Mark your calendars. Los Angeles residents are less than one year away from the primary election for the next mayor. While some have already announced their intentions to run, the pool of candidates is thin.
The primary will take place on June 7, 2022, a date that experts say leaves plenty of time for potential candidates to assess whether they want to enter the race.
So far, L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer and L.A. City Councilman Joe Buscaino are the only major political figures who have already thrown their names in the hat.
In an interview with KNX 1070, Paul Maslin, a pollster and partner at FM3 research, said more candidates will likely enter the race after the current gubernatorial recall election.
“Candidates can take a little bit at a time,...but I think you’re going to see in the next couple of months that this race will start to take shape and if you're serious about running you've gotta pretty much let people know your intentions pretty quickly,” he said. “I think that’ll change certainly as we get into this fall.”
Another name circulating as a potential candidate is Congresswoman Karen Bass. Maslin's firm recently polled Angelenos and found that, if she runs, Bass would have an edge on the competition.
“...Bass would certainly begin as a frontrunner but there’s no guarantee of course that there’s going to be a second candidate who will emerge in all kinds of times for that to happen,” Maslin said. “But she does begin with a clear lead if she were to run.”
Bass received support from 22 percent of respondents in the FM3 Research poll, while no other current or potential candidate included achieved more than six percent.
As the election nears, Maslin said the issue for many potential candidates is whether they are willing to give up the comfort of their current jobs and take a chance on running the city of L.A.
Last month the White House announced that President Joe Biden had nominated Garcetti to become ambassador to India.
If Garcetti is confirmed by the U.S. Senate he would leave his mayoral post before his 5.5-year term ends next year, which would trigger a special election or a replacement appointed by the City Council.
“I expect it to be some months still,” Garcetti told KNX 1070 of his time left in office. He went on to explain the upcoming process in regards to the ambassadorship.
“There's both the senate confirmation process and committee,” he said. “When that's done there has to be a floor vote. So I think the estimates we’re getting are toward the end of the year.”
As Garcetti was re-elected for a second term in 2017, he would not have been eligible to run for reelection in 2022.
