Incumbent Tom Bradley was re-elected over ten candidates in the primary election.

[1] Municipal elections in California, including Mayor of Los Angeles, are officially nonpartisan; candidates' party affiliations do not appear on the ballot.

[2] Bradley, now in his fourth term, was slowly declining in popularity during his term due to traffic congestion, air pollution, and commercial development threatening residential neighborhoods in the city.

[3] He had also run in the 1986 California gubernatorial election, which he lost again to Republican George Deukmejian in a landslide.

[5][6] He faced minimal opposition at the start, with councilman Zev Yaroslavsky declining to run because of a private poll that had Bradley in the lead.