Raman enters mayoral race to challenge Bass

City Council member launches a shocking last-minute campaign against onetime ally.

- BY DAVID ZAHNISER AND NOAH GOLDBERG

CHRISTINA HOUSE Los Angeles Times

COUNCILMEMBER Nithya Raman speaks to the press after filing paperwork to run for Los Angeles mayor.

For a few fleeting hours, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass seemed to be facing a clear path to reelection, after several high-powered challengers pulled out or declined to enter the race.

But just three hours before the filing deadline, progressive City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a onetime Bass ally, launched a mayoral bid, shocking the city’s political establishment and upending the race. Her candidacy poses the most serious threat yet to Bass, who for the last year has faced bruising criticism over her handling of the devastating Palisades fire.

On Saturday, Raman portrayed the city government as unable to tackle high housing costs, fix broken streetlights or address the stubborn homelessness crisis. City agencies, she said, "can’t seem to manage the basics."

"Los Angeles is at a breaking point, and people feel it in the most basic ways," she said after submitting her candidate paperwork at the City Clerk's Office.

Raman, 44, who had previously endorsed the mayor's reelection bid, called Bass "an icon" and someone she deeply admires. But she said the city needs a change agent to address its many problems.

"I have deep respect for Mayor Bass. We've worked closely together on my biggest priorities and her biggest priorities, and there’s significant alignment there,” Raman, who lives in Silver Lake, told The Times earlier in the day.

“But over the last few months in particular, I’ve really begun to feel like unless we have some big changes in how we do things in Los Angeles, that the things we count on are not going to function anymore.”