Councilmember Nithya Raman's campaign accused Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday, Sept. 8, of declining multiple televised debate invitations before the Nov. 3 runoff.

Raman has accepted invitations from four television partnerships: NBC4 and Telemundo 52, CBS2 and KNX, ABC7 and Univision 34, and KTLA5 and CNN, according to MyNewsLA. Bass has agreed to only one, the NBC4/Telemundo 52 debate scheduled for Oct. 12, and turned down the rest, Raman's campaign said.

The Raman campaign said in a statement that residents deserve a substantive, transparent conversation about the candidates' records and competing ideas. The campaign urged Bass to reconsider and participate across different networks.

Bass campaign spokesman Alex Stack countered that Raman "does not show up for the job taxpayers are paying her to do, and she's using her position to campaign instead of helping solve Los Angeles' biggest challenges." Stack said Bass has agreed to a dozen forums and debates being livestreamed on radio and TV, including the Oct. 12 televised debate.

The dispute is not new. Bass's campaign launched a website, NoShowNithya.com, on Aug. 31, accusing Raman of missing nearly 3,000 City Council votes. Raman's campaign called that effort "desperate" and "ironic coming from a mayor who was missing during our city's most devastating emergencies," Spectrum News reported.

The two candidates have shared a debate stage once so far. They met Aug. 19 for a 90-minute forum hosted by the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council and the Sherman Oaks/Encino Chamber of Commerce. That event was broadcast on 89.3 FM and streamed on Zoom but was not televised.

At that debate, Bass accused Raman of having "lots of plans and lots of ideas, but have done very little," according to LA Magazine's recap. Raman said her absences stemmed from appointments to external boards by both the previous mayor and Bass herself.

On Thursday, Sept. 3, both candidates appeared at a climate and environmental forum organized by a coalition including the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club. They spoke separately rather than in a head-to-head format.

Bass finished first in the June primary with 34.3% of the vote. Raman placed second with 29%. A UC Berkeley poll conducted after the primary showed Raman leading by 4 percentage points, according to LA Magazine.

The next confirmed televised debate is the NBC4/Telemundo 52 matchup on Oct. 12. The runoff is Nov. 3.