Jun 2, 2026 · 55 min · 10 segments
On today's episode of the Happy Hour, Michael, Anna and Anthony discuss how to talk about the Los Angeles Mayor's race. It's shaping up to be a three-way knife fight between incumbent Mayor Karen…
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Anna Musky GoldwinHostAnthony BarcatHostWell, gang, we're in a three-way knife fight here, and I think a good way to, uh, start this conversation is to maybe frame it between, uh, the three top poll leaders at the moment.
Um, really I think the, the most credible poll to go on here is the UC Berkeley/LA Times poll.
It has Nithya Raman at 25, a current, uh, councilwoman on the LA City Council.
Uh, and then it's got a couple others, uh, Ray Huang at 9%, Adam Miller at 5%.
And for those of who, of you who don't know exactly how the LA ballot works, if anybody gets over 50%, they're already, they win.So it, uh, is very unlikely that anybody's gonna get over 50%, and so it goes to the top two finishers, uh, that then make it to the ballot in November, and we have ourselves a race.
So with all that in mind, um, I, I think each of us have a candidate we've, um, done a little research on.
Uh, I can tell you, before we kind of dive into all this, and, and I'm curious what you guys think, I have never been more undecided as a voter in all California elections, mayor, governor, this, that, and the other.
Like, I think that something that I've been telling people, and I've said this to you, is thinking about the primary and the general election as two different elections.
And thinking about, you know, I think unfortunately a lot of politics does have sort of a gamified element to it, and I think especially in California where we have this top two finishing, it's almost like a rank...
It's not ranked choice voting, but it's like, has a little bit of that essence to it, where you're kinda thinking about, "Okay, well, if I want these people to be in the race, then, like, how do I vote to try to make that happen?" Um, because I think that w- when the undecidedness of it all that I definitely shared with you a while ago, especially in the governor's race, like right when Swabal dropped out and all that stuff, it just felt, like, so confusing.
I mean, I do feel like I understand at least who I want to be continuing to listen to.
Well, gang, we're in a three-way knife fight here, and I think a good way to, uh, start this conversation is to maybe frame it between, uh, the three top poll leaders at the moment.
Um, really I think the, the most credible poll to go on here is the UC Berkeley/LA Times poll.
It has Nithya Raman at 25, a current, uh, councilwoman on the LA City Council.
Uh, and then it's got a couple others, uh, Ray Huang at 9%, Adam Miller at 5%.
And for those of who, of you who don't know exactly how the LA ballot works, if anybody gets over 50%, they're already, they win.So it, uh, is very unlikely that anybody's gonna get over 50%, and so it goes to the top two finishers, uh, that then make it to the ballot in November, and we have ourselves a race.
So with all that in mind, um, I, I think each of us have a candidate we've, um, done a little research on.
Uh, I can tell you, before we kind of dive into all this, and, and I'm curious what you guys think, I have never been more undecided as a voter in all California elections, mayor, governor, this, that, and the other.
Like, I think that something that I've been telling people, and I've said this to you, is thinking about the primary and the general election as two different elections.
And thinking about, you know, I think unfortunately a lot of politics does have sort of a gamified element to it, and I think especially in California where we have this top two finishing, it's almost like a rank...
It's not ranked choice voting, but it's like, has a little bit of that essence to it, where you're kinda thinking about, "Okay, well, if I want these people to be in the race, then, like, how do I vote to try to make that happen?" Um, because I think that w- when the undecidedness of it all that I definitely shared with you a while ago, especially in the governor's race, like right when Swabal dropped out and all that stuff, it just felt, like, so confusing.
I mean, I do feel like I understand at least who I want to be continuing to listen to.
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