Late one afternoon, at the intersection of South La Brea Avenue and Obama Boulevard, Shirley Dace cold-called fellow Angelenos and encouraged them to give L.A. Mayor Karen Bass a second term.
“I love Karen Bass because of all the experience she has,” Dace, a retired flight attendant, told me between phone calls. “Karen Bass was raised here. She knows the city. … I’ve seen her around at different events.”
Meanwhile, roughly 10 miles to the northeast, Christian Perez and Marium Mohiuddin organized a night of door-knocking for Bass challenger Nithya Raman in Boyle Heights.
“I think she’s incredibly intelligent and I want to give her an opportunity,” said Perez.
Given the ICE raids and general denunciations of immigrants, Mohiuddin, a Muslim and Canadian immigrant, said he’s been impressed by Raman’s outreach to minority communities. And Raman is an immigrant, too.
“I want a mayor that’s going to protect me,” said Mohiuddin, who speaks out against Islamophobia and antisemitism, “and I really feel like Nithya would go to bat for us.”
You may have noticed a pattern here. Lots of positivity.
I figured that with just hours to go before election day, you’ve heard plenty from me and others about City Hall dysfunction, about each mayoral candidate’s flaws, and about undecided and uninspired voters here in the land of budget-busting rent, broken sidewalks and blue tarps.
It appeared for a while as if Raman wouldn’t even make it out of the primary, and then it looked as though she had a comfortable lead over Bass in the runoff. But if the latest poll can be trusted, it’s hard to pick a winner. So today I’m going to shed every cynical bone in my body — only temporarily, I promise — and hand the megaphone over to people who unabashedly like either Bass or Raman.
And to be honest, in connecting with these folks on the phone, by text and in person, I was inspired by their interest in civic affairs (if only there were more like them), and their belief that their vote matters.
So here goes, and I’ll start with the incumbent.
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Shirley Dace, as she worked the phones at Bass headquarters, referred to a five-page list of personal achievements and positive developments during the mayor’s first term. Violent crime is down, solar street lights have been installed by the thousands, Metro rides are free for students, thousands of affordable housing units are on the way and thousands of homeless people have been brought indoors.
“We have a homeless problem, and I realize that,” Dace said, but she believes there’s been progress. “It takes a while to solve these problems.”
One day I happened upon a social media post by Christian Green, who said he was driving by Bass headquarters and popped in to volunteer. I reached him by phone, and the West L.A. College professor told me he volunteered for Bass four years ago, too. Green said he was once in the foster care system, and said Bass has supported foster youth initiatives dating back to her time in Congress.
Bass is the first Black woman, and first female, to be elected mayor of Los Angeles. Given the history of the city’s power structure, economy and racial makeup, Green said, “that is not something we should take lightly.”
One of Green’s students in African American studies, 23-year-old Kioi Shropshire-Maina, also works as a Bass volunteer.
“I’ve heard about her since I was a kid,” said Shropshire-Maina, a communications major.
One of the things he likes about Bass is that her career has followed a long and varied public service trajectory. She first worked in healthcare as a physician assistant at County-USC, then became a social justice activist and co-founder of the Community Coalition, followed by a leadership role in the California Assembly and 12 years in Congress.
“She’s always been kind of like the standard of public service,” said Shropshire-Maina.
He pushed back when I mentioned that Raman seems to be the candidate with more backing among younger and more progressive voters.
“I definitely think Miss Bass has a lot of youth support. I’ve seen it myself. We organize events all the time, and people turn out,” said Shropshire-Maina.
“She’s the most progressive mayor Los Angeles has ever had,” he added, saying he thinks that has played out in her approach to homelessness. She inherited a huge challenge, Shropshire-Maina said, but moved away from policies that criminalized homelessness. “It started with her executive directive … which made government be more proactive and work across departments, and not just rely on police.”
Volunteers work a phone bank for Mayor Karen Bass’ reelection campaign on Oct. 25.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
At Bass headquarters, Shropshire-Maina worked at one phone bank table while Philip Rosen of Hollywood and Christina Schiepe of Westchester worked another table. Rosen said Bass is a pragmatic Democrat who has been dealt a lot, with homelessness and the Palisades fire, “but she’s taken accountability,” and he believes Raman will be accountable primarily to the Democratic Socialists of America.
Schiepe, who had been to Bass headquarters twice previously, is 16.
“I can’t vote, but you know, at least I can do something that could help the cause,” Schiepe said, telling me her parents also support Bass, and one issue in particular stands out for her.
“We really are not happy with the ICE raids going on at the moment,” she said, and Bass “has done a lot to kind of combat that … and try to get them out of Los Angeles.”
Schiepe said she wants to study political science in college, so who knows. Maybe she and Shropshire-Maina will run for office one day, and I can volunteer for them.
Now on to Raman.
Jane Demian, an Eagle Rock retiree and longtime activist and volunteer, said she would have voted for Bass if the opponent were Pratt, but Raman will get her vote.
Demian thought there were some bumps in the rollout of the mayor’s homelessness plan, but she thinks Raman did a good job as head of the council’s homelessness committee. She noted that Raman was one of the founders of the SELAH neighborhood homeless coalition, which steers people in the direction of housing and case management.
“I’m not put off as others are by her DSA connection. DSA is made up of people who want to provide economic support to working people,” Damian said. The “main focus is affordable housing, healthcare, and good wages for working people.”
Just as the Bass volunteers had their scripts to work with, Raman supporters touted the candidate’s work on renter protections, cleared encampments and a reduction in homelessness in her council district. I met with Mid-City residents Perez and Mohiuddin at La Monarca in Boyle Heights, where they were distributing literature to volunteer door-knockers.
Perez, who works in post-production, and Mohiuddin, who works in communications, both like the specificity they hear in Raman’s comments about homelessness, City Hall accountability and greater urgency in problem-solving.
Los Angeles Councilwoman Nithya Raman, who is challenging Mayor Karen Bass, speaks at an Oct. 19 news conference in North Hollywood.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
“When I see Nithya Raman speak, I see someone who’s sincere, who’s kind of a wonk,” and isn’t afraid to dive into policy minutiae, said Perez, or to forge a path independent of the political establishment or dependent on endorsements from fellow council members.
Perez and Mohiuddin voted for Bass four years ago, but don’t think she’s earned a second term.
“It’s very hard to find an Angeleno who’s happy with government,” Perez said.
The change Mohiuddin wants to see, she told me, is simple. She wants for a candidate “to say something’s going to happen, and then stick to it.”
As Perez sees it, Bass has attempted to position herself as the candidate of the people.
“But in canvassing and speaking to people throughout the city … there’s a lot of people who are disappointed with the status quo and perhaps not enough has happened in the last four years to justify them giving [her] another shot,” he said. “So I do think there is an aspect of [voters being hungry for] fresh blood and energy in order to confront the emergencies the city is facing.”
Whatever the outcome on election day, Mohiuddin said, there will be a victory of sorts.
“We’re still going to have a woman leading the city.”
steve.lopez@latimes.com
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