Los Angeles Times

Bass’ lead widens over Caruso in L.A. mayor’s race

Lawmaker leads by 6 points in latest count, which also boosts progressiv­e hopefuls.

- By Dakota Smith

Rep. Karen Bass has widened her lead to more than 6 percentage points over developer Rick Caruso in the Los Angeles mayor’s race, according to results released Friday by the county Registrar-Recorder’s office.

Bass has 42.9% to Caruso’s 36.3%, with a vote margin of more than 40,000, the results show.

Caruso initially led Bass by 5 percentage points after the June 7 election. But that order flipped as hundreds of thousands of vote-by-mail ballots were processed by county workers in subsequent days.

Friday’s updated results also boosted several progressiv­e candidates, including one who appears to be on the path to beating a twoterm Los Angeles city councilman. Most of the remaining ballots will be counted by Tuesday, when the next update will occur, said Registrar-Recorder spokesman Michael Sanchez. County officials estimated that 74,100 ballots countywide remain to be processed, a fraction of the 1.57 million votes counted so far.

Regardless of the final tally, Bass and Caruso are assured spots in the Nov. 8 runoff because they are the top two finishers and neither will top 50% plus one of the votes cast.

Friday’s tally in the Los Angeles mayoral race is in line with the results of a UC Berkeley Institute of Government­al Studies poll cosponsore­d by The Times that showed Bass leading Caruso by 6 percentage points. The poll was conducted in late May.

The updated vote count also helped two candidates challengin­g incumbents on the Los Angeles City Council. Community activist Eunisses Hernandez now leads

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