Two days before Election Day, a new poll shows Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón has slightly reduced his challenger Nathan Hochman's lead in the race for the incumbent's seat.

But Gascón is still 25 points behind in the closely watched contest. While that's an improvement from the 30-point deficit he faced in the same poll on October 8, it's still no better than the 25-point lead he faced in the August 18 poll .

If the election were held today, 50% of likely voters would vote for Hochman, a former federal prosecutor, and 25% would vote for Gascón, a former LAPD deputy chief who took office in 2020 on a progressive platform of criminal justice reform . According to the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies survey of 1,205 likely L.A. County voters, co-sponsored by The Times, 25% remain undecided.

The election is nearing the end of a period of intense political debate among both candidates and their supporters. Since the release of the latest Berkeley-LA Times poll results on Oct. 8, Gascón and Hochman have held a series of campaign events across the county, addressing hundreds of voters and facing off in a contentious debate.

Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll conducted Oct. 22-29 online in English and Spanish, said the slight narrowing of the gap between Gascón and Hochman shouldn't give the incumbent much hope.

“It’s really not that big of a change. “Voters, by and large, stayed where they were before, and a quarter didn’t really pay much attention,” he said.

Negative opinions of Hochman have increased slightly since last month's poll, which DiCamillo attributed in part to Hochman having the “scarlet letter” of being a former Republican in deep blue L.A. County, but his dislike still pales in comparison the bad mood that voters seem to have in Gascon. Forty-nine percent of likely voters have a somewhat or strongly unfavorable opinion of Gascón, compared to just 15 percent of Hochman, who also served as a former deputy U.S. attorney general and former president of the LA City Ethics Commission.

“It’s mostly a vote on Gascón,” DiCamillo said. “Hochman is the other candidate in this race and he is fortunate to be running against an unpopular incumbent.”

About 70% of Gascón's supporters said party affiliation played a role in their decision, and it is possible that undecided voters could flock to the incumbent as Democrats have a massive voter registration advantage in LA County.

Hochman is running as an independent and has sought to distance himself from his former GOP affiliation by saying he plans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in this year's presidential race.

Jamarah Hayner, Gascón's chief campaign strategist, said the smaller deficit is a sign that his campaign's ground game is impacting the race.

“What we are hearing when we speak to voters are serious concerns about Hochman’s history with the Republican Party and the likelihood that he will roll back progress on issues like police accountability and wrongful convictions,” she said in a statement. “So every call and every knock on the door counts when the phone is answered.”

Hochman countered that the poll results still indicate that the electorate is frustrated with Gascón. Gascón, a former two-term prosecutor in San Francisco, has been sued multiple times by his own associates in LA for implementing his policies. He has also had to contend with the perception that crime is increasing — even as he points to statistics that show declines in some categories.

“The people of Los Angeles County are fed up with crime and are ready for new leadership in the DA’s office,” Hochman said in a statement. “I appreciate that voters want a prosecutor like me, with 34 years of criminal justice experience, who bases his decisions solely on facts and law and not on a personal political agenda.”

When asked for a list of factors in the district attorney race, 54% of voters said “ability to prosecute violent crime cases” influenced their decision; 48% cited “criminal justice system reforms.”

But that hasn't translated into similar support for the incumbent, who Hochman has repeatedly described as soft on crime. Gascón countered by arguing that Hochman wanted to return to mass incarceration and roll back police reform and accountability.

Asked whether Gascón should have reason to be hopeful on Election Day, DiCamillo said, “Unless the election world is turned upside down, I would say no.”