LA Podcast - Make Every Vote County

Alissa, Godfrey, and guest co-host Robert Greene dig into the minutiae of ongoing county governance reform and our upcoming ballot measure alphabet soup. A new poll turns the mayoral race on its head: Councilmember Nithya Raman is now leading Karen Bass by double digits. And does Los Angeles have a weak mayor… or is it just a weak city?

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, on the web at lapodcast.org, or almost anywhere you get your podcasts.

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The County Governance Reform Task Force — aka the executors of Measure G — has had a busy summer and so has Robert as he follows their efforts. As the editor of the aptly-named Los Angeles Rules, he explains the process of the new Ethics Commission nominations, the “why” for the new county legislative analyst position, and organizers’ concerns about potentially losing access to the Board of Supervisors, among many other developments

Join us tonight, Monday, September 28, to review LA Forward’s survey examining what Angelenos think and prioritize about the new county executive role

After that, later tonight, Godfrey and LAF’s Jason Enright will be teaching “How to Host a Ballot Party!”

You’ll just need the official LA Forward voter guide — arriving the week of October 5 — to complete your shindig. It will explain city measures PRK (parks!) and LA (two-year budget cycles! CIP!!!), county measures A (arbitration!) and E (ethics, but also the former Measure J, it’s a whole thing), and so many more. Trust us, these measures are the life of any party

Councilmember Nithya Raman and Mayor Karen Bass are about tied in campaign fundraising, but not in support: in a new poll, Raman now leads Bass by double digits 

(Bass crashed out and called the poll an “outlier” but her allies are a little nervous) 

Replying to the Bass campaign’s indignation, Berkeley IGS poll director Mark DiCamillo said: "What would you expect from a campaign down by double digits? They attack the poll”

Adding fuel to the fire, the EAA (who recently welcomed city council aides to the union) and the WGA recently endorsed Raman 

On the other hand, Bass can take comfort that the LAPD union enthusiastically did not do that. (They had their own totally normal crash out over Raman’s plans to “embed a socialist regime in Los Angeles” with DSA, “the party of free sh**”)

Is anyone thinking about the forlorn, abandoned Spencer Pratt voters? Whomever will they cast their ballot for this November?

In the end, how much does this even matter? No LA mayor can cut through red tape like Mayor “200,000 Potholes Filled” Mamdani because we’re a weak-mayor city, right? Not quite: Jim Newton refutes this popular-with-pundits take for L.A. Material

Or as Robert put it earlier this year: even a strong mayor can't overcome a weak city

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Thanks to Kristen Torres for producing, and to Bianca Cockrell for digital producing

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

Godfrey Plata is the deputy director of LA Forward and is @godfreyplata on Instagram

Robert Greene is an independent Los Angeles-based reporter and 2026-27 John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation fellow. He is the editor of Los Angeles Rules, a publication about city and county government reform.