Karen Bass and Nithya Raman met face to face in Sherman Oaks on Wednesday night for their first debate since they emerged as the top vote-getters in the June 2 mayoral primary. The encounter quickly turned personal, with Bass pressing Raman on missed votes and board attendance while Raman tried to explain why she had been away from some meetings.
For voters still sorting out the race, the debate offered the first direct general-election contrast between the two front-runners. It also made clear why Bass is leaning so hard into the attack line: she has held one elected office or another for 22 years, while Raman has been in politics only since 2020, and the mayor repeatedly cast her rival as inexperienced and ineffective.
Bass pointed to Raman’s record in office, saying she had missed the second-most votes among councilmembers during her six years in office. Raman said she had missed many meetings because she was representing the city on the South Coast Air Quality Management District and other governmental boards. When Bass asked whether she was “getting ready to resign” from those posts, Raman replied, “I’m sorry?”
The debate itself had the feel of a test not just of style but of substance. Bass kept returning to the same criticism, saying Raman governed as if L.A. were “an academic institution,” while Raman pushed back by defending the work that kept her away from council sessions. Bass also said Raman’s colleagues had other official responsibilities, but “they find their way to work.”
There were policy flashes inside the exchange, though they never fully displaced the personal edge. At one point, the mayor trashed street vending, and a moderator complained that a taquero had set up in the parking lot of Sherman Oaks’ La Fogata. But the sharper contrast remained the one the candidates themselves created: Bass arguing that Raman had not shown up enough to be trusted, and Raman saying her absences were tied to city work on other boards.
That friction matters because Bass and Raman had already faced each other twice before on the debate stage during the primary, and Wednesday night was the first time they did so as the race’s top two finishers. The event, put on by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., gave the campaign a new public measuring stick after a cycle in which Bass’s reelection effort has struggled and Raman has kept closing the gap. For now, the question is not whether the two can spar. It is whether Bass can turn the debate into proof that Raman is not ready, or whether voters will hear the board-work defense and see a candidate explaining how she has been spending her time.
