LA Mayor Karen Bass has had a really bad week.
But it turned out to be a really good week, and he must have breathed a sigh of relief.
Until the surprise of Saturday morning.
I had to burn my scorecard, along with a column I had just written, about all the mayoral contenders of the past few days: LA County Executive Lindsey Horvath, billionaire businessman Rick Caruso (who forced the game on Bass last time), and former LA Unified schools superintendent Be-Austin Be.
It seemed like we wouldn’t be dealing with a much needed issue, month after month, about all that is right and wrong in a big city with high hopes and low expectations. In an interview I had with Fernando Guerra of Loyola Marymount University, a decades-long observer of local politics, he commented on the tense political season that was building:
“What makes me happy is that no one in the political party is against him [Bass] when he is clearly in danger.”
He is in danger because of his handling of the Palisades fire and its aftermath.
It is at risk due to limited progress on key issues such as homelessness, housing affordability and the deplorable state of roads, footpaths and parks.
But then came Saturday morning, when, out of the blue, LA City Council Member Nithya Raman decided to step up, adding a new twist to the race.
It was surprising because Raman and Bass are not political enemies. In fact, they were partners and endorsed each other’s re-election bids.
So what was Raman thinking in signing up for the challenge when he was clearly the underdog?
“I have a lot of respect for Mayor Bass. We’ve worked together on things that are important to me and things that are important to him, and there’s an important synergy there,” Raman told The Times. “But in the last few months in particular, I’ve started to feel that unless we have some big changes in the way we do things in Los Angeles, that the things we rely on will no longer work.”
There is more to it than that, politically. Raman is to the left of Bass and is traditionally left in Los Angeles. He and three other council members supported by the Democratic Socialists of America have changed the conversation at City Hall, putting more emphasis on social services, housing and labor issues, and less on traditional law enforcement.
That agenda won’t play with conservative voters and areas where public safety is a major concern, but among potential supporters of employers, immigrants, young people, the unemployed, and front-line workers in the low-wage economy.
Raman’s appointment – along with DSA candidates for other city offices – makes the election something of a poll about the progressive political establishment in L.A. It raises the question of whether the city is ready to shake things up and move forward in the way of New York City, which recently elected a more progressive mayor Zohran Mamdani.
And for all that, it raises the question of whether progressives can deliver on their promises and balance the budget. No easy task, there.
As for Bass, you don’t get as far in politics as he does – from the state Legislature to Congress to City Hall – without sharp survival skills and without gathering friends you can count on, or the road to re-election is full of potholes.
And even when a friend comes after you.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” Guerra said as Raman entered the race.
He considers him a formidable opponent who was the first to prove “that DSA can win in Los Angeles” and who brings many benefits to the campaign against Bass.
For one thing, he has a record of some success with homelessness in his district and was involved in that cause in the Silver Lake area before he was in public office, where he found a shocking lack of communication and continuity. And because of his age, 44, he resonates with younger voters who are hungry for a change in political leadership.
It’s possible that with Raman in the race, and administration issues in the middle, there will be less emphasis on Bass’s handling of the Palisades fire, which destroyed thousands of buildings, wiped out a vibrant community and killed 12 people.
When I said at the top of this column that Bass was having a really bad week, I was referring to the Palisades fire and a recent story from Times investigative reporters Alene Tchekmedyian and Paul Pringle. They had already discovered that the Los Angeles Fire Department had failed to properly control the fire, and that it had failed to put out the previous fire that caused the catastrophic disaster.
Journalists also discovered that the so-called “after-action” report on the fire was altered to downplay the failure of the department and the city, all of which were scandalous.
But on Wednesday, Tchekmedyian and Pringle reported that Bass was involved in the revisions despite his previous denials. “The mayor wanted to remove or soften important findings about the LAFD’s actions before the report was made public,” according to sources.
Bass denied these allegations and blasted The Times newspaper. But even before the latest news, Bass’s Palisades report card it was another wise man who could feed the dog. He left the country shortly before the fire despite warnings of potentially catastrophic conditions. Again followed by many other missteps, including the improper hiring and early departure of the rebuilding chief.
Raman didn’t direct Bass’s handling of the fire, and we’ll see if that changes. I do not consider the response to the ICE raid to be a point of contention between Raman and Bass. One of the mayor’s strengths in office has been his protection of immigrants in the city and his push for President Trump.
“Bass gets high marks against ICE,” Guerra said of the polls and public opinion polls he conducted or reviewed. “But in other things, including homelessness, he is not doing well.”
Two out of three voters in one poll said they would not support Bass in the June election, Guerra said. But that survey didn’t provide an alternative for Bass, and now there is one.
In fact, several. Others include Brentwood tech entrepreneur Adam Miller, who has money to spend; reality TV actor Spencer Pratt, a Republican who lost his Palisades home and has been bashing the mayor; and minister/community organizer Rae Huang, a Democratic Alliance socialist.
Do they matter, given the odds against them and Raman’s entry into the race?
Yes, it is possible. Bass needs more than 50% of the June primary vote to win outright. But with Raman and others holding different percentages of the vote, it is possible that there will be two candidates in November and the candidates will be Bass and Raman.
After a crazy week in LA, friends are now enemies.
And the mayoral race just got interesting.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
