‘Devil you know’: Palisades residents are voting Karen Bass for mayor

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In the Pacific Palisades, where homeowners often blame incumbent Mayor Karen Bass for their devastating losses from the 2025 fire, a surprising answer came up over and over again as we polled exiting voters on their vote for Los Angeles Mayor: Karen Bass.

“I did vote for the current mayor, which in my personal circles has been very complex,” explained Lexi Montee, who lost her home in the Palisades Fire.

“It’s a very progressive, intellectual circle of people who I think are hoping for change. But I think that sometimes reality is different and you can’t be dogmatic about your beliefs. You have to be more pragmatic and realistic,” she added.

Montee said the upcoming Olympics also played a factor. “And at this delicate time, in the face of other big things happening, it doesn’t feel like the right time to change that,” she told The Post. “I do believe she’s learned her lesson, and she’s been giving us some grace and perhaps guilt. But whatever it is. She’s shown up for us.”

Maria Demina, a pianist who is also rebuilding, seconded that Bass likely learned her lesson. 

“I hope that she knows how to deal with it,” Demina said. And with Nithya Raman, “there are certain things that concern me. I don’t know what to make out of them. And maybe a little too much of extreme, statements that are made by DSA. And because she goes alongside with their policy. … I just want a little bit more calm, a little bit more methodical moving forward rather than extreme moves.”

Joe Cilic, a real estate broker in the Palisades, described his mayoral vote as a difficult decision. 

“Given that I partially blame [Bass] for the fires, I never saw myself voting for her, but the alternative was something worse,” he explained. “I think that Nithya Rahman is incompetent. But more than that, her ideas are dangerous. And she voted multiple times against moving homeless encampments from schools. … She is not endorsed by her district. She wants to fire the police chief. She doesn’t have a plan and she’s against public safety. And so I didn’t have a great choice.”

Cilic voted for Spencer Pratt in the primaries, but also wishes Rick Caruso, Bass’s opponent in 2022, would have run again.

Jeremy Elbaum, a chief commercial officer, also mentioned Caruso as a candidate he would have preferred. 

Elbaum voted for Raman, but not for the reason a voter typically casts their ballot.

“In order to really hit rock bottom and maybe start to see some progress, you got to hit really the worst of the worst,” he said. “It’s like tanking in sports. So if you have this really bad candidate now and Raman, who’s even a little bit worse than Bass, maybe then we’ll start to wake up.”

Tom Doran, an electrician who is starting the framing on his Palisades home rebuild, used the phrase “it’s the devil you know, verse the devil you don’t” in explaining his vote for Bass.

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“If I left it blank, it’s just one more vote for Raman,” he said. “Raman is a new breed and much worse. She’s against the police. She’s done nothing with the homeless, with the drug addicts.”

Robyn Sidoti, a stay-at-home mom in Palisades, said she voted for Bass “hesitantly, having lost my house and all of the failures that happened after.”

She asked city council member Traci Park (a better option for Los Angeles Mayor, according to her and some of her friends), who has been the most helpful to Palisidians, and her answer was Bass.

“If anyone’s going to help us, I feel she will,” Sidoti said. “Karen Bass being more centrist would be more effective for the Palisades.”