Two years in the past, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass went to Sherman Oaks to chop a fast marketing campaign advert for a trusted ally: Councilmember Nithya Raman.
Standing subsequent to Bass, Raman appeared into the digicam and praised the mayor’s work on homelessness, saying she was “honored” to have her assist.
“I couldn’t be prouder to work alongside her,” Raman mentioned.
That video, recorded at a get-out-the-vote rally for Raman’s reelection marketing campaign, appears like a political lifetime in the past. On Feb. 7, Raman launched a shock bid to unseat Bass, saying town is at a “breaking level” and now not able to offering fundamental providers.
Raman’s entry into the race, hours earlier than the submitting deadline, shocked town’s political elite and infuriated the mayor’s supporters. Some observers referred to as it a betrayal of Shakespearean proportions.
Raman’s identify had appeared on an inventory of Bass endorsers simply weeks earlier. Bass’ assist for Raman’s 2024 reelection bid had helped the councilmember earn 50.7% of the vote and keep away from a messy runoff.
“How can she deal with a relationship like this, and get rid of it as soon as it’s served its objective?” mentioned Julio Esperias, a Democratic Celebration activist who volunteered with Raman’s 2024 marketing campaign at Bass’ request. “It’s a breach of belief, a betrayal, and it’s sort of laborious for me to abdomen for the time being.”
In 2024, Bass — then on the peak of her reputation — was featured prominently in Raman’s marketing campaign mailers. She despatched canvassers to knock on voters’ doorways. A speech Bass delivered at Raman’s rally in Sherman Oaks was become a social media video with stirring background music.
Councilwoman Nithya Raman talks to attendees throughout an election evening occasion held by the Democratic Socialists of America – LA chapter at The Greyhound on Nov. 4 in Los Angeles.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Occasions)
That video, together with different posts highlighting Bass’ assist for her, nonetheless seems on Raman’s Instagram web page, which now promotes her run for mayor.
Bass, politically bruised over her dealing with of final yr’s devastating Palisades fireplace, now faces an rebel marketing campaign from one of many Metropolis Council’s savviest gamers.
Esperias mentioned he regrets serving to Raman claw again the endorsement of the Los Angeles County Democratic Celebration in 2023, after it practically went to her opponent.
Bass, for her half, has downplayed any laborious emotions, saying she intends to run on her document — together with her collaboration with Raman. Requested if she considered Raman’s candidacy as a betrayal, she responded: “That’s not vital now.”
Mayor Karen Bass speaks earlier than signing a hire stabilization ordinance handed by the Los Angeles Metropolis Council, the primary replace to the ordinance in practically 40 years, at Strategic Actions for a Simply Financial system in Los Angeles Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Occasions)
“I’ll inform you that it was a shock, completely,” Bass mentioned. “However I’m transferring ahead, I’m going to run my race, and I look ahead to serving along with her in my second time period.”
Raman has been delivering a equally sophisticated message, expressing deep respect for the mayor whereas arguing that town is in determined want of change.
On the morning of Feb. 7, earlier than filling out her paperwork on the metropolis clerk’s workplace, Raman referred to as Bass to tell her she was operating.
The following day, the 2 girls met privately at Getty Home, the mayor’s mansion. Neither would say why they met or what they mentioned.
At Metropolis Corridor, each supporters and critics of Bass have been retracing latest occasions, searching for clues as to how issues went mistaken.
In November, whereas watching election returns for New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Raman advised The Occasions that Bass was essentially the most progressive mayor town ever had — noting that Angelenos “vote their values.” Final month, Bass twice introduced that she had Raman’s endorsement.
On Friday, Raman mentioned she couldn’t keep in mind precisely when she endorsed Bass, saying she believed it got here throughout a telephone name with the mayor “most likely within the fourth quarter of final yr.” On the identical time, she mentioned her exasperation with town’s management has been constructing for months.
“I’ve been truly pissed off by the circumstances within the metropolis for fairly a while, notably over this final yr, the place we’re each unable to ship fundamental providers, like fixing streetlights and repaving streets for my constituents, but in addition should not transferring towards a extra accountable, clear and environment friendly system of addressing points like homelessness,” she mentioned in an interview.
Gloria Martinez, middle, of United Academics Los Angeles, speaks at a rally exterior Metropolis Corridor that includes opponents of the hassle to rewrite Measure ULA, a tax on property gross sales to pay for housing initiatives.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Occasions)
Raman pointed to Measure ULA, the voter-approved tax on property gross sales of $5.3 million and up, as a catalyst for her mayoral bid. Though she has been a supporter of the tax, she has additionally concluded that it’s a main impediment to constructing new housing.
Final month, Raman tried with out success to place a measure on the June 2 poll that will have scaled again the forms of properties lined by the tax, in hopes of jump-starting house building.
Raman additionally advised The Occasions that Inside Protected, the mayor’s signature program to maneuver unhoused folks indoors, must be redesigned so it’s “fiscally sustainable.” She mentioned she “merely didn’t see any progress” from the mayor’s workplace on that subject.
Requested whether or not she betrayed Bass, Raman mentioned her choice to run was pushed by the rising issues going through town — and the necessity for change.
“My most vital relationship on this function is with the folks of Los Angeles, not the politics of Metropolis Corridor,” she mentioned.
Bass marketing campaign spokesperson Douglas Herman identified that Raman is head of the council’s housing and homelessness committee — and that she repeatedly voiced assist for Bass packages which have delivered back-to-back reductions in avenue homelessness.
Los Angeles Metropolis Councilmember Nithya Raman scans a QR code to get election updates throughout an election evening occasion in March 2024.
(Myung Chun/Los Angeles Occasions)
“Whereas we’re creating more economical fashions, it’s completely pressing that we get folks off our streets instantly,” Herman mentioned. “Nithya Raman is appearing like a typical politician and is aware of it as a result of she congratulated Mayor Bass for cleansing harmful and long-standing encampments in her district.”
Raman’s choice has sparked an outcry from an unlikely mixture of Bass allies. Danny J. Bakewell, Jr., govt editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel, condemned Raman’s actions final week in an editorial that invoked the O’Jay’s 1972 hit “Again Stabbers.”
“One among life’s biggest disappointments is discovering that somebody you believed was a buddy just isn’t,” wrote Bakewell, whose newspaper focuses on points going through town’s Black neighborhood.
The Los Angeles Police Protecting League, which represents rank-and-file LAPD officers and opposed Raman’s reelection in 2024, provided the same take.
“If political backstabbing have been a criminal offense, Nithya Raman can be a wished fugitive,” the union’s board, which has endorsed Bass, mentioned in an announcement.
Zev Yaroslavsky, a former county supervisor and Metropolis Council member, doesn’t consider that Raman’s latest historical past with Bass — endorsing her and later operating in opposition to her — will probably be a difficulty for the citizens. In L.A. political circles, nonetheless, it will likely be considered as a transgression, no less than within the brief time period, he mentioned.
“As a politician, you don’t have a lot forex. What you’ve is your phrase,” he mentioned.
Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative on the UCLA Luskin College of Public Affairs, mentioned he’s sure that Raman and the opposite main candidates — neighborhood organizer Rae Huang, actuality tv star Spencer Pratt and tech entrepreneur Adam Miller — have checked out polls exhibiting that Bass is politically weakened and susceptible to a problem.
“If Raman turns into mayor, no person’s going to recollect this, together with the political class,” he mentioned. “If she doesn’t, it’ll be slightly tougher for her. It’s not irreparable. However there will probably be a residue to this.”
On the council, Raman belongs to a four-member voting bloc, every of whom gained workplace with assist from Democratic Socialists of America. Whereas Bass is mostly thought of extra conservative than Raman on public issues of safety, the 2 share most of the identical coverage priorities, notably round homelessness.
In her first marketing campaign for Metropolis Council in 2020, Raman ran on a promise to deal with town’s homelessness disaster in a humanitarian method, by transferring unhoused residents into momentary and everlasting housing.
Bass, a former state Meeting speaker and 12-year member of Congress, took workplace two years later and made homelessness her signature subject, convincing the council to broaden her energy to answer the disaster.
Raman backed Bass’ declaration of a homelessness emergency, which gave the mayor the ability to award contracts and signal leases straight. Per week later, Bass staged her first Inside Protected operation in Raman’s district, on a stretch of Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood.
As lately as July, Raman appeared on a Bass press launch touting town’s progress on homelessness.
Bass first introduced that Raman had endorsed her on Jan. 27. Raman mentioned she didn’t start significantly considering a run for mayor till the next week, because the submitting deadline approached.
Over a tumultuous 48-hour interval, former L.A. faculties Supt. Austin Beutner exited the race, whereas actual property developer Rick Caruso and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath introduced that they, too, would keep out.
“I spotted we have been doubtlessly not even going to have an actual competitors, and that troubled me,” Raman mentioned.
Esperias, the Bass supporter, mentioned he’s nonetheless processing Raman’s choice to run.
He mentioned Bass tapped him to assist Raman in 2023 after one among Raman’s opponents, deputy metropolis legal professional Ethan Weaver, cleared a key hurdle in his bid for the endorsement of the county’s Democratic Celebration.
Esperias, who lives in L.A.’s Vermont Sq. neighborhood, mentioned he labored with Raman’s workforce on a plan to influence occasion members to tug Weaver’s endorsement, then flip it to Raman. Whereas Esperias and others referred to as and texted occasion members, Bass despatched a letter urging them to endorse Raman.
Weaver, in an interview, mentioned he instantly felt the distinction. After Bass’ letter, curiosity in endorsing him evaporated.
“It modified the quantity of individuals that will take my name,” he mentioned.
As soon as the election was over, Esperias mentioned, Raman despatched a textual content message thanking him for his assist throughout a tricky marketing campaign.
“I put my credibility, I put my relationships on the road to assist construct this coalition to get that endorsement,” Esperias mentioned.
Raman argued that the assist has gone each methods.
Throughout Bass’ first mayoral marketing campaign, Raman held a fundraiser at her Silver Lake house and launched Bass to key folks in her district.
“I did assist her in her election as nicely, identical to she helped me,” she mentioned.
Occasions workers author Dakota Smith contributed to this report.
