Who Will Win California’s 44th Congressional District House Seat?

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman, her challenger in the mayoral race, appeared separately at a South L.A. candidate forum, agreeing that the city's homelessness response needs an overhaul but diverging sharply on housing policy. Both candidates said the city should exit the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which has faced repeated audits over poor accounting despite spending nearly $830 million last fiscal year, and back a new city-run agency, mirroring a move the county already made. Both also support expanding unarmed crisis-response teams for non-emergency calls currently handled by police.

The candidates split on housing density and renter protections. Raman accused Bass of blocking denser development in wealthier neighborhoods, pushing new construction into poorer districts, and criticized Bass's temporary loosening of short-term rental rules ahead of the 2028 Olympics, warning it could displace long-term tenants. Bass defended development restrictions as necessary to prevent gentrification of Black and Latino communities. The two also differed on LAPD's handling of ICE-related protests and enforcement of a state law on federal agents masking during operations.

Nearly two years after the Eaton and Palisades fires, many Los Angeles-area survivors are running out of savings and temporary housing aid, with FEMA rental assistance for renters having expired in October. The Trump administration omitted LA wildfire relief from its summer budget request, and California's request for $16 billion in long-term recovery funds remains unresolved. A nonprofit survey found over a quarter of survivors have exhausted displacement coverage, with mental health and financial strain topping their concerns.

Democratic lawmakers Judy Chu and Norma Torres say a Democratic takeover of the House (and possibly Senate) in November could unlock stalled federal disaster aid, as Republicans have been reluctant to push the issue absent White House backing. State and local officials say they are seeking other funding sources in the meantime.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman faced off in a debate ahead of their runoff, sparring over homelessness and policing. Raman argued Bass has failed to make sufficient progress on homelessness despite her Inside Safe program, while Bass noted Raman recently chaired the council's housing committee. Bass also resurfaced Raman's 2020 "defund the police" social media post; Raman countered by criticizing Bass's support for a 2023 police pay raise. Bass led the June primary with 34% to Raman's 29%, but is viewed as a vulnerable incumbent heading into the runoff.

Separately, the LA City Council voted 10-3, with two abstentions, to repeal its anti-camping ordinance, amid debate over whether enforcement near schools helped or simply displaced unhoused residents and hindered outreach services. A new UC Berkeley poll also found California voters, especially younger ones, increasingly favorable toward progressive and democratic socialist candidates.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a California law aimed at limiting federal involvement in the state's election administration, prompting a sharp rebuke from the U.S. Attorney General's office. The measure is framed by state officials as protecting California elections from outside interference, but critics, including commentators and Trump administration figures, argue it is designed to shield the state's vote-counting practices from federal fraud investigations.

The dispute comes amid broader Republican allegations of voter fraud in California, including claims involving noncitizen voting and irregularities in local races such as this year's Los Angeles mayoral primary. White House adviser Stephen Miller has said federal authorities are identifying growing numbers of fraudulent voter registrations nationally. Newsom and state Democrats defend the law as a democracy-protection measure, while opponents call it hypocritical given the state's Democratic-leaning redistricting and election procedures. The disagreement is expected to move toward a legal confrontation between California and federal authorities, adding to ongoing tension between the Trump administration and Democratic-led states over election oversight and integrity claims.

The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to rule quickly on its bid to stop California from counting ballots cast by people on a federal list of more than 20,000 potential noncitizens. The request came after Secretary of State Shirley Weber and L.A. County registrar Dean Logan did not review the list on the DOJ's timeline; California's Attorney General Rob Bonta has moved to dismiss the suit, calling it legally weak. Federal officials separately charged 28 legal permanent residents with voter fraud-related offenses this week. In a related case, a federal judge blocked the Department of Homeland Security from using its own noncitizen-voter list, finding it unreliable. State audits show noncitizen voting is rare.

Santa Clara County rejected a DOJ demand for data on 902 voters it suspects are noncitizens and to set aside their ballots, calling it unlawful and infeasible before Election Day; San Mateo and Contra Costa counties raised similar objections, noting the DOJ letters carry no court order. The dispute escalated after a federal judge and a 9th Circuit panel both rejected a related Trump administration effort to block roughly 20,000 California ballots statewide, calling the claims about noncitizen voters not credible and the intervention unconstitutional. The DOJ has appealed again. Gov. Newsom says California is deploying election attorneys to monitor DOJ observers at polling sites.

A growing rift within the Los Angeles left is playing out in the city's mayoral race, where Nithya Raman, a Democratic Socialists of America member and City Council figure, is challenging incumbent Karen Bass. The dispute centers on housing: whether solving the city's affordability and homelessness crisis requires aggressively building more supply, or expanding public and affordable housing while restraining market-driven development. The debate reflects a broader tension inside the Democratic Party as democratic socialism gains visibility nationally, unsettling establishment figures even as progressive and YIMBY-aligned Democrats clash over strategy.

The fight mirrors disagreements playing out in other major cities over how progressives should approach zoning, entrepreneurship, and NIMBY resistance to new construction. For prediction markets, the race is a bellwether for how far left-leaning urban voters are willing to shift on economic policy, and whether democratic socialist candidates can translate national momentum into wins in a city grappling with high housing costs and a persistent homelessness crisis.

The Trump administration has warned California election officials that processing ballots cast by suspected noncitizen voters could expose them to criminal investigation and prosecution. A letter from acting deputy attorney general Trent McCotter called noncitizen voting a federal crime and said officials who knowingly facilitate it risk being treated as aiders and abettors. The DOJ sued California after it missed a 48-hour deadline to cross-check a federal list of roughly 20,000 flagged names; federal prosecutors have since charged 28 green-card holders across California, 11 arrested, saying all appeared on that list. Secretary of State Shirley Weber called the demand unprecedented and said officials provided too little information to verify names. Governor Newsom calls the suit voter suppression; the dispute looms over competitive California House races in the midterms.