Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman not your garden-variety liberal
Your morning catch-up: A lefty turns up L.A. mayoral intrigue; San Francisco teachers go on strike and more big stories
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Councilwoman Nithya Raman’s 11th-hour entrance into the race for Los Angeles mayor infuriated establishment Democrats, thrilled many progressives and terrified some conservatives. It also offered the provocative prospect that the political left could increase its sway at City Hall, just as it did with the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor in New York City.
The field includes about 40 candidates, including community organizers, nonprofit founders and one reality TV star.
A clear-eyed look at Raman and her candidacy suggests several things:
• Mayor Karen Bass’s path to reelection became considerably more challenging and a runoff is a virtual certainty.
• Liberals largely will be divided between Bass, 72, and her 44-year-old challenger when it comes time to vote in the June 2 primary.
• Like Mamdani in New York, Raman doesn’t fit neatly into the extreme-leftist branding that the right would like to saddle her with. (Witness the screaming front-page headline in the Monday’s California Post: “RED RAMAN, Extreme socialist agenda behind new mayoral candidate.”)
Born in India, Raman moved to Louisiana at age 6 with her family. She got a B.A. in political theory at Harvard University and a master’s degree in urban planning at MIT. Her husband Vali Chandrasekaran, also Harvard-educated, has been a writer and producer on shows like “30 Rock” and “Modern Family.” They have twins, a boy and girl, in elementary school.
Before starting in politics, Raman worked on issues like sanitation and homelessness — founding a nonprofit to deal with the latter. She ran for City Council in 2020 and beat out Councilman David Ryu in a district that reached from Silver Lake to Sherman Oaks. That made her the first challenger to defeat a sitting councilmember in 17 years.
High hopes for Democratic Socialists of America
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) supported Raman, announcing a sea change in L.A. politics. Three more DSA-supported councilmembers — Hugo Soto-Martinez, Eunisses Hernandez and Ysabel Jurado — have followed Raman onto the council. That has their supporters hoping to one day win an eight-vote majority on the 15-member council.
Despite their new influence, no one had yet been talking about a serious DSA-driven play for the mayor’s office, until Raman’s late entry. She got into the race just hours before filing closed Saturday, a move that shocked many political insiders because she and Bass have been close allies.
The councilwoman’s work on behalf of renters arguably has been her signature issue. In November, she helped lead the first strengthening of L.A.’s rent stabilization law in four decades, capping annual rent increases at 4%. Raman had pushed for an even-tighter 3% cap, saying that making the city more affordable means “the entire city thrives.”
She also voted, along with other DSA-supported councilmembers, against police raises, arguing that they would trigger cuts to other core services. Raman believes more money should be shifted to social services and non-police interventions. She also voted last May, along with 11 other councilmembers, to cut police hiring in half.
Raman opposed aggressive interventions on the unhoused
And on homelessness she has joined the liberal wing of the council in opposing what they see as overly aggressive interventions. Raman was in the losing minority in voting against a city ordinance to allow councilmembers to create 500-foot buffer zones prohibiting homeless encampments around parks, freeway overpasses and other “sensitive” locations. She said the measure would merely push the homeless to other neighborhoods, without solving the problem.
But Raman has bucked other DSA-aligned councilmembers in voting at least twice in favor of city budgets that the others said devoted too much money to the LAPD. And she has not fit the leftist caricature in other instances: She pushed a proposal to ease Measure ULA, the so-called “mansion tax,” because of a fear that the levy on property sales would stymie apartment construction. And she won the backing of Democrats for Israel, which has been described as a liberal Zionist group, thereby earning censure from a DSA group, which has vehemently opposed Israel in its conflict with Palestine.
“Nithya is not a diehard ideological person or strident in any way,” said Mike Bonin, a former council colleague who now heads the Pat Brown Institute of Politics at Cal State Los Angeles and is remaining neutral in the mayor’s race. “She is very independent.”
Today’s top stories
Three SoCal cities are among the least affordable in the world for homebuyers
- Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego rank among the world’s least affordable cities for homebuyers when comparing property costs to local incomes.
- A single buyer in L.A. earning the average salary can afford only 28% of a typical home’s purchase price.
- Limited housing construction combined with strong job markets and regional amenities have driven Southern California home prices to historic extremes.
San Francisco teachers go on strike
- San Francisco public schools shut down Monday as teachers went on strike demanding improved healthcare benefits and pay raises, leaving the families of some 50,000 students scrambling for child care and meals.
- The San Francisco teachers’ strike could set the stage for more to come in California, where educators in other major districts, including Los Angeles, have signaled that they, too, were gearing up to head to the picket lines to demand better pay, smaller class sizes and more resources.
L.A.’s warm stretch is ending
- Forecasters say an unseasonable pattern of high temperatures in Southern California will end after Monday, bringing cooler weather and showers later this week.
- Temperatures are expected to drop into the 60s on Tuesday and remain there for the rest of the week.
Why CSU says no to some low-cost bachelor’s degrees at community colleges
- California’s community colleges are moving toward offering more bachelor’s degrees.
- California State University is contesting 16 proposals, saying they duplicate their offerings.
- The proposed degree programs have stirred debate about the changing role of community colleges.
What else is going on
- Bikinis and booze: a Garden Grove cafe had more on the menu than allowed, police say.
- Catherine O’Hara’s cause of death — and a private battle with cancer — has come to light not long after her death at age 71.
- FBI says there are no suspects and no communication as Nancy Guthrie’s ransom deadline passes with no proof of life.
- Liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders will kick off a California billionaires’ tax campaign.
- The Patriots’ Mack Hollins arrived at the Super Bowl dressed as a prisoner. Here’s why that’s not surprising.
- A Pasadena fire captain sexually abused children for more than two decades, prosecutors allege.
Commentary and opinions
- ICE has escalated to illegal home invasions. This will end poorly, writes guest contributor Raul A. Reyes.
- Puerto Rican journalist and guest contributor Tatiana Tenreyro unpacks the most Puerto Rican moments of Bad Bunny’s monumental Super Bowl halftime show.
This morning’s must reads
After a shooting in L.A.’s Fashion District, detectives sifted through encrypted messages to track down a sophisticated but clumsy band of thieves. They identified the suspects, including two who turned up dead. But what they were after — and who organized the job?
Other must reads
- The poet laureate with a bold plan to get Boyle Heights students into the woods — and on the stage.
- American Brittany Bowe falls short of an Olympics medal in her strongest speedskating race.
For your downtime
Going out
- Celebrations: Here are 25 ways to eat, drink and celebrate the Lunar New Year in Los Angeles.
- Dining: How this $30 Monday dinner menu is fighting the restaurant affordability divide.
Staying in
- Television: Netflix’s “Star Search” revival taps into nostalgia, star judges and a swath of talent.
- Recipe: Here’s a recipe for winter vegetable soup.
- ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games.
And finally ... your photo of the day
Today’s great photo is from Times photographer Ronaldo Bolanos at Villas Tacos Highland Park. The L.A. taquería is basking in the afterglow of its Super Bowl halftime show appearance.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.
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