James Hahn

But a long summer for Mayor Bass, with homelessness going up according to losses count, the lineage fire in Boyle Heights, and Rahman's attacks on the last four years of Bass's policies have boosted the councilwoman.

L.A. hasn't had a one-term mayor since 2005, when Antonio Villaraigosa beat James Hahn.

I've seen a lot of polls.

And one thing that we knew about all of the polls that we've seen is that this is going to be a tight race.

With homelessness going up, according to Lassa's count, the lineage fire in Boyle Heights and Rahman's attacks on the last four years of Bass's policies have boosted the councilwoman.

L.A. hasn't had a one-term mayor since 2005, when Antonio Villaraigosa beat James Hahn.

We'll hear from Nithya Raman later today, but the Bass campaign did release a statement.

That statement saying in part, one outlier poll which got the June primary wrong isn't reflective of the energy we see when talking to voters every day and what every other poll indicates.

He actually unseated my boss, Eric Galanter.

And Mayor Hahn, Jim Hahn, was in Washington, DC, or somewhere on the East Coast, when the terrorist attacks hit, and they grounded all the planes.

He couldn't get back.

Oh, yeah.

On September 11, 2001, Alex Padilla was 28 years old and had just been elected LA City Council President two months earlier.

That morning, he became the city's acting mayor, with incumbent mayor James Hahn in Washington, D.C., Now a U.S. senator, Padilla tells LAist what was going through his mind that day as he was thrust into the role.

The Emergency Operations Department, I imagine that turned to if there was ever a large fire or if there was an earthquake or some other type of emergency.

Never in my wildest dreams did we think we'd have to be alert and potentially responsive to a terrorist attack.

The two examples of when that doesn't happen were Sam Yorty in 1973 when he lost to Tom Bradley.

And then more recently in the 21st century, when James K. Hahn was defeated by Antonio Villaraigosa.

The bottom line is that incumbent mayors get reelected.

And the answer to that is why? The answer to that question is because the mayor has appointed the heads of every department.

Which, by the way, as the old guy with a long memory...

In the Jim Hahn administration, like in 2001, 2002, the city's policy was potholes filled within 24 hours.

And that happened.

During that time, we only had one pothole truck for the whole city.