Bass helped Raman win re-election. Now Raman wants to undress her. Some call it ‘betrayal’

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Bass helped Raman win re-election. Now Raman wants to undress her. Some call it ‘betrayal’

Two years ago, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass went to Sherman Oaks to cut a quick ad for the campaign of her confidante: Councilwoman Nithya Raman.

Standing next to Bass, Raman looked into the camera and praised the mayor’s work on the homeless, saying he was “honored” by his support.

“I couldn’t be prouder to work with him,” said Raman.

That video, filmed at a turnout rally in Raman’s re-election campaign, feels like a political past life. On February 7, Raman launched an impromptu motion to remove Bass, saying the city was “in a critical state” and could no longer provide basic services.

Raman’s entry into the race, hours before the filing deadline, shocked the city’s political elite and angered the mayor’s supporters. Some observers call it a betrayal of Shakespearean proportions.

Raman’s name had appeared on Bass’s list of supporters a few weeks earlier. Bass’s support for Raman’s 2024 re-election bid helped the councilman win 50.7% of the vote and avoid a runoff.

“How can he manage such a relationship, and abandon it when it has served its purpose?” said Julio Esperias, a Democratic Party activist who volunteered for Raman’s 2024 campaign at Bass’ request. “It’s a betrayal, a betrayal, and it’s hard for me to let go of you right now.”

In 2024, Bass – then at the height of his popularity – featured prominently in Raman’s campaign mailers. He sent canvassers to knock on voters’ doors. A talk Bass gave at Raman’s rally in Sherman Oaks was turned into a social media video with a moving background score.

Councilwoman Nithya Raman addresses the attendees

That video, along with other posts highlighting Bass’s support, still appear on Raman’s Instagram page, which is now promoting his mayoral run.

Bass, politically wounded by his handling of the fire that devastated the Palisades last year, is now facing a coup d’état from one of the City Council’s most savvy players.

Esperias said he regrets helping Raman win back the Los Angeles County Democratic Party’s 2023 endorsement, after it nearly went to his opponent.

Bass, for his part, has played down any hard feelings, saying he intends to run on his record – including his collaboration with Raman. Asked if he considered Raman’s appointment as a betrayal, he replied: “That is not important now.

“I’ll tell you it was amazing, really,” Bass said. “But I’m moving forward, I’m going to run my race, and I’m looking forward to serving with him in my second term.”

Raman has been delivering a similarly tough message, expressing deep respect for the mayor while saying the city needs a big change.

On the morning of February 7, before filing his paperwork at the city clerk’s office, Raman called Bass to let him know he was running.

The next day, the two women meet in secret at Getty House, the mayor’s mansion. No one can say why they met or what they discussed.

At City Hall, Bass fans and critics have been following recent events, looking for clues as to how things went wrong.

In November, while watching the reelection of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Raman told The Times that Bass was the most progressive mayor the city has ever had — noting that Angelenos “vote their values.” Last month, Bass announced twice that he was endorsed by Raman.

On Friday, Raman said he doesn’t remember exactly when he approved Bass, saying he believes it came when he was on the phone with the mayor “probably in the fourth quarter of last year. At the same time, he said his anger with the city’s leadership had been growing for months.

“Actually, I have been frustrated with the conditions of the city for a long time, especially this past year, when both of us are unable to provide basic services, such as fixing street lights and repairing the roads of the people I vote for, but we also do not continue with a proper, transparent and efficient system to deal with problems such as homelessness,” he said in an interview.

Gloria Martinez, center, of United Teachers Los Angeles, speaks at a rally outside City Hall.

Raman pointed to Measure ULA, a voter-approved tax on property sales of $5.3 million and up, as the reason for his mayoral bid. Although he was a supporter of the tax, he also concluded that it was a major obstacle to building new houses.

Last month, Raman tried unsuccessfully to put a measure on the June 2 ballot that would have rolled back the types of properties covered by the tax, in hopes of restarting apartment construction.

Raman also told The Times that Inside Safe, the mayor’s signature program to house the homeless, needs to be redesigned to be “financially sustainable.” He said he “sees no progress” from the mayor’s office on the matter.

Asked if he betrayed Bass, Raman said his decision to run was driven by the growing problems facing the city — and the need for change.

“My most important relationship in this role is with the people of Los Angeles, not the politics of City Hall,” he said.

Bass campaign spokesman Douglas Herman pointed out that Raman is the head of the council’s housing and homelessness committee — and that he has repeatedly voiced support for Bass’ initiatives that have reduced street homelessness.

Los Angeles City Council Member Nithya Raman scans a QR code for election updates at an election party.

“Even though we’re building low-cost models, it’s urgent that we get people off our roads as soon as possible,” said Herman. “Nithya Raman behaves like a normal politician and he knows it because he congratulated Mayor Bass for cleaning up dangerous and long-standing areas in his district.”

Raman’s decision sparked an outcry over the unexpected combination of Bass’ partners. Danny J. Bakewell, Jr., editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Sentinel, criticized Raman’s actions last week in an article that used O’Jay’s 1972 song “Back Stabbers.”

“One of the most disappointing things in life is finding out that someone you thought was a friend is not,” wrote Bakewell, whose newspaper focuses on the problems facing the city’s Black community.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file LAPD officers and opposes Raman’s 2024 re-election, offered the same.

“If political backlash was a crime, Nithya Raman would be a wanted fugitive,” the union board, which approved Bass, said in a statement.

Zev Yaroslavsky, a former district administrator and member of the City Council, does not believe that Raman and Bass’ recent history – endorsing him and later opposing him – will be an issue for voters. In L.A.’s political circles, however, it will be viewed as a setback, at least in the short term, he said.

“As a politician, you don’t have much money. What you have is your voice,” he said.

Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said he’s convinced that Raman and other major candidates — community organizer Rae Huang, reality television star Spencer Pratt and tech entrepreneur Adam Miller — are eyeing polls that show Bass is politically weak and vulnerable to a challenge.

“If Raman becomes mayor, no one will remember this, including the political class,” he said. “If he doesn’t do that, it will be difficult for him, it can’t be fixed. But there will be something left from this.”

On the council, Raman is part of a four-member voting bloc, each of which won office with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America. Although Bass is generally viewed as more conservative than Raman on public safety issues, the two share the same policy priorities, particularly around homelessness.

In his first campaign for City Council in 2020, Raman made a promise to address the city’s homelessness problem in a humanitarian way, moving homeless residents into temporary and permanent housing.

Bass, who was the speaker of the regional council and a member of Congress for 12 years, took office two years later and made homelessness his signature issue, convincing the council to increase its power to respond to the problem.

Raman supported Bass’ declaration of a homelessness emergency, which gave the mayor the power to award contracts and sign leases directly. A week later, Bass held his first Inside Safe show in the Raman district, on the Cahuenga Boulevard section of Hollywood.

As recently as July, Raman appeared in a Bass press release touting the city’s progress on homelessness.

Bass first announced that Raman endorsed him on Jan. 27. Raman said he did not seriously begin to think about running for mayor until the following week, as the application deadline approached.

In a difficult 48 hours, former LA schools Supt. Austin Beutner has dropped out of the race, while real estate developer Rick Caruso and LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath have announced that they, too, will stay out.

“I realized we weren’t going to have a real competition, and that worried me,” said Raman.

Esperias, who is a fan of Bass, said he is still considering Raman’s decision to run for office.

He said Bass contacted him to help Raman in 2023 after one of Raman’s opponents, deputy city attorney Ethan Weaver, removed a significant obstacle to his bid for the district’s Democratic nomination.

Esperias, who lives in the LA neighborhood of Vermont Square, said he worked with Raman’s team in a plan to persuade members of the group to pull Weaver’s endorsement, then throw it at Raman. While Esperias and others called and texted team members, Bass sent a letter urging them to endorse Raman.

Weaver, in an interview, said he immediately felt the difference. After Bass’s letter, interest in his endorsement faded.

“The number of people who would pick up my phone has changed,” he said.

When the election was over, Esperias said, Raman sent a text thanking him for his help during the difficult campaign.

“I’m putting my credibility, I’m putting my relationships on the line to help build this coalition to get that approval,” Esperias said.

Raman said the support went both ways.

During Bass’ first campaign for mayor, Raman hosted a fundraiser at his home in Silver Lake and introduced Bass to key people in his district.

“I helped him in his election, as he helped me,” he said.

Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.