LA Podcast - Prattfall

Alissa, Mike, and guest co-host Marco Santana recap the election results from a wild primary season. Who are the winners and losers? How did progressive incumbents and challengers fare? And the mayoral race numbers seem to show that Angelenos will never have to think about Spencer Pratt again.

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SHOW NOTES

After we recorded, Nithya Raman surged ahead of Spencer Pratt and appears set to hold her #2 spot to make the runoff with LA Mayor Karen Bass. Decision Desk has already called the race

Mike rejects the framing that mainstream Democrats “survived” the election

When MAGA loses they say everyone else is “cheating,” but that’s not the case. California makes it very easy to vote and counts every ballot — and that takes time

You can view LA County’s election results, new ballot drops are added every day from 4 to 5 p.m., but the absolute best way to track what’s happening in the mayoral race is to use Scott’s spreadsheet

The biggest winner of this election cycle was Kenneth Mejia, dancing on election night “feeling like 10 million bucks,” a reference to his opponent’s mom spending $10 million — 10! MILLION! — dollars in a failed attempt to defeat him

Hydee Feldstein Soto is also out, the first incumbent LA city attorney to lose in 100 years. Marissa Roy and John McKinney will advance

The New York Times election tracker is the best place to track state elections with more coverage at CalMatters

In the governor race, Xavier Becerra moved to first and will advance to the runoff. Tom Steyer has a very small and dwindling chance of bumping Republican Steve Hilton out of the second spot For insurance commissioner, progressive Jane Kim has a decisive lead over Ben Allen who is still wrestling for a runoff spot with Republican Stacy Korsgaden

U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez’s re-election campaign received an election day bombshell as the House ethics committee opened an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations. He’s headed to the runoff with Justice Democrat Angela Gonzales-Torres

Pratt told CNN’s Elex Michaelson he would win outright with 50 percent (HAHAHA)

And MS Now’s Jacob Soboroff offered a very clear-eyed assessment of Pratt’s poisonous populism and connection to Trump

Alissa is honestly very mad that Pratt was boosted so much by elected officials who took him and his conspiracies so seriously

Bass gave a triumphant speech on election night where she rallied supporters

Raman was moved to tears when talking about building a city for her kids (which right-wingers claimed was a teary concession speech)

Monica Rodriguez gave an absolutely brutal interview where she called Raman’s run “disgusting” (remember we told you Rodriguez was toying with a mayoral run)

Monterey Park voted overwhelmingly to ban data centers, the first U.S. city to pass an outright ban

Last month, Rachel came in second in the D Line Dash, the subway/car/bike race from Beverly Hills to Pershing Square. Here’s Rachel’s journey as the driver. The transit rider came in first, of course, and the cyclist came in a very close third

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This week’s episode was produced by Charlotte Landes

The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward

Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky

Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CalState LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and  @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky

Marco Santana brings over a decade of leadership to the LA homelessness services sector and is a former candidate and active leader within local Democratic party politics. He’s at @Marco4LA on Instagram