promote a narrative that is false,” he added.
