Los Angeles voters will decide Tuesday whether to reelect Mayor Karen Bass or give the job to City Councilmember Nithya Raman in a race that a poll says tightened dramatically in recent weeks.

An October poll from University of California, Berkeley's Institute of Government Studies and the Los Angeles Times shows both candidates are tied at 40% among likely voters, while roughly 19% of voters remain undecided.

Raman was leading Bass 39% to 28% in September, with 33% undecided in a poll by the same organizations.

Both candidates in the nation's second-largest city are Democrats who have spent months trying to tell voters that they are the right woman for the job. Homelessness and housing policy are big issues, but so are public safety and policing, followed by basic city services and infrastructure.

The candidates have also clashed over the city's crisis response, particularly following the fallout from recent emergencies like the Palisades Fire and the Lineage Warehouse fire in Boyle Heights.

During an October debate, Raman criticized Bass's absence during critical moments, framing it as a systemic failure of leadership.

"If there is another emergency, you will not have to ask, if I am mayor, where our mayor is. I will be on the front lines," Raman vowed during the debate at the NBC4 and Telemundo 52 studio in Universal City in the Los Angeles area.

Bass expressed remorse over past response challenges while emphasizing structural reforms, new leadership within the fire department, and steps taken to fast-track housing construction and community assistance.

"I am so profoundly sorry that I was not in my city when my city needed me,” said Bass, who was in Ghana for a presidential inauguration when the devastating Palisades Fire started on Jan. 7, 2025.

“We have done a lot to fast-track the building," said Bass, who previously served as a congresswoman and the California Assembly speaker.

The mayor is banking on endorsements from first responders including the Los Angeles Police Protective League and Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna to win votes.

Near the end of October, billionaire developer Rick Caruso, a Democrat who lost to Bass in the 2022 general election, said he will be voting for Bass this year.

Raman, meanwhile, has apologized for saying in the October debate that Los Angeles “used to be the gold standard in terms of non-cooperation with immigration enforcement, years ago under the era of Daryl Gates.”

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates worked at a time of controversy over reports of racial issues and police brutality. In April 1992, four LAPD officers were acquitted of charges related to the beating of Rodney King, a Black man, by a jury in Simi Valley in neighboring Ventura County. Critics at the time noted the jury had no Black members. Reaction to the acquittal came in the form of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. In 1993, a racially mixed federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officer of Laurence M. Powell of violating King's constitutional civil rights. And King won $3.8 million in a lawsuit against the city in 1994.

Raman said she was trying to make a point about the city's history of immigration enforcement and non-cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Bass also claimed in the debate that Raman has a constituent problem, adding that the mayor made a deal with Raman to handle some of the council member’s constituent issues.

Raman denied the claim, saying instead that the mayor is the one with problems.

"We cannot afford another four years of decline of mismanagement, of excuses," Raman said during the debate.