Nithya Raman Takes Spencer Pratt’s No. 2 Ranking

Nithya Raman has made a comeback. The city council member now sits in second place in the race for Los Angeles mayor, surpassing reality television star Spencer Pratt by a slim margin of around 3,000 votes.

It’s still too close to call who will go against Mayor Karen Bass in the November runoff. If Raman does advance to the general election and knocks Pratt off the ballot, it’ll be a loss for his real estate backers, which include Compass’ Tracy Tutor, Newmark’s Jay Luchs, Westside Estate Agency’s Kurt Rappaport and billionaire apartment developer Geoff Palmer.

Raman, Bass’ former further-to-the-left political ally, has fewer real estate donors than the incumbent and Pratt, though she did count architecture and urban planning outfits and housing advocacy groups as backers. Her background is in urban planning, so that isn’t a surprise.

Bass and Raman, despite their prior relationship, have taken their own stances on issues the real estate world cares about most. On Measure ULA, the so-called mansion tax that hits commercial real estate, too, Bass has mostly glossed over it during her reelection campaign. She proposed a rollback for victims of the wildfires that ravaged Pacific Palisades who are rebuilding their homes. Raman, shortly before entering the race, proposed a 15-year carveout on new commercial projects. Los Angeles real estate veterans have blamed the tax for redlining the city via stifling development and investment and breaking trust with Wall Street.

When it comes to downtown, another industry pressure point, Raman didn’t take a hard stance on a total return-to-office mandate for city employees, during a May debate. Her office calls for three days a week, but the council member said some workers should be back to their desks full-time. Even so, return to office is only one part of bringing back downtown, she said, largely blaming Bass for lacking a clear strategy on safety and cleanliness to make businesses want to be there.

The mayor, for her part, said she does have a strategy — collaborating with business associations to address public safety and an adaptive reuse ordinance to fast-track office conversions — and it’s working, Bass said. Either way, some Downtown L.A. landlords aren’t a fan of Bass’ back to work stance.

Pratt held the No. 2 spot since election night prior to Sunday’s update. When the first round of results came in on June 2, Raman was trailing Pratt by around 7,500 votes, but has been gaining ground on him as more votes are counted. This reflects a trend we’ve seen before where mail-in votes — which take longer to count — favor candidates on the left. In 2022, when Bass and billionaire mall magnate Rick Caruso faced off for mayor, he held a lead for days before Bass eventually came out on top.

More than 80 percent of anticipated votes are in.