L.A

In the race to become Los Angeles’ next mayor, City Councilmember Nithya Raman holds a three-percentage-point lead over incumbent Karen Bass, according to preliminary results released by county officials Wednesday.

Early leads may change as the vote count continues. So far, Raman leads with 51.7% of the vote, while Bass trails with 48.3%.

The precinct-level results include more than 730,000 votes in the mayoral race counted as of 3 a.m. on election night. The county’s latest update totals to more than 784,000 votes.

The map below shades each precinct by the leading candidate. Deeper green or orange indicate a wider lead. Precincts with more votes cast per square mile appear more solid, with areas with lower voter density fade to white. Hatched areas had 10 or fewer votes.

With the county’s latest returns, about 66.6% of the expected vote is in. The Associated Press, which estimates the voter turnout, has not called the race.

Election results will be finalized by the California secretary of state in early December.

Jose Ugarte was ahead of Estuardo Mazariegos in the race for District 9 on the Los Angeles City Council, while in District 3, Barri Worth Girvan and Tim Gaspar were nearly even, according to early returns Tuesday night.

The current council members in both districts — Bob Blumenfield in District 3 and Curren Price in District 9 — are leaving office because of term limits.

From his campaign headquarters in South L.A., Ugarte did not declare victory but said he felt confident he could hang on to the lead. Supporters watched on a big screen as live results rolled in from the county registrar’s website.

“This means everything to me,” Ugarte said. “I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running. There’s a lot of work to be done in the district.”

District 9 has for decades been represented by a Black council member. Both men vying to replace Price are Latino immigrants, reflecting demographic changes in a district that is nearly 80% Latino and that includes the Convention Center and USC.

Despite the shift in representation, both Ugarte and Mazariegos have said they are committed to ensuring Black residents are heard and represented. The 9th District is the poorest in the city and residents face an array of challenges, including homelessness, safety and street cleanliness, according to the candidates.

Mazariegos, who attended a campaign party at Paseo San Miguel, a Salvadoran restaurant, remained optimistic, saying the early returns “show us that when you show up for the community, they show up for you.”

“We still have a lot of votes to count but already you can see the impact of our campaign, increased youth turnout, and so much optimism at the polls,” he said in a statement.

Ugarte is a former deputy chief of staff for Price, and Mazariegos is co-director of the L.A. chapter of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. The most recent campaign finance reports show Ugarte raising $1.1 million in contributions and matching funds, and Mazariegos with about $787,000.

Ugarte’s campaign also has received major outside support through independent expenditure committees, which have no contribution limit but aren’t allowed to coordinate with a candidate’s campaign. His campaign has received more than $2.3 million in independent expenditure support, with funds coming from Airbnb, Uber, the California Apartment Assn. and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, which represents workers at the Department of Water and Power.

Mazariegos, who is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America’s L.A. chapter, also has received support through several groups running independent expenditure campaigns on his behalf, including United Teachers Los Angeles and the Progressive Era PAC. Special interest groups have spent more than $250,000 supporting his campaign.

Gaspar and Worth Girvan are competing in a west San Fernando Valley district that includes Woodland Hills, Reseda and Canoga Park.

At a Woodland Hills watch party, Worth Girvan said she was feeling confident about the early returns, which showed her nearly tied with Gaspar.

“I’m extremely full of gratitude,” she said at the Local Peasant restaurant. “For me, it’s always been about the people of the west Valley and making sure we have a voice.”

In a statement, Gaspar said he was encouraged by the early results and the momentum behind his campaign.

“We saw and heard it everyday on the campaign trail,” he said. “The West Valley showed up to have their voices heard on safety, homelessness, and the cost of living. We look forward to the final votes to be counted.”

Gaspar founded an eponymous insurance company in the Valley in 2008, selling it in 2021. He has said he intends to bring a pro-business perspective to City Hall.

Worth Girvan is a longtime public employee. Prior to running, she was L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s district director for three years, and has said that she would leverage her years of experience in the public sector to advocate for the district in City Hall.

Gaspar has outraised Worth Girvan, raising about $1.3 million of individual contributions and matching funds. Worth Girvan raised about $753,000.

The race also has received interest from outside groups, with Gaspar’s campaign receiving more than $2.7 million in independent expenditure spending. During the runoff, special interest groups, including IBEW Local 18, the California Apartment Assn. and Uber, were among those that spent a combined $1.3 million supporting his candidacy.

Worth Girvan received about $438,000 in outside contributions during the runoff, with funding mostly from labor unions.

A ballot measure that would funnel more money to the Los Angeles city Fire Department by raising sales taxes by a half-cent was leading in early returns Tuesday night, along with seven other ballot measures before city voters.

“I’m humbled by the support of the voters,” said Doug Coates, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, which spearheaded the measure. “We showed up and we did what we needed to do … Thank you to the voters.”

Partial returns also showed L.A. voters turning thumbs up on a City Charter amendment that would allow the City Council to meet just once a week, instead of the thrice-weekly meetings now required.

Measure FD would increase the city’s retail sales tax from 10.25 cents to 10.75 cents per dollar spent, with all of the extra revenue going to the Fire Department. The city still would be required to fund firefighters at its normal rate, meaning the measure would add an estimated $345 million annually to the department’s budget.

Proponents of the measure include the union representing rank-and-file firefighters, who say the department is underfunded. The tax fund is needed to lower response times across the city and increase the number of firefighters, according to the union.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., a nonprofit that advocates for lower taxes, opposed the measure. The organization raised concerns that this would be the third sales tax hike since 2024, costing an average of $86 per person and $345 for a family of four in additional sales taxes each year.

It also was opposed by the union representing Los Angeles Police Department officers, which objected to limiting the revenue to one city department.

The measure that would allow the City Council to meet just once a week was included in Charter Amendment EE. Most City Council members supported it, with Councilmember Tim McOsker noting his time is better spent working in his district.

Councilmember Monica Rodriguez opposed the measure, arguing that having fewer public forums is a disservice to constituents, who would have less time to meaningfully engage with their representatives. She also worried fewer meetings would mean council members would rush through deliberations.

The amendment also would make smaller changes to how the city governs, including giving more power to independent inspectors to conduct audits of the L.A. Police and Fire Departments, and increase the penalties for campaign finance violations.

The number of signatures needed for a ballot referendum also would rise, and ethics commissioners would be barred from City Council or the L.A. Unified Board of Education for five years.

The six other measures were leading by wider margins.

Proposition TE was ahead in early results. Measure ULA, also known as the “mansion tax,” imposes additional taxes on L.A. property sales above $5.4 million. Proposition TE would allow Palisades fire victims who own homes in the area to avoid the tax as long as they sell the property within five years of the disaster.

Charter Amendment LA, which aims to streamline how the city delivers basic services for infrastructure in need of repair, was leading in early results. The measure would reduce the power of the city Board of Public Works and possibly lead to eliminating it.

Charter Amendment PL took a big lead in partial early returns. The measure folds in five proposals, including to consolidate the city’s planning department, to facilitate building and opening businesses in the city.

Charter Amendment PRK, which would double the minimum amount of money earmarked for the Department of Recreation and Parks, had a big early lead in early results. If it passes, the department could receive a minimum of $986 million annually by 2036, up from the current rate that would generate $493 million by that year.

A measure that would make changes to the city’s airports, harbor and Department of Water and Power had a big lead in early results. Charter Amendment PRT would require the Los Angeles World Airport’s board of commissioners to include two members who live in Van Nuys and three who live around LAX.

Charter Amendment SC, which makes small clarifying changes to language surrounding campaign finance rules for the LAUSD Board of Education, also led in early results. Those changes would affect campaign contribution limits, filing deadlines, public disclosures and fundraising windows.

Marissa Roy is on track to become Los Angeles’ next city attorney after jumping out to a significant lead over L.A. County prosecutor John McKinney based on early returns.

Roy, 34, a deputy state attorney general, campaigned on a promise to convert the city attorney’s office into a massive “public interest law firm,” vowing to champion renters and defend Angelenos from an increasingly hostile White House.

Roy, a coalition-builder, had long been the favorite in the race, leading McKinney by double digits in polls leading up to Tuesday. She won the June primary with more than 40% of the vote.

Roy and McKinney’s head-to-head race came after voters and powerful city unions turned on the incumbent, Hydee Feldstein Soto, whose June primary defeat marked the first time a sitting L.A. elected official failed to advance to a general election in nearly a century.

Supporters at Roy’s watch party at the downtown Audio Graph brewery erupted in cheers when the first batch of results dropped, showing Roy doubling up McKinney’s early vote total. The mood was ebullient as the first batch of returns trickled in, buoyed by dramatic wins for Democrats across the country and a better than expected early lead for their candidate.

Roy arrived around 9 p.m. in a plum-colored dress, her arms stacked with bangles that rang as she embraced supporters and took the stage.

“I was planning on hedging and saying, ‘It looks like we’re winning,’ but I think we won!” Roy told the crowd to whoops and cheers.

Roy ran to the left of her opponent and tried to paint him as the preferred choice of Republicans in L.A. County. McKinney is a lifelong Democrat and has been critical of President Trump.

At Hill Street bar, close to the downtown criminal courthouse where McKinney has built his career, supporters swayed to smooth jazz and Top 40 radio hits, nursing cocktails and betraying no reaction to the dismal early returns.

In a brief interview outside the bar, McKinney remained positive and said he always knew he faced an uphill battle. He announced his candidacy long after Roy and Feldstein Soto began their campaigns, yet still surged to a surprise second-place finish in June. He said he was proud he was able to inject discussion of public safety issues and real strategies for solving homelessness into the race.

“I got into this race nine months ago because the people of Los Angeles deserve better,” he said.

Although he said he had “no bitterness” toward Roy and wished her the best of luck, he did express disappointment at the efforts her campaign and some of her supporters took to incorrectly paint him as a conservative.

“I just felt that it was very misleading … it’s not a political position. It’s not a partisan position,” he said.

The candidates were a study in contrasts: Roy is a stylish progressive with savvy social media campaign videos, while McKinney is a stoic law-and-order-type. They also offered voters starkly different plans for leading the city attorney’s office.

A core part of the California Department of Justice legal team that won a historic $17-billion settlement from Meta this summer, Roy ran as a champion of the average Angeleno, promising to hold corporations and landlords accountable for misconduct. A Yale-educated lawyer, she positioned herself as the only candidate who would stand up to Trump administration policies that have harmed Los Angeles.

McKinney, who often noted he has been a lawyer nearly as long as Roy has been alive, leaned on his nearly unblemished record prosecuting some of the region’s most notorious and violent crimes and his compelling personal history. Orphaned at 5, he was raised by an older sister in a household where money was extremely tight and found himself painting houses just to afford college classes. In a 28-year career as an L.A. County prosecutor, McKinney won convictions in a number of high-profile cases, including the murder of rapper Nipsey Hussle.

The veteran prosecutor promised to focus his energy on reducing homelessness and improving public safety through misdemeanors he believed the prior administration under-enforced, including street racing and animal abuse on Skid Row. He also vowed to conduct more aggressive reviews of the way nonprofits that do business with the city spend funds meant to aid unhoused citizens.

Although they aligned in few places, both Roy and McKinney said they would work to bring down the city’s out-of-control legal costs. That figure exploded to nearly $300 million in city payouts last year.

Roy was supported by the L.A. County Democratic Party, the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). McKinney was backed by a coalition of law enforcement unions, four former city attorneys and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna was leading challenger and former Sheriff Alex Villanueva by a wide margin in his bid for reelection Tuesday, according to early returns, in a rematch of the 2022 race between the two lawmen.

Early returns also showed L.A. County voters favoring Measure A, which would establish binding arbitration for sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and other public safety employees who by law cannot go on strike.

A second county ballot measure, Measure E, was far ahead in early returns. Measure E asks voters to create an independent ethics commission that previously was approved by another measure, and address administrative missteps that invalidated funding approved by voters in 2020 to support jail alternatives.

In the sheriff’s race, Villanueva was seeking to regain the job he lost in 2022 when Luna successfully challenged him for reelection.

This contest was lower profile than the 2022 race, but the stakes are just as high, as the new Los Angeles County sheriff will face a host of challenges, from navigating relationships with federal and local agencies to boosting recruitment and retention.

Luna pitched himself to county voters as a calmly effective operator who has brought down crime while building relationships with local, state and federal leaders that suffered under his predecessor’s tenure. The incumbent highlighted his department’s successful navigation of World Cup security and the Trump administration’s deployment of federal immigration agents and troops to L.A. as examples of the efficacy of his approach.

Villanueva, on the other hand, has sought to depict L.A. County as more dangerous under what he describes as the overly permissive approach of Luna. The former sheriff claimed Luna has presided over a deep decline in department morale and staffing while being too soft on drug users, the homeless and petty criminals.

Representatives of the Luna and Villanueva campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday evening.

Both men guided the department through tumultuous periods for the county. Villanueva was sheriff for nearly two years at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Luna was in office during the Eaton and Palisades fires.

The next four years promise further challenges. The Olympic Games are less than two years away, and the sheriff’s department will be expected to play a major role keeping millions of visitors and athletes safe.

The new sheriff also will be expected to rein in the department’s budget, which has experienced ballooning overtime costs as sworn vacancies have risen markedly under both sheriffs.

Villanueva claims Luna is out of touch with deputies and that they are leaving the force en masse in response to his poor leadership skills. Villanueva said he would improve staffing by redirecting overtime spending and serving as a beacon to would-be deputies who’ve been turned off by Luna.

But Luna denies that deputies are fleeing the department and says he’s taken major steps to improve the hiring process. He has hired an outside contractor to speed up applicant background checks and provided an avenue for many new deputies to go from the academy to patrol instead of first requiring a stint in one of the county’s jails.

Among the two countywide ballot measures, Measure A was the highest profile, with unions representing county deputy sheriffs, firefighters and others spending millions of dollars in support.

Measure A would mandate binding arbitration between the county government and negotiators who represent deputies, firefighters, lifeguards and other public safety employees in the event contract talks reach an impasse.

Currently, the county supervisors can impose a final offer that employees must accept because by law, public safety personnel are not allowed to strike.

Supporters say the measure adds balance to the negotiations process and removes the unilateral authority of the county Board of Supervisors. The change is backed by unions representing county firefighters, sheriff’s deputies and other public safety employees.

County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath authored the motion, which has the support of four out of the five supervisors. No formal opposition has been filed. Supervisor Holly Mitchell raised financial concerns about the measure but has not officially opposed it.

Measure E on the county ballot would fix issues with Measure J, which was approved by voters in 2020, and Measure G, which passed in 2024.

Measure J earmarked at least 10% of locally generated, unrestricted revenue to incarceration alternatives. However, some of the ballot language in Measure G unintentionally repealed Measure J — an administrative error that was discovered in June 2025. Amendment E would partly ensure the funding to incarceration alternatives remains in effect.

The amendment also would enshrine in the county charter the seven-member ethics commission and ethics compliance office that was created when Measure G passed.

The amendment has the support of Horvath and other supervisors, as well as the League of Women Voters of L.A. County, who said Measure J shouldn’t be undone by an administrative error.

Today’s the day, and the race is a dead heat: The final poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies (cosponsored by The Times) found that 40% of likely L.A. voters said they supported incumbent Karen Bass, while another 40% supported progressive challenger Nithya Raman for L.A. mayor.

That leaves 19% undecided — and it might be those voters that celebrities are trying to reach with their recent endorsements. Jane Fonda, Yvette Nicole Brown, Anthony Anderson, Cedric the Entertainer, Samuel L. Jackson, Kym Whitley, D.L. Hughley, Dustin Lance Black, George Lopez and Stevie Wonder have all voiced public support for Bass. Meanwhile Bob Odenkirk, Mindy Kaling, Adam Scott, Joel Kim Booster, Caleb Hearon, Poppy Liu, P. J. Byrne, Adam Conover, Brennan Lee Mulligan and Jaboukie Young-White have done the same for Raman.

“Battling the nationwide homeless epidemic is the hardest job in American government,” Jackson said. “Karen Bass walked toward it in one day. Her opponent chaired the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee and canceled meetings on it. It’s easy to run a pilot in one district and call it a model. Try doing it in 15 districts with Washington cutting your funding while the whole country watches. That’s the job, and Karen Bass has done it.”

In the other camp, Kaling said: “There’s one issue that I can speak to from experience: Keeping Hollywood jobs in Los Angeles. Yes, it’s actors and directors, but I’m also talking about the crew, electricians, grips, hair and makeup artists, drivers, set builders, editors — and then there’s the restaurants, the dry cleaners and the small businesses that depend on productions being here. And Nithya’s plan is to fight for that work to stay in town. She wants stronger, dependable state tax incentives, and a film office that actively works to keep production in town.”

There have also been a few gray areas: Bass posted a video of drag queen Trixie Mattel‘s voting PSA to her account, but Mattel didn’t explicitly endorse her as a candidate. “I watch, like, 18 hours of news a day, so it was kind of crazy sitting next to Karen; she’s like my third roommate in my house,” Mattel said. “So shout out to Karen.”

Luxury real estate broker Jason Oppenheim, best known for his role on the reality series “Selling Sunset,” had a discussion with Raman, cross-posted to both of their accounts, and also interviewed her on Graham Stephan’s podcast, “The Iced Coffee Hour.” And Arnold Schwarzenegger reportedly held an off-the-record meeting with Raman and figures from Hollywood and other industries at his L.A. office.

Bass’ supporters rolled out a series of coordinated, collaborative videos from her social media accounts somewhat regularly over the past two weeks, several with matching formatting (including Fonda, Anderson, Cedric, Hughley and Lopez). Some of the videos also featured Bass.

In the most-liked celebrity endorsement included here, posted Monday, Lopez said: “Karen Bass is like that tía that shows up with a huge pot of pozole before anybody’s even hungry. She’s gonna keep fighting for us, but también we have to fight for her.”

Raman’s campaign, on the other hand, had a more organic approach, incorporating celebrities into specific events, like National Coming Out Day with Booster (and the drag queen Pickle), “Dungeons & Dragons for the City” fundraiser with gamemaster Brennan Lee Mulligan and an Election Eve Party with Young-White (and comedians Kiran Deol, Jared Goldstein and Brittani Nichols).

Hearon shouted her out while hosting Chappell Roan’s Super Graphic Spectacular fundraiser for the singer’s Midwest Princess Project supporting trans youth and LGBTQ+ communities, and Byrne posted an Instagram story with his son after casting his ballot for Raman.

Raman’s most-liked celebrity endorsement included here was not cross-posted to her account, but rather came from Mulligan’s own get-out-the-vote video. “I am supporting Nithya Raman for mayor in Los Angeles, Marissa Roy for city attorney,” he said with an “I Voted” sticker on his forehead. “And I would say this as well: There’s great candidates all over the country.”

Other celebrities simply encouraged fans to fulfill their civic duty and vote without backing any candidates, while others focused on the California gubernatorial election and key Senate races.

A newcomer, less than a year old, has soared all the way to the guide’s highest slot? Yes. Swedish chef Marcus Jernmark stunned us both with his finer-dining debut in a glamorous subterranean lair on West Pico Boulevard. “Finer,” meaning: four substantial set courses, which change every six or so weeks, for a reasonable $150 per person in our era of $400 tasting menus. The restaurant, packed nightly, doubles as a master class on how to conduct an effective introduction to Los Angeles. This isn’t someone trying to demonstrate what “California cuisine” should be; it’s someone keeping us rapt with his own story. Jernmark’s genius — pairing his Scandinavian instincts with the riches of our local harvests — doesn’t jump out through a perfunctory scroll of Lielle’s dishes on social media. Everything is meticulously plated, but you have to taste the flashbulb-bright acidity among hills of snipped vegetables and luxe seafood, and how he pairs meats and fruits for maximum dramatic tension. And the bread! Two loaves bookend dinner: Crusty-plush sourdough to be smeared with cultured butter that’s nearly cheese, and golden cardamom buns soaked in a Jernmark concoction riffing on boozy spiced Swedish punsch.

Lielle is astonishing from the outset, a rarity heightened by the front-of-house staff’s united, enlightened mode of hospitality; the surroundings, designed to evoke a sumptuous wine cave; and a spectacular, diverse wine list worthy of the atmosphere. Is it the great higher-end debut of the decade? Quite possibly, and there’s a bonus: Jernmark and his team just opened Marée, a bistro upstairs from Lielle, with fun brainstorms like mussels “gratin” and the city’s next must-have burger.
Read Bill Addison’s review of Lielle.

The Justice Department sent a last-minute surge of election monitors into Los Angeles Tuesday morning, hours after losing the latest legal tug-of-war over California’s 20,000 contested ballots.

In a pair of decisions late Monday night, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals published and then quickly rescinded a decision that would have allowed the Trump administration to prosecute election workers who processed contested ballots, even after their demands to segregate them were struck down by the Supreme Court.

Then, as dawn broke on Election Day, the Justice Department announced it was sending out “1,000 election monitors and observers” across the U.S. in what it called “the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history.”

Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Detroit were among the dozens of jurisdictions where monitors were sent under the auspices of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — legislation the President Trump has worked tirelessly to gut across both his administrations.

A Justice Department spokesperson said the federal monitors “will be at polling locations,” but that the department is not “giving out precinct details.”

The move was widely seen as an intimidation tactic.

“They’re not doing this to make sure that there are free and fair elections,” said Eric J. Segall, a law professor at Georgia State University and an expert on the Supreme Court. “They’re doing this for nakedly partisan reasons, and the federal government shouldn’t be allowed do that.”

California officials were quick to hit back.

“We’ll have our observers on site keeping an eye on your monitors to ensure the integrity of California’s free, fair, safe, secure, accurate, and reliable elections,” Bonta vowed on social media as the spat escalated early Tuesday morning.

The Justice Department said it would also send monitors to San Diego, Sacramento and Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The sudden influx of election monitors and the dramatic about-face in appellate court are the latest wild swings in the Golden State’s protracted midterm brawl with the federal government — a fight that has captured national attention amid growing concerns of election interference by the Trump administration.

“On the eve of Election Day, Defendants insist they must be free to use their prosecutorial powers to do what they could not through their applications for injunctions in this court and the Supreme Court,” 9th Circuit Chief Judge Mary Helen Murguia wrote in her dissent to the initial 2-1 ruling, which appeared just after 8 p.m. Monday night.

“The district court properly attempted to put a stop to Defendants’ efforts to intimidate election workers into abandoning lawful state election procedures through spurious threats of prosecution,” Murguia wrote.

By 11 p.m. the decision had been reversed, with the court setting aside its previous ruling while it reviewed the case with a larger en banc panel.

It was the latest legal blow for the administration in what had been a months long effort to claw back ballots it claims may have been issued to noncitizens, while publicly threatening to prosecute election workers who process them when its efforts were rebuffed in court.

Last week, the Justice Department sent criminal grand jury subpoenas to election workers in Los Angeles seeking reams of data related to efforts to comply with its demands.

Unions and voting rights groups sued in federal court, saying the efforts amounted to “a coordinated campaign to intimidate, threaten, and coerce” civil servants into holding back legitimate ballots.

On Friday, after the 9th Circuit had ruled for California in the ballot claw-back case, U.S. District Court Judge Trina Thompson in San Francisco issued a blistering order blocking the Justice Department from dangling criminal liability over elections workers or demanding voters be stripped from the rolls.

“In the lead-up to the election, high-ranking DOJ and DHS officials have engaged in a campaign to intimidate, threaten, and coerce state and local officials and employees who are engaged in administering the ongoing midterm 2026 election,” Thompson wrote.

“Although Defendants claim that their actions are designed to halt unlawful voting by noncitizens, their actions are likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters,” the judge wrote.

Then, on Monday afternoon, mere minutes after it was asked to consider the question, the Supreme Court returned an unsigned decision in California’s favor, appearing, at least briefly, to foreclose further efforts to stop those ballots being counted.

“This latest decision should put an end to the Administration’s attempt to disrupt California’s elections through emergency court orders,” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said in response to the Supreme Court decision Monday.

But it didn’t.

Instead, the late-breaking 9th Circuit decision spurred a flurry of confusion and conjecture just hours before polls were set to open in the country’s most populous state.

In the wake of the court rulings, Segall and others said the Trump administration’s move to deploy election monitors was part of a troubling pattern. The law professor worried the Supreme Court could weaponize what remains of the Voting Rights Act to benefit the president and his party.

“So far they’ve said we’re going to cut the legs off [the Act] so as not to help Democrats, but the next iteration of this will be to use the Voting Rights Act to help the Republican Party,” he said.

There are many metrics by which to measure the success of “Oh, Mary!,” the Tony Award-winning play that has taken the stage by storm. And here’s a new one: Effusive hype and high ticket demand has resulted in Center Theatre Group booking the show for its 2028 60th anniversary season even before its national touring production hits the Ahmanson Theatre on Nov. 10.

As evidenced by Tuesday’s announcement, the current tour, starring drag queen Alaska Thunderf— is set to arrive in L.A. next week with sky-high expectations. Ironically, director Sam Pinkleton originally resisted the idea of a tour, feeling the show might lose some of its charm on the road.

“I was convinced it was a bad idea,” Pinkleton said with a laugh during a recent interview. “But when we went to Broadway, I also thought that was a terrible idea, and I was absolutely wrong.” The director was originally concerned the scrappy little show with a cast of five wouldn’t play as well in larger houses. “But seeing how well it works on Broadway, I think it’s actually better than in the small room. It’s not a play I would call subtle; it really fills a room. So that gave me a lot of confidence about a national tour.”

Written by and originally starring Cole Escola, “Oh, Mary!” is a revisionist take on former First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln’s life in the days leading to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Historical accuracy be damned, the show presents Mary as a wannabe star repressed by her closeted husband. Premiering off-Broadway in February 2024 and set to run six weeks, the show was given multiple extensions before transferring to Broadway, where it won Tony Awards for Escola’s performance and Pinkleton’s directing. Escola was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in drama that same year.

But “Oh, Mary!” has achieved much more than gold statues and box office receipts — it’s a genuine pop-culture phenomenon, a familiar meme and a show beloved by seemingly all demographics.

“I think a turning point was early in the run when Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner and Sally Field all came together,” Pinkleton said. “We were all like, ‘What is happening?’”

Other notable audience members, including Madonna and Michelle Obama, followed, while actors such as Maya Rudolph, Bowen Yang and Tituss Burgess signed up to don Mary’s ringlet wig as the Broadway run stretched on. “It’s wild to think that tonight, you can see it in three different places,” says Pinkleton, referring to the productions in New York, London and the national tour.

If the tour’s leading lady is feeling any pressure, she’s not showing it. Alaska admits that even she was skeptical of the show’s advance hype. “I kept hearing, ‘Oh, you have to see this play, this play is so good,’” she recalled during a Zoom interview from the show’s San Francisco stop. “And I thought, ‘How good can a play be? What is everyone talking about?’”

But the moment she saw it, she understood. “I was immediately enamored, I was hooked.”

When it came time to cast the tour, Pinkleton immediately thought of Alaska, known to most audiences as the winner of the second season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.” Pinkleton had worked with her before, most notably in the 2021 production of the Go-Go’s musical “Head Over Heels” at the Pasadena Playhouse. “I knew for a fact that Alaska could do this in her sleep,” he said. “As the kids say, I have receipts. She’s the real thing and she was made for this.”

Following an early Zoom work session, Alaska was on board. “I feel like it was written for me, but I know it wasn’t,” she said. “And that’s a testament to Cole writing something very true and anchored in real emotion. I think anyone who has ever felt underestimated or misunderstood or overlooked can really identify with this role.”

In many ways, the joy of playing Mary is that different actors bring different aspects and personality nuances to the role. “It’s a big, juicy part that works in the hands of radically different people,” Pinkleton said.

Asked what she feels she brings to the role, Alaska said she didn’t go in thinking about how to make it her own. “I really just approached it truthfully,” she said, noting that while the show is a comedy, the circumstances Mary finds herself in are genuinely tragic, and she wanted to be true to that. “This isn’t jokey to me — it’s really serious, intense and high-stakes. I wanted to do it like an Ibsen play or Shakespeare.”

The show doesn’t play like a tragedy, however. It’s a roller coaster ride from the start, and Pinkleton said he always wants the audience to have a great time.

“I know there’s a lot of amazing theater being made about various traumas, but I can only control my corner of things and I just feel that most of us have had a bad day in one way or another,” he said. “And it would be awesome if our time at the theater was joyous. And I take that really, really seriously.”

Both director and star are well aware of the expectations that come with a show so beloved and discussed. “I try not to think about it,” said Alaska. “I just trust in the show being so beautifully constructed and it truly has something for everyone, whoever you are.”

For his part, Pinkleton said with a laugh, “There’s definitely some element for me of, ‘Like, it’s just a play, calm down.’” But part of maintaining its heart and charm is remembering that at its core, “it’s kind of a small operation.”

“It was made with a really hands-on approach by a very small group of people who cared a lot and that spirit has remained even as we’ve scaled it up,” Pinkleton said. It hasn’t been easy work; Pinkleton credits several people for their contributions, particularly the tour’s associate director Sunny Min-Sook Hitt, who occupied the same role during the original production. “It’s taken a lot of worthwhile work to keep it what it is. There’s just not a world where ‘Oh, Mary!’ can turn into ‘Jersey Boys,’” Pinkleton said. The national tour is already selling out houses across the country and receiving a rapturous response. “Every night has a different energy and the audience is definitely a part of the show,” Alaska said. “In San Diego, we were in a 3,000-person theater, we’ve never played one that size. It felt like the stadium version of ‘Oh, Mary!’”

Pinkleton said he makes “a lot of big, gay shows” and people have asked him how he thinks “Oh, Mary!” will play in smaller cities. “Honestly, I was a weird, loud, gay kid in Richmond, Virginia, and I’m excited to bring it to places that might not get this kind of thing,” he noted. And sometimes silly comedies can be the most meaningful, particularly to marginalized communities. “It’s meaningful that there will be some people for whom ‘Oh, Mary!’ is also a kind of a life raft.”

Homeless encampments line the streets. Buying a home — or even finding an affordable place to rent — is increasingly out of reach. Roads are riddled with potholes, tens of thousands of streetlights are out, and water and power bills are surging.

For many Angelenos, morale is poor and quality of life in the city is slipping.

This is the challenge for whoever becomes Los Angeles mayor — and it is one that has left some longtime political experts wondering how much one person can control in this vast city of 3.8 million.

“The expectations, given the powers that the mayor actually has, are probably too high,” said Tom Hogen-Esch, a professor of political science at Cal State Northridge. “You have all of these wicked problems that are difficult to solve in a perfect scenario, and [even more] in a governmental system as tangled and confused as L.A.”

The next mayor will have to deal with enduring problems of deteriorating infrastructure, police reform and budget woes. But there is also the unprecedented task of rebuilding Pacific Palisades after catastrophic firestorms and trying to help the city’s ailing film industry — all while preparing the city for the global spotlight of hosting the 2028 Olympics.

A recent UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll of likely L.A. voters, co-sponsored by The Times. found that the top priority for the next mayor to address was reducing the number of homeless encampments, followed by ensuring public safety and building more affordable housing. Protecting immigrant communities was the next most cited concern, followed by balancing the city budget.

After studying L.A. politics for more than three decades, Hogen-Esch said the city feels stuck.

“We’re talking about the same issues over and over and over … and a general underlying frustration with city government,” he said. “It’s almost like you could wake up 30 years later in a Rip Van Winkle dream, and you’re in the same spot.“

Homelessness

When Karen Bass launched her 2021 mayoral campaign, she proclaimed homelessness was her “overwhelming top priority.”

After nearly four years of her leadership, homelessness has gone up. This year, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority announced that more than 45,194 people in the city were homeless — up from 41,980 homeless people in 2022 — an increase the agency attributed to external funding cuts and rising economic pressures.

After spending more than $391 million on Inside Safe, Bass’ flagship program to clean up homeless encampments and house homeless people, the city moved about 6,500 people into interim housing. But about 42% of the program’s participants have returned to homelessness.

Bass insists Inside Safe has made progress, clearing 140 encampments across the city. But the difference is not visible to many residents as more encampments continue to block city sidewalks.

Over the last four years, L.A. budgeted about $4 billion to address the homeless crisis — about $100,000 for every homeless person in the city, according to Lee Ohanian, a professor of economics at UCLA.

But the city has not spent all that money. L.A. underspent its homelessness budget by at least $473 million in the 2025-26 fiscal year, L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia said, because of its decentralized approach to homelessness, budget structure, staffing shortages and long approval delays for affordable housing.

Part of the challenge in addressing homelessness is that L.A. adopts a fragmented approach, sharing responsibility with the county and spreading programs among different nonprofits, said Fernando Guerra, founding director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University. Unlike in New York, the L.A. mayor does not oversee the health department, mental health and drug recovery programs, and jails.

“The challenge for the mayor has always been that she or he is only given basically half of the arsenal to fight homelessness,” Guerra said.

Poor oversight is also a problem. Federal prosecutors have charged multiple nonprofit leaders with defrauding taxpayer funds meant to support the homeless. Last month, a nonprofit chief executive pleaded guilty to wire fraud and embezzling $23 million in homeless funds to pay for a $7-million Westwood home and vacation property in Greece.

But perhaps the biggest challenge is the staggering cost of building housing for homeless people in L.A.. Because of complex government financing, prevailing wage requirements, environmental rules, and the integration of medical and social services, a single unit in L.A. can cost as much as $600,000.

Housing affordability

Nearly 6 out of 10 renters in L.A. are cost-burdened, and polls show a majority of L.A. voters have considered leaving the city because housing is so expensive.

Bass has taken steps to accelerate the building of affordable housing. Her signature program, Executive Directive One, succeeded in cutting the time it takes to review 100% affordable projects and led to a flurry of development proposals. But after tenant advocates warned that rent-controlled apartments would be demolished and homeowners complained that density threatened historic neighborhoods, Bass restricted the locations eligible for the program.

Nearly four years after Bass took office, developers are not exactly seeing a building boom. Last month, the mayor’s office said more than 47,000 units of affordable housing are in the pipeline, but only 7,728 are under construction.

As with homelessness, the mayor has limited power to improve affordability.

A big test for the new mayor will be the state’s push to pass laws that spur more housing, such as state Senate Bill 79, designed to accelerate development around transportation hubs. With new buildings likely to face opposition in many parts of the city, Bass has opposed SB 79, arguing that it will erode local control.

Whoever the next mayor is, they will have to balance the need to build significantly more housing with homeowner opposition to new development, said Christian Grose, a professor of political science and public policy at USC.

“Voters probably are somewhere in the middle,” Grose said, “and there doesn’t seem to be a policy agenda that reaches those voters.”

Ailing infrastructure

When Chief Deputy City Controller Rick Cole retired from City Hall last year, he complained that “mind-numbing bureaucracy” had made the city ungovernable. Los Angeles was paying for city leaders’ decision long ago to organize the city to disperse authority, he said, citing deteriorating city infrastructure as a key example.

“Beneath the broken sidewalks,” Cole said, “is a broken system.”

More than 5,000 requests for sidewalk repairs are pending. Tens of thousands of streetlights are out. Last year, the city stopped repaving streets for eight months as officials struggled with staffing shortages to meet federal requirements to construct curb ramps for wheelchairs and new city rules that mandate bike, bus and pedestrian enhancements.

“The city can’t seem to manage the basics,” Bass’ challenger, City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, said when she announced her campaign in February.

Guerra said it was astounding that such a large city government — with a $14.8-billion budget and more than 5,500 public works employees — was so behind on fixing streetlights and resurfacing roads.

“How could that be?” Guerra said. “You cannot tell us that you need more people and more money to do this. What is happening?”

To speed up infrastructure repairs, some public officials are urging voters to pass Measure LA, which would require the city to develop a long-term capital infrastructure plan and distribute more power to the director of public works. Supporters say the measure would cut systemic bureaucracy and fragmentation. Critics, however, say it would lead to one person holding too much authority.

Balancing an unstable city budget

Last year, the City Council and mayor declared a fiscal state of emergency as they faced a $1-billion deficit due to revenue shortfalls as well as increased liabilities from the Palisades fire. Rating agencies, including S&P and Kroll, downgraded the city to a “negative” outlook.

Mejia cited ongoing revenue shortfalls, liability payouts and departmental overspending as the key reasons for the ballooning budget, which has grown by about 25% over the last four years.

The Bass administration has increased pay and benefits to thousands of city employees and police officers. It has also had to hand out record liability settlement payments due to LAPD excessive force claims and dangerous street and transport conditions.

Raman, a democratic socialist, has frequently voted against high city spending, opposing pay raises negotiated by Bass for Los Angeles Police Department officers and the $2.6-billion expansion of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

“She’s the one that says, ‘We cannot afford that. How are you going to pay for that?’ ” Guerra said of Raman. “It’s very, very strange that the socialist is the fiscal hawk.”

Police reform

Violent crime in L.A. has plummeted. Last month, Bass announced a 47% drop in homicides since she took office, and she has also touted a decline in property crime such as burglaries.

But police reform and police pay remain issues. While Raman has reversed her past stance on defunding the police, she has stated she would replace LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, who she says has “lost the confidence” of Angelenos on the issue of immigration. The city, she says, needs a police chief who ensures officers do not cooperate with federal immigration officers. She has vowed to conduct an audit of the department to determine whehter there are gaps between Los Angeles’ “sanctuary city” policies and police practices.

Bass has publicly backed McDonnell, supporting his efforts to stem officer attrition and rebuild the department’s ranks. The department would be significantly disrupted, she has argued, if the chief is removed before the 2028 Olympic Games.

City Hall credibility

The new mayor will also face a challenge that is harder to qualify: making residents believe City Hall can fix Los Angeles’ many problems.

“I think we’re beyond pessimism in some places,” Hogen-Esch said, noting that for the first time in a quarter of a century he has spotted no mayoral campaign signs in his El Sereno neighborhood.

When it comes to homelessness, Angelenos would be happy to spend money if it actually solved the problem, said Jim Newton, a veteran journalist and editor of UCLA Blueprint magazine. Most want encampments gone for good, and not by locking people up or punishing them for being poor, but by genuinely helping them to be better.

“Is that possible?” he said. “I don’t know.”

Others say it will take new ideas and big swings that can be challenging in a city where the mayor has only limited powers.

“When they first took power, they were incredibly innovative and incredibly creative,” Guerra said. “Now they not only lack creativity and innovation in Los Angeles, but compared to other city governments, they’re laggard in implementing new ideas.”

The teen classics of Generation X have come under fire — even by Molly Ringwald herself, admirably — for some of their retrograde politics. But there’s too much in this John Hughes-scripted teen drama that is achingly sincere and well-intentioned to dismiss. Harry Dean Stanton gives the performance of the movie (maybe his career) as a single dad trying to get it right, even though he’s out of his depths. He buys his daughter a pink dress for her prom, which he can’t afford, and the gesture breaks your heart. Vidiots is celebrating Stanton’s work throughout November, with nights devoted to “Repo Man” and “Paris, Texas,” but “Pretty in Pink” calls out the strongest, with its soundtrack that can still instill in a young person an excellent sense of musical taste.

“Pretty in Pink” is playing Nov. 14 at Vidiots. Tickets here.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her challenger Nithya Raman darted across the city over the weekend, foraging for votes as the clock ticks down before Tuesday’s election.

The former allies, and now competitors, took veiled shots at each other as they each hit multiple campaign stops Sunday morning, with both attending church services and other events.

Bass’ first stop Sunday morning was at South L.A. Cafe, where she spoke with alumnae of the Divine Nine, a group of historically Black fraternities and sororities. She then did a hit on the KBLA radio station.

“You know who I am. I am the same person as I have been,” Bass said, citing her roots in South L.A., where she was a community organizer as a young adult. “No matter what position I have held, this community — my community — has always been front and center of the work that I have done.”

Woodrow Bailey, a 63-year-old University of Southern California grad who was a member of Phi Beta Sigma, said he knew Bass when she was working at her nonprofit Community Coalition in the 1990s, just down the street from where South L.A. Cafe now stands. His long relationship with Bass made him confident in her leadership

“I understand what she’s trying to accomplish here,” Bailey said.

After the event Bass left to attend Mass at four churches and one Sikh temple. She also planned to cast her ballot Sunday.

Raman started the day in Boyle Heights at Dolores Mission Catholic Church. The council member has spent significant time in Boyle Heights following the Lineage fire, which burned down a massive cold food storage facility, sending noxious smoke into the heavily Latino neighborhood.

Raman attended Mass at 9 a.m. then chatted with parishioners in English and Spanish and grabbed food from a taco stand set up in the church’s courtyard. Children splashed in the fountain and played with a soccer ball as the mayoral hopeful introduced herself to voters.

“My calendar is so packed. I’m actually scared to look at it,” Raman told reporters outside the church, before noting she was going to a canvass in Northridge and at a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) event in Canoga Park. The council member added that she was taking a brief pause in the middle of the day to go to an 11th birthday bowling party for her twins.

“L.A. is frustrated and I will bring change,” Raman said. “I brought that urgency to services in my district. I’ve reduced homelessness. I’ve addressed the residents’ issues that they’ve brought to me, and I want to bring that same responsiveness and urgency to every block of Los Angeles.”

The campaigns last week reported their final fundraising numbers before Election Day. Bass has now raised a total of just over $5.4 million, compared to $2.7 million for Raman.

In the final period, between Oct. 18 and 28, Bass reporting raising $139,737.28 while Raman took in $122,498.83.

Bass and Raman are locked in a dead heat, with the final poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, cosponsored by The Times, finding that 40% of likely L.A. voters said they supported Raman, while 40% supported Bass. But 19% were still undecided.

Times data and graphics journalist Sandhya Kambhampati contributed to this report.

Michael Mann, the acclaimed filmmaker behind crime thrillers including “Heat” (1995) and “Collateral” (2004), accidentally shot himself in the leg Saturday at a Los Angeles gun range, suffering a minor injury.

“On Saturday, at a gun range, a weapon accidentally discharged while holstered, resulting in a superficial injury to film director Michael Mann,” his representative said in a statement Sunday. “He was treated and is being released.”

Mann, 83, was engaged in target practice at a sanctioned shooting range when the accident occurred. The director has been an experienced target shooter for decades, according to a person familiar with the circumstances, who described the injury as minor and subcutaneous.

The shooting occurred around 4 p.m. Saturday at the Range LA, according to TMZ, which first reported the incident. Police and paramedics responded, and Mann was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Mann is known for his painstaking attention to detail and realistic depictions of gun violence, perhaps most famously in the elaborate bank robbery shootout in “Heat,” in which Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer’s heavily armed crew exchange gunfire with police on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. He is developing a sequel to the film, which is expected to begin shooting early next year.

Mann also helped define the look and feel of the influential 1980s television series “Miami Vice,” serving as executive producer before directing a 2006 film adaptation. His other credits include “Thief” (1981), “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992), “The Insider” (1999), which earned seven Oscar nominations, “Ali” (2001) and “Ferrari” (2023).

Gift-giving season is here, and if your list is long and you’re feeling completely overwhelmed, food is the answer. Your food-loving friends, family and colleagues will love kitchenware, chocolates, coffee, spices and merch from their favorite restaurants.

This list has something for every kind of food fan. Find sweet-and-savory snack boxes filled with chocolate bars, candies, spicy Calabrian salami and antipasto olives. A monthly subscription keeps coffee fans in the best of expertly roasted beans from around the world. Local tiki bar Tiki Kai commissioned local artist Tom Laura — also known as BigToe — to create vintage-inspired stoneware mugs that serve as art pieces. A colorful prep bowl set from Hedley & Bennett, a chocolate advent calendar, a cake decorating workshop … we’ve got you covered.

Editor’s note: If you make a purchase using some of our links, the L.A. Times may be compensated. Prices and availability are subject to change. In some cases, listed websites may use location-based pricing.

In Los Angeles, we’re truly spoiled. We have sunny weather most of the year along with several beaches where we can cool off. We also have dozens of wonderful restaurants that showcase the diversity of the city as well as all of the entertainment one could ever ask for. As if that weren’t already enough, L.A. is home to some of the coolest and most exciting brands.

Looking for apparel? Home goods? Something else? There are several local businesses worth supporting year-round, but especially during the holiday season.

All of the gifts featured on this list are from L.A. brands — some of which were created by native Angelenos like visual artist Lauren Halsey and Cash Saunders of the Shea Parlor. Only a handful of the businesses have storefronts, while others serve their customers online (and sometimes at local flea markets). All of them, though, serve as reminders of why purchasing a gift from a neighbor is a way bigger flex than shopping at a big-box store.

Editor’s note: If you make a purchase using some of our links, the L.A. Times may be compensated. Prices and availability are subject to change. In some cases, listed websites may use location-based pricing.

There’s a reason why people like to shop locally during the holidays. You don’t have to worry anxiously about when your gift will arrive — for the kids; it’s always for the kids. It doesn’t have to be like that.

This year, try visiting a local gift shop or a holiday craft fair and pick out a gift in person from a neighbor right here in L.A.

As in past years, many of the items in our Made in L.A. list are small-batch or made-to-order. You’ll find things including unique ceramics, puzzle candles, handmade jewelry and even a life-affirming baseball cap designed by an 11-year-old.

The best holiday gifts aren’t just those that arrive quickly. They also have heart. If you’re searching for the perfect gift, whether it’s the perfect handmade coffee mug or silk-screened tee boasting local pride, check out our list of favorites below.

Editor’s note: If you make a purchase using some of our links, the L.A. Times may be compensated. Prices and availability are subject to change. In some cases, listed websites may use location-based pricing.

Los Angeles voters will head to the polls Tuesday to vote on a slew of ballot measures, including a half-cent sales tax that would beef up the city’s Fire Department — but which also would cost Angelenos more to fill up their gas tanks, buy clothes and dine out.

Another measure would allow the City Council to meet just once a week, instead of three times as required by the City Charter.

In all, there are eight ballot measures before L.A. voters that could have a significant impact on how the city government functions, and which take just a simple majority to pass.

Here’s a roundup:

Measure FD: Sales tax hike for the Fire Department

Voters will consider a half-cent increase to the city’s retail sales tax, bumping it from 10.25 cents per dollar spent to 10.75 cents per dollar spent. The tax hike is expected to raise an estimated $345 million annually and would be funneled into a separate fund specifically for the Fire Department.

The sales tax increase was spearheaded by the union representing rank-and-file firefighters, who have long complained the department is underfunded.

The city still would be required to fund the department at the same average percentage out of the general fund, ensuring extra revenue generated by the tax would add to its regular budget.

Opponents say this would be the third sales tax hike since 2024, costing an average of $86 per person and $345 for a family of four in additional sales taxes each year.

The firefighters union said the tax fund is essential to increase the number of firefighters and lower response times across the city.

Charter Amendment EE: Fewer City Council meetings

Amendment EE would allow the Council to meet once a week instead of three times, as required under the City Charter.

The Council voted 12-0 to put the measure on the ballot, with three council members absent. Council members in support of the measure said the three meetings are costly and ineffective, and noted their time is better spent working in their district.

Councilmember Monica Rodriguez opposed the measure, saying it would reduce the time available for L.A. residents to engage with their representatives in a public forum and could lead to council members rushing through deliberations on important matters.

The amendment also would approve changes to how the city governs. If passed, independent inspectors for the L.A. Police and Fire Departments would have more power to conduct audits, and it would increase the penalties for campaign finance violations. The changes also include raising the number of signatures needed for a ballot referendum and would bar ethics commissioners from running for City Council or the Los Angeles Board of Education for five years after they leave office.

Proposition TE: An exception to the ‘mansion tax’

Proposition TE would grant a one-time exemption to Palisades fire victims from paying the so-called “mansion tax” if they sell their home within five years of the disaster.

The “mansion tax,” or Measure ULA, took effect in 2023 and imposed an additional 4% transfer tax on all L.A. property sales above $5.4 million and a 5.5% tax on sales above $10.9 million. Despite its nickname, the tax also falls on more modest multifamily residences like apartment buildings that exceed the sales price benchmarks.

The proposition would exempt Pacific Palisades homeowners from paying the tax, regardless of whether they lived at the property or not. It also would refund any resident who already sold their property and paid the tax.

The proposition was spearheaded by Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the region. Supporters say fire victims have been through enough and should have more flexibility as they navigate expensive rebuilding costs.

Opponents argue the proposition is too broad and should have included only victims whose primary residence was destroyed.

Charter Amendment LA: Restructuring how the city administers public works

Amendment LA is intended to more efficiently deliver basic city services for infrastructure in need of repair, including streets in need of repaving, dangerous sidewalks and broken streetlights. It also would leverage existing resources to open up sources of revenue.

The measure would reduce the sway of the Board of Public Works or pave the way to eliminate it, while also increasing the power of the director of public works. Critics oppose the elimination of the board, saying it would weaken accountability and increase public scrutiny.

Charter Amendment PL: Streamlining the Planning Department

L.A. residents have for years complained that navigating the Planning Department to build or open businesses is complicated and confusing.

Amendment PL includes five proposals that would increase efficiency and streamline certain parts of the Planning Department, which controls land use and approves construction and renovation projects.

The changes would consolidate seven Area Planning Commissions into one, partly to lower costs and ensure that all appeals and applications are governed by the same logic. It also would give the City Council more flexibility in approving taller buildings and set deadlines to speed up rulings from the City Planning Commission.

Charter Amendment PRK: Doubling the money for recreation and parks

Amendment PRK would double the minimum amount of money set aside for the Department of Recreation and Parks by reworking the parameters of the city budget.

The department is in charge of maintaining green spaces, playing fields and senior centers in the city. The City Charter mandates the department receive .0325% of the total assessed value of taxable properties, which is about $303 million for the park system this year and would be around $493 million in 10 years.

If the measure passes, that would double, meaning the park system would get a minimum of $986 million by 2036.

Supporters say the existing city allocation isn’t enough and has led to deteriorating recreation centers, swimming pools and restrooms. Critics warn it would force city officials to cut other services to make room for this additional funding.

Charter Amendment PRT: Changes to airports, harbor and water and power departments

Charter Amendment PRT is part of a package of proposed changes to the City Charter to increase transparency, build public trust and streamline operations. It would change how airports, harbors and the Department of Water and Power are managed.

The amendment would require that two of the seven members of the Los Angeles World Airport’s board of commissioners, who oversee Van Nuys and Los Angeles International airports, live in Van Nuys and three live around LAX.

It also would require the L.A. Board of Harbor Commissioners allocate a portion of its operating income from the Port of Los Angeles to investments in waterfront public access projects. The harbor is one of the busiest in the country and generates revenue from the operators at its terminals. PRT also would broaden public insight into how lease agreements with the port affect the local workforce.

Supporters say people overseeing Van Nuys and LAX should have a firsthand understanding of living near the airports.

No ballot argument against PRT was submitted, although the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce said it opposes the measure, citing concern over the additional requirements it would impose on businesses and the potential impact on port operations.

Charter Amendment SC: Altering LAUSD’s campaign finance rules

Amendment SC wouldn’t make major changes, but would clarify rules on campaign finance for candidates running for a seat on the Board of Education, which oversees LAUSD.

Language would be simplified to clarify that the same rules apply for mayoral candidates and Board of Education candidates, except in certain instances. Some of those rules include governing campaign contribution limits, filing deadlines, public disclosures and fundraising windows.

Supporters say it won’t make any substantive changes, but instead make the rules easier to understand by deleting duplicated language. No argument was provided against the amendment.

Voters in the city of Los Angeles will consider eight ballot measures covering everything from taxes and fire resources to governance of airports and the port and the quality of parks.

L.A. City Measure FD

The basics

Measure FD would increase sales taxes by 0.5% to provide additional funding for the city Fire Department. The measure would raise an estimated $345 million annually. Under the plan, the city’s retail sales tax would increase from 10.25 cents per dollar spent to 10.75 cents per dollar spent.

Impact

The ballot initiative was spearheaded by the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, the union representing rank-and-file firefighters, which has long argued that the department is underfunded. It claims decades of neglect have left the department understaffed and under-resourced.

Critics point out that this would be the third sales tax hike since 2024, following L.A. County hikes for homelessness (Measure A in 2024) and healthcare (Measure ER in the June 2 primary). The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. estimates that Measure FD will cost an average of $86 per person and $345 for a family of four in additional sales taxes each year.

Read more:

Proposition TE

The basics

Proposition TE would carve out a five-year exemption from L.A.’s “mansion tax” for Pacific Palisades homes damaged or destroyed in the 2025 wildfire, sparing sellers six-figure transfer bills on high-end properties. The mansion tax levies a 4% transfer tax on all L.A. property sales above $5.4 million and a 5.5% tax on sales above $10.9 million. At the current level, if a Pacific Palisades resident who lost their home in the fire sold the vacant lot for, say, $6 million, they would owe $240,000 in transfer taxes.

The impact

Supporters say fire survivors shouldn’t owe hefty taxes when selling burned-out lots, arguing the break offers basic fairness for families facing insurance shortfalls and steep rebuilding costs. Opponents warn the exemption covers wealthy landlords and investors as well as homeowners, creating a “loophole for the ultrawealthy” and stripping millions annually from the mansion tax’s homeless and affordable housing programs.

Charter Amendment LA

The basics:

Charter Amendment LA would change the way public works are administered in Los Angeles, allow the city to lease its underused land to tenants and open the door to greater city involvement in business enterprises. It also would ease some competitive bidding rules.

The impact

The proposed changes to the Los Angeles City Charter are intended to more efficiently deliver basic city services and speed repairs to deteriorating infrastructure such as streets in need of repaving, unsafe sidewalks and broken streetlights.

Charter Amendment PL

The basics

Charter Amendment PL would tweak L.A.’s Planning Department, promising faster decisions, clearer rules and more consistent oversight of development citywide. Seven volunteer Area Planning Commissions would be replaced by a single Neighborhood Appeals Board, cutting costs and standardizing rulings on liquor licenses, hillside homes and small-business projects.

The measure would let the City Council raise building height limits, set strict timelines on planning votes and automatically approve some amendments, opening the door to taller towers and speedier permitting.

The impact

Homeowners, developers and businesses have complained that navigating the Planning Department can be complicated and confusing. These changes aim to streamline how permits and projects move through the department.

Charter Amendment EE

The basics

Charter Amendment EE would cut the number of required L.A. City Council meetings from three to one weekly while reshaping ethics rules, watchdog powers and referendum signature thresholds.

The impact

Supporters call three weekly meetings inefficient and costly, arguing fewer full sessions would free council members to work in their districts and steer more detailed public debate into committee hearings. Opponents warn EE would shrink public access, rush deliberations and effectively neuter referendums, casting the ethics and oversight tweaks as modest cover for a deeper retreat from transparency.

Charter Amendment PRK

The basics

Charter Amendment PRK would double the minimum budget allocation set aside for the Department of Recreation and Parks, which oversees the upkeep of green spaces, playing fields and senior centers. It is not a new tax or bond.

The impact

Supporters say that the change will allow the city to give Angelenos the park and recreation services they deserve. Critics contend it will tie the hands of the city’s elected officials, forcing them to cut other services to make room for additional park funding.

Charter Amendment PRT

The basics

Charter Amendment PRT would change the composition of the Los Angeles World Airport’s board of commissioners, which oversees Van Nuys and Los Angeles International airports. It would require that two of the seven board members live in Van Nuys and three live around LAX — a footprint that the amendment does not define. As for the Port of Los Angeles, the amendment would require the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners to annually allocate a portion of the harbor’s operating income to investments in waterfront public access projects. It also would broaden public insight into how lease agreements with the port affect the local workforce by adding employment reporting requirements for any leaseholder extending a lease or any lease applicant.

The impact

The measure was developed through a reform effort started after a series of scandals. Backers say it will boost public accountability. There was initial pushback among some terminal leaseholders at the Port of Los Angeles.

Charter Amendment SC

The basics

Charter Amendment SC aims to clarify campaign finance rules for candidates running for a seat on the L.A. Unified Board of Education, which overseas the school district and around 350,000 students.

The impact

Repetitive language in the Los Angeles City Charter would be deleted and the charter would make clear that the same campaign finance rules apply to both mayoral candidates and Board of Education candidates, except in certain instances, the measure says. Among those requirements are rules governing campaign contribution limits, filing deadlines, public disclosures and fundraising windows.

Four more days.

Time is rapidly running out for Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who are preparing for one last grueling push to reach voters in the mayoral election by Tuesday. With the UC Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times poll showing a dead heat, the two are expected to fan out across the city over the weekend, hoping to generate some free news coverage, a burst of social media posts and face-to-face contact with voters.

Bass is planning another appearance Saturday with real estate developer Rick Caruso, who was a ferocious critic of the mayor in the wake of the Palisades fire but mended fences with her in recent months. She also has a rally that day in Westlake with organized labor and a tour of small businesses in Boyle Heights with state Sen. María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles).

Raman heads Saturday to a Halloween block party in the San Fernando Valley and an event in downtown L.A. featuring workers from Unite Here Local 11, which has sent canvassers to knock on doors on her behalf. On Sunday, her agenda includes a church service in Boyle Heights and a door-knocking event in Northridge.

“This movement is reaching every corner of Los Angeles, and this weekend, we’re taking that energy all over this city,” Raman said.

Bass and Raman had already ramped up their schedules in recent days. The mayor appeared Thursday evening with Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, one of her endorsers, at a news conference about streetlight repairs in Hollywood. The following morning she was in Encino, talking to residents frustrated with Raman’s performance in their district.

In an interview with The Times, Bass summed up her packed itinerary using a single word over and over.

“Voters, voters, voters, voters. And that’s what I’ve been doing,” she said. “I’m just exhausted. Voters and media, from early morning until late at night.”

Raman, for her part, tried to develop an overarching theme around her events, standing outside Department of Water and Power headquarters in downtown L.A. on Tuesday to highlight the issue of soaring electrical bills and heading to Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday to ding the mayor over her oversight of SkyLink, the elevated airport people mover that is behind schedule and $1.4 billion over budget.

Those and other news conferences were built around her promise to provide greater oversight as mayor. But over the weekend, Raman is expected to dial back the policy a bit, heading to two Día de los Muertos events and going trick-or-treating with her twins.

The Garcetti gang stumps for Raman

With the battle for L.A. mayor now in the home stretch, one longtime political figure has managed to stay largely out of the public eye: former Mayor Eric Garcetti, who served at City Hall right before Bass.

We can’t say the same for many former members of Garcetti’s political and government teams. Over the last few months, they’ve been popping up at a number of Raman events, and a few have had pivotal roles with her team as she runs for mayor.

Raman has been relying heavily on campaign strategist Jeff Millman, who was a Garcetti advisor on and off throughout his mayoral tenure. She’s turned to Rick Cole, a former Garcetti deputy mayor now on the Pasadena City Council, for policy guidance. And she has Dae Levine, a onetime Garcetti communications director, staffing her within City Hall.

But there’s more. The city’s former heat officer, Marta Segura, who was pushed out earlier this year, appeared at Raman campaign events focused on her support from environmentalists and Latinos.

Former high-level Garcetti advisor Rick Jacobs has shown up for several Raman news conferences, including a recent one celebrating her endorsement from County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. In 2020, a member of Garcetti’s security detail accused Jacobs of sexually harassing him. Jacobs denied harassing anyone. The city paid $1.8 million to resolve the officer’s lawsuit.

Jacobs, a consultant, counts the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters as one of his clients. However, he is not working with their independent expenditure committee supporting Raman.

Other onetime members of Team Garcetti have pitched in financially.

Renee Dake Wilson, a former Garcetti planning commissioner, has donated at least $30,000 to independent expenditure committees backing Raman, plus an additional $3,600 directly to her campaign. Former Garcetti aide Leo Daube, now working for Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, has donated $2,800 to Raman since she entered the race.

Finally, Raman has relied on Jamie York for help with research, matching funds and compliance with city and state ethics rules. York was part of Garcetti’s campaign team in the 2017 election, helping with campaign fundraising.

State of play

— CARUSO CRACKS: After months of hedging, billionaire Rick Caruso revealed that he intends to vote for Bass, following nearly two years of sharp criticism of the mayor’s record. “For the love of LA, I must put the past behind me,” he said. Caruso said it’s not an endorsement.

— RATTLED BY ROBO-RAMAN: Raman’s campaign filed a lengthy ethics complaint against Thrive LA, a pro-Bass advocacy group, over its decision to set up an AI chatbot phone line mimicking Raman’s voice and mocking her record on homelessness. Thrive LA responded by saying it played by the rules and that its satirical chatbot is protected free speech.

— BATTLING FOR SMALL BIZ: Bass and Raman have been sparring over their approach to small business, with the mayor accusing her rival of ignoring those constituents. Business owners offered a more complex picture.

— SWITCHING TEAMS: Political operative Solomon Rivera left his high-level post in the mayor’s office earlier this year, resurfacing a few months later as principal officer with Unidos Con Bass, an independent expenditure group. Ethics experts questioned whether his change in jobs runs afoul of a law prohibiting coordination between outside campaigns and their favored candidates. Rivera’s lawyer said no coordination occurred.

— DSA DELAY: The Democratic Socialists of America once again postponed a vote on whether to rescind the L.A. chapter’s endorsement of Raman, over concerns she hadn’t taken a tough enough stand against Israel.

— OIL-DRILLING BAN: The City Council voted Wednesday to phase out oil drilling over the next two decades, making L.A. the largest city in the country to do so. Bass’ office signed the ordinance Thursday.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to fight homelessness went to South L.A., focusing on two sections within Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s district.
• On the docket next week: Duh! Tuesday is the last day to vote in the election.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@latimes.com. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Two experienced leaders of the largest law enforcement agency in the country face off, four years after their first showdown, to once again helm the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Here’s what you need to know about:

The candidates

• Incumbent Robert Luna is a former Long Beach police chief who came out of retirement to run for sheriff in 2021 and unseated Alex Villanueva in the November 2022 election. Luna has presided over declines in homicides and violent crime as well as establishing a period of relative calm after Villanueva’s tenure, which was marked by controversy and scandal. Luna’s office, however, has come under scrutiny, including when a grenade accidentally exploded in a department parking lot, killing three deputies.
• Villanueva switched his party registration from Democrat to Republican in the first two years of his leadership and was a regular on Fox News vilifying “woke” culture and criticizing Democrats. Villanueva launched, then walked back, a criminal-leak investigation of a Los Angeles Times reporter, and he was ordered to testify after sheriff’s deputies took and shared pictures at the site of Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crash.

State of the race

In the primary election, Luna received 44.2% of the vote versus Villanueva’s 21.7%. Luna also has raised more money for his campaign. From Jan. 1 to Sept. 19, he had raised more than $1.3 million; Villanueva had raised a little more than $320,000.

Issues

Staffing and retention

• Under Luna, the number of new deputies who graduated from the sheriff’s academy rose by nearly a third from 2024 to 2025, with more than 400 graduates last year, the department said. Recent data also show that retention rates have risen under Luna after a steep decline toward the end of Villanueva’s tenure.
• Villanueva claims that he keeps up with the department he once ran, and that deputies frequently complain to him about understaffing and low morale.

Crime trends

• Under Luna, violent crime has fallen every year since he took office. Between 2023, his first full year in office, and 2025, homicides fell by more than 25%. Data show that property crimes were broadly down from 2022.
• Villanueva again maintains that deputies he has stayed in touch with feel that crime has run rampant since he left office.

2028 Olympics

• Villanueva argues that Luna is ill-prepared to handle the next four years, including assisting with the Olympics.
• Luna refuted the claim by pointing to the role his department played in the multi-agency law enforcement effort to maintain public safety during the World Cup this year.

The race for L.A. city attorney delivered a shock this spring when incumbent Hydee Feldstein Soto was ousted, an upset the likes of which hadn’t happened in nearly a century. The pair of candidates who remain have since laid out their widely differing visions of the job.

Here’s what you need to know.

The candidates

• John McKinney is an L.A. County deputy district attorney with nearly 30 years of legal experience. He vows to clean up what he calls a blighted downtown and work closely with his boss and backer, Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman, to reduce crime in the city.
• Marissa Roy is a deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice. She plans to use the office to fight for tenant and wage workers. Her vision of the city attorney is to be the “people’s lawyer” for L.A.

In their own words

Here are the Q&As with each of the candidates.

State of the race

Roy is leading in the race to become the next Los Angeles city attorney. She was ahead by 10 percentage points in the most recent poll conducted by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times.

Still, some local voters don’t know the candidates by name.

Issues

Criminal justice

• McKinney is focusing his campaign on tamping down quality-of-life crimes in the city such as organized retail theft, drug dealing and street racing. McKinney would prioritize public safety and vows to go after demonstrators who block freeways or engage in conduct similar to the 2024 pro-Palestine encampments on UCLA’s campus.
• Roy wants to funnel nonviolent offenders to diversion programs such as mental health treatment or vocational training.

Hefty legal payouts

• McKinney said he’d lean on his long experience as a trial attorney to quickly decide which incoming lawsuits against the city should be fought and which should be settled in order to reduce the city’s legal costs.
• Roy wants to bring civil litigation back in-house to rein in the millions spent on outside counsel. She also argues for beefing up the claims process so legitimate suits are settled effectively and frivolous ones are fought.

How each candidate would handle Trump

• McKinney would work to balance respecting federal authority as required by law against protecting the constitutional rights of city residents and defending local resources if threatened by federal overreach.
• Roy has made fighting the Trump administration a centerpiece in her campaign.

Homelessness

• McKinney wants to use the court system as a “last resort” to leverage people into accepting services or shelter.
• Roy says renter protections will be vital to stemming the city’s homeless crisis.