In her bid for a second term, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman earned more than 50% for the first time since vote counting began in last week's primary election, increasing her chances of avoiding a second round on November 5.
The latest batch of results, released Tuesday, showed Raman with 50.2% of the vote, compared to 39% for his closest opponent, the deputy city attorney. Ethan Weaver. In third place was software engineer Levon “Lev” Baronian, who had about 11%.
In a statement, Raman said he is still waiting for all the votes to be counted. However, he called the latest batch of results “very exciting.”
“It has been the honor of my life to serve this incredible city as a member of its council, and I am very hopeful to see what more we can accomplish with four more years of work,” he said.
Vote counting is expected to resume on Wednesday. Raman and his two rivals were competing to represent a district that straddles the Hollywood Hills, stretching from Silver Lake in the east to the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Reseda in the west.
Raman is running for a second four-year term in a district that is significantly different from the one that elected her in 2020. A year after she took office, the City Council redrawn about 40% of the district, eliminating areas like Hancock . Park and Park La Brea and adding all or part of Encino, Studio City and other neighborhoods.
Under the city's election rules, any council candidate who gets more than 50% in the primary wins outright.
Weaver, in a statement, said his campaign “always knew it was going to be a close race.”
“I want to thank all the thousands of people who supported our campaign,” he said, “and I ask that you be patient while the remaining votes are counted.”
Weaver, who spent several years as a local prosecutor, had sought to address important issues such as public safety and homelessness. He received enormous financial support from unions representing police officers and firefighters, as well as property owners, business groups and other donors, who spent a total of $1.35 million in his name.
Raman worked to turn that huge outside spending into a negative for Weaver, saying it showed that special interests were unhappy with his votes in favor of new tenant protections and against police surges and digital billboards. His supporters described the race as one that would determine the future of progressive politics at City Hall.
Raman's progress in his re-election bid came on the same day that Ysabel Jurado, another candidate backed by the city's political left, took first place in her race against Councilman Kevin de León.
Like Raman, Jurado had been increasing his voting percentage in each of the county's daily updates. Jurado now appears headed for a runoff election on November 5 in that eastern district.
Election officials said they have approximately 126,000 ballots left to count countywide.
