Airbnb has poured $750,000 into an independent political committee supporting Mayor Karen Bass’s reelection, drawing fresh scrutiny as the mayor backs a proposal that would loosen Los Angeles’s restrictions on short-term rentals.
The contribution has given City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, Bass’s challenger in the November runoff, new ammunition in her attacks on the mayor, whom she has accused of engaging in “pay-to-play politics” by advancing a policy sought by one of the country’s largest short-term rental companies.
The timing of the disclosure is at the heart of the controversy.
Political analyst Michael Fahey said the size of Airbnb’s contribution would be significant under any circumstances, but its overlap with a policy that could benefit the company makes the spending particularly noteworthy.
“A company spending $750,000 to influence a mayoral race is significant on its own,” Fahey told the Washington Examiner. “When that spending comes as the administration is considering a policy that could directly benefit that company, people are naturally going to ask questions.”
Fahey stressed that the campaign finance records alone do not establish an improper exchange between Airbnb and Bass.
“That doesn’t prove there was any quid pro quo, and I think it’s important to make that distinction,” he said. “But politics is as much about public trust as it is about what you can technically prove.”
The issue centers on Bass’s proposal to allow some second homes, investment properties, and other nonprimary residences to be used as short-term rentals through the end of 2028.
Under current Los Angeles rules, short-term rentals generally are limited to a host’s primary residence. Bass has proposed temporarily expanding the rules ahead of a series of major international events, including the 2028 Olympics.
“Hours after I held a press conference exposing Mayor Bass’s secret deal to allow rental homes to be turned into vacation rentals, filings were published showing that Airbnb is spending big on a PAC to get her reelected,” Raman wrote on X earlier this year. “This is what pay-to-play politics looks like.”
She later argued that the arrangement represented a broader pattern in which corporate interests benefit from City Hall decisions while renters bear the consequences.
But the campaign finance records do not show that Airbnb gave money directly to Bass’s campaign. The $750,000 went to an independent expenditure committee, which is legally prohibited from coordinating its spending with Bass or her campaign.
That distinction is likely to be central to Bass’s defense as Raman escalates her attacks leading up to the November election.
Fahey said the political risk for Bass is less about whether Airbnb technically violated campaign finance rules and more about whether voters perceive the company as gaining special access or influence.
“If voters see a major corporate player putting substantial money behind a candidate while potentially getting a favorable policy outcome, the optics become very difficult to explain away,” he said.
That question takes on added weight in Los Angeles, where housing affordability and availability remain among the city’s most politically charged issues.
The proposal could create additional income opportunities for property owners and expand the city’s supply of short-term lodging ahead of the Olympics and other major events. But housing advocates argue that allowing more investment properties and second homes to operate as short-term rentals could remove units from the long-term housing market.
Nick Smith, who previously served as a senior staffer for the New York City Council’s Housing Committee and dealt extensively with Airbnb during years of hearings and negotiations over short-term rental policy, said the company faces competing interests in the debate.
“Airbnb wants to protect its market share, especially against accusations its listings reduce the affordable housing stock,” Smith told the Washington Examiner. At the same time, he said, “low-to-moderate income homeowners often use it to make extra income.”
Smith said Bass appears to be taking a more measured approach than some other major cities that have imposed tougher restrictions on short-term rentals.
“While NYC has taken the most aggressive approach, Mayor Bass is showing willingness to compromise,” Smith said.
But he cautioned that Raman’s pay-to-play argument has political limitations because the City Council ultimately will have a major say over the rules.
“The problem for Raman is that she will have a hard time successfully painting the mayor as engaging in pay-to-play when it’s actually the City Council who will need to decide these rules,” Smith said.
Smith also pointed to the legal separation between an independent expenditure committee and a candidate’s campaign.
“Independent committees can’t coordinate with candidates,” he said, giving Bass an argument that she has no control over the committee’s spending or decisions.
Fahey said the same distinction does not necessarily eliminate the political problem.
“For Bass, I think the political vulnerability is less about Airbnb itself and more about whether opponents can turn this into a broader argument about access and influence,” he said. “That’s where these stories tend to stick. Voters understand that companies participate in politics. What they don’t like is the perception that writing a big enough check gets you a different seat at the table.”
Raman, Smith said, is attempting to position herself as the progressive alternative in the mold of the left-wing political insurgency that has reshaped New York politics, but he argued that Los Angeles presents a different political landscape.
“Raman is trying to capture the Mamdani lane, but Los Angeles is not New York,” Smith said, referring to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Bass’s broader fundraising operation reflects the range of political and business interests lining up behind her.
Her campaign has collected money from entertainment figures, business executives, politicians and other prominent Los Angeles supporters. Director J.J. Abrams gave the maximum $1,800 contribution, as did Debra Lee, the former chairman and CEO of BET, the parent company of Black Entertainment Television, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Raman’s donor base reflects both the city’s progressive activist wing and elements of the traditional Democratic establishment.
She received the maximum contribution from Rick Cole, a former aide to Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who now serves on the Pasadena City Council and has been actively backing Raman.
The fundraising race will be crucial as Bass and Raman move into the general election campaign, when candidates can spend heavily on television and digital advertising, direct mail, and other efforts to reach voters across the nation’s second-largest city.
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Candidates cannot use money raised during the primary for general election expenditures, making their new fundraising totals particularly important as the runoff approaches.
Bass entered the general election with a substantial financial advantage. She raised more than $3.2 million during the primary, compared with just under $1 million for Raman. Both candidates also received the maximum $1.257 million in matching funds available during the primary.