Comments
THE VIEW FROM HERE -Conan Nolan merits a thank-you for allowing Miller and Huang, who are number 3rd and 4th in the LA mayoral race, to have airtime. As of Sunday, May 17, 2026, top mayoral candidates’ poll numbers are:
Karen Bass 30%,
Spencer Pratt 22%,
Nithya Raman 19%,
Adam Miller 7%,
Rae Huang 3%,
Undecided Voters 16.
Hearing from # 3 (Miller) and # 4 (Huang) allows commentators to better assess the mayor’s race.
Because no one candidate will receive 50.1% of the vote on June 2, there will be a runoff between the Primary’s top two vote getters. Thus, as of today, Sunday May 17, 2026, the race is between Pratt and Raman. Barring some dramatic event, we may assume that Bass will garner the most votes in the primary.
Can Rae or Miller Move up to #2?
Rae Huang: At only 3%, one could argue that Nolan had no business interviewing her, but I disagree. Huang is a member in good standing with the racist, anti-Semitic DSA-LA as are other city councilmembers and candidates. Thus, it is beneficial for Angelenos to be alerted to the divisive and racist policies which may become actual issues in Los Angeles’s future. DSA is not going away.
Adam Miller: At 7%, one may wonder why bother with Miller when he garnered about one-third of the votes of either Pratt or Raman. At one time, Pratt and Miller hovered around 11%. Pratt has zoomed up and Miller has fallen close to oblivion. Contrasting Pratt and Miller, however, may help voters understand why Pratt with no political experience is climbing and Miller without political experience is doing poorly.
Both Pratt and Miller make the same mistake which almost all candidates make. Each looks at his past and his skill set and then offer himself as the cure for whatever ails the government. Neither Pratt nor Miller has an analytical fact-based reason why LA is in such a mess. Simply stating the obvious about homelessness, fraud in homeless agencies, inadequate fire and police departments are not diagnoses. If you present yourself to the doctor with a rash and ask, “What’s wrong,” and his diagnosis is that you have a rash, he is merely repeating the symptom. Symptoms should result in a diagnosis of what caused the rash. Is the diagnosis measles or smallpox? Then, the doctor knows the proper treatment. It’s an incompetent physician who repeats symptoms as the diagnosis. Symptoms are observable facts, while a diagnosis is the medical opinion based on the facts.
Similarly, repeating goals like ending homelessness, reducing the budget, reducing crime, improving fire services is not a plan to cure LA’s illnesses. This is one of Trump’s classic errors. When asked for his plan to win the War in Iran, he states, “Iran cannot have nuclear weapons.” That is not a plan; that is a goal. LA Voters need to know not only the cause of our problems, but also the candidate’s plan to rectify the situation. Ending homelessness is a goal, not a plan. Building more housing is not a rational plan since excessive construction caused the homelessness. Voters need a coherent explanation how LA ended upon in such turmoil and a new plan to extricate ourselves.
Because being a businessman or a celebrity should not be confused with experience with being a politician, neither Pratt nor Miller have any experience for the job which they seek – to be mayor of America’s second largest city. They both rely on voter dissatisfaction with the existing leadership, but if one adds the poll numbers of Bass 30% and Raman’s 19%, they have almost 50%, while Pratt’s 22% and Miller’s 7% have about 30%. That means incumbency (50%) has far more approval and then challengers (30%).
The Practical Political Consideration for Pratt and Miller
The real race is not to become mayor on June 2, but to win the second most votes. That leaves Adam Miller with one route upward. His issue is “Why voters should make me #2 on June 2.” Adam Miller must convince voters that he is the far better candidate than Pratt. Both Pratt and Miller can ignore Raman, except to relegate her to a Bass clone.
Adam Miller is tone deaf to politics and thinks that because Mayor Daniel Lurie won in San Francisco, he will win in LA. Is there really any Angeleno who does not know that Los Angeles is not San Francisco? “Yes, candidate Miller, tell us again why Los Angeles should ape San Francisco.”
If Miller is to have any chance to be the number two voter getter on June 2, he must make that issue explicit. “Why Los Angeles needs me to be the number two voter getter on June 2?”
Then, Miller has to explain why he is better than Spencer Pratt. Miller needs to admit how Los Angeles got into this mess, which requires Miller to focus on the decades of monetization of housing and how it has resulted in all of LA’s problems: the homeless crisis, the high cost of housing for the middle class, why family millennials are leaving, why the LAPD is shrinking, why LAFD is woefully underfunded, why the streets are inadequate, why thousands of homes were lost in one fire, etc. Then, Miller needs to take the bold stand that Mayor Bass has not caused any of these problems. When she came into office, however, she knew exactly what was wrong with LA, but for four years, she has refused to address the root cause – Wall Street’s monetization of housing.
Next, Miller can legitimately claim that he and not Spencer Pratt understands the Wall Street mentality and he can stop Wall Street from robbing Angelenos blind. “I didn’t make $5.2 Billion by not understanding the Wall Street racket. LA needs a leader who knows the enemy.”
In 1776, America needed a revolution, and 250 years later, Los Angeles needs a revolution, but our revolution will be at the ballot box where we will throw out scoundrels.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a former Los Angeles-based attorney, an author, and political commentator. A long-time contributor to CityWatchLA, he is known for his incisive critiques of City Hall and judicial corruption, as well as his analysis of political and constitutional issues. Abrams blends legal insight with historical and philosophical depth to challenge conventional narratives. A passionate defender of civic integrity and transparency, he aims to expose misuse of power and advocate for systemic reform in local government. You may email him at [email protected])
