LA’s First Mayoral Debate Yields Measure ULA, Housing Clashes

A defining moment among the candidates went missing during Los Angeles’s first mayoral debate held Monday evening in Downtown Los Angeles.

The two Democratic Socialists of America, housing advocate Rae Chen Huang and Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, along with entrepreneur Adam Miller, stuck mostly to a script many might have expected of each, despite an election field begging for a clear frontrunner.

Instead of a winner emerging to claim the spotlight at the Housing Action Coalition and Streets For All-hosted debate, the event had the tone of a workaround on what moderators referred to as the “elephant in the room” in missing incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. The absence of Bass and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt — both of whom were invited but declined to participate — underscored how wide open the race is with Bass, Raman and Pratt all in double digits in recent polling, Huang and Miller not far behind and various fringe candidates rounding out the field of 14 certified candidates.

Housing, transportation, infrastructure and homelessness formed the pillars of the evening, with the city’s Measure United to House L.A. two-tier property tax coming up early.

Raman, who campaigned for the so-called mansion tax, called it an “incredible resource” and “one that we have to fight to keep by reforming it.”

The 4th District Councilmember in late January unsuccessfully sought to push a 15-year ULA carveout for new multifamily, commercial and mixed-use development onto the June ballot in a bid to spur housing construction, or what she called the “unintended consequences” of the tax.

ULA currently adds a 4 percent tax on all real estate transactions starting at $5.3 million and 5.5 percent beginning at $10.6 million.

Huang took an opportunity to pounce on Raman’s proposed rollback of a measure the councilmember at one time fully supported.

“This is where Nithya and I disagree greatly,” Huang said during the debate. “We should not be giving tax breaks to developers.”

Huang, a pastor and community organizer, went on to lump Raman with Bass in saying both have “entertained revisions” of ULA “under legal and political pressure.”

Miller went a step further, attacking ULA as a legal misstep with harmful consequences for the housing market.

“I didn’t need to go to three years of law school at UCLA to know that ULA was a terribly drafted law,” he said at the podium. “ULA [has] had a completely detrimental impact on the point it was trying to make, which was to drive more affordable housing.”

Multifamily concerns with the tax overshadowed those of single-family residential during the evening’s conversation.

The candidates’ views were generally aligned on Senate Bill 79, the 2025 state legislation that aims to ramp density by fast-tracking residential developments close to transit stops. Each gave a different spin on the law but none opposed the basic terms.

Raman looked for the middle ground of protecting local control, while also supporting more housing. Huang offered that, “If we believe in transit, we have to build housing next to it.” Meanwhile, Miller called SB 79 “our punishment as a city for not delivering the housing that we need in this city.”

“Of course, city council, the mayor’s office, everyone else would prefer to have local control over how we’re implementing a housing plan,” Miller said. “And of course I would prefer us to have control over how we’re implementing our own housing plan, but you have to actually have a housing plan.”

Up for grabs

The debate came a day after the Los Angeles Times released its co-sponsored poll done by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies showing a Bass lead. The city’s current mayor garnered favor from 25 percent of the 840 voters surveyed between March 9 and 15.

Raman was in second place with 17 percent. It’s Pratt, who is campaigning on a more conservative platform, that closed out the top three, three percentage points behind Raman.

The former “The Hills” cast member and Palisades resident grew his platform, drawing off some Palisadians’ discontent over Bass’s handling of last January’s wildfire response and subsequent recovery efforts. But his campaign platform has also touched on crime, homelessness and accountability at city hall to make “LA camera-ready.”

Meanwhile, Huang pulled in 8 percent of voters in the UC Berkeley survey, while Miller drew 6 percent.

Neither DSA candidate got anywhere on another poll that checked in on the political organization’s leadership. DSA board members this weekend voted against opening up the process to endorse a candidate, shutting out both Raman and Huang from support.

If no one candidate is unable to sway more than 50 percent of voters in the June primary, the top two will move on to a run off in November.

It’s unclear how much Raman and Pratt have raised from supporters. The most current records through the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, which report donations through Dec. 31, show Bass with a war chest of $2.4 million in campaign contributions. Asaad Alnajjar, a long-time civil engineer with the city, has raised $109,368, and Huang’s raised $107,644.

Former mayoral candidate and Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner carved out a sizable pot of $314,601 before dropping out of the race following the February death of his daughter.

Meanwhile, names such as billionaire developer Rick Caruso and Lindsey Horvath of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor were once viewed as strong contenders that could have made for a more dramatic race. However, neither chose to run.

Caruso instead, minutes after Monday’s mayoral debate ended, took to Instagram with a message on leadership before talking up gubernatorial candidate and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.