Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass remains the favorite to win November’s mayoral runoff despite making one of the most consequential personnel changes of her reelection campaign, replacing her longtime chief strategist just four months before Election Day.
Bass announced on June 24 that veteran Democratic strategist Julie Chávez Rodriguez would take over campaign leadership after Douglas Herman—who helped engineer her successful 2022 mayoral campaign—stepped aside, citing “strategic differences.”
Bass enters the runoff with clear advantages in polling aggregates and prediction markets, while still confronting persistent voter concerns over homelessness, public safety and the city’s response to recent crises that have prevented her from opening a commanding lead…