L.A. mayoral candidate Raman resists labels

Mix of stances on issues like housing, policing, transportation confound allies and critics alike

- By Dakota Smith

NITHYA RAMAN, left, Monica Rodriguez and Hugo Soto-Martínez at a meeting on Palisades building fees.

(ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times)

More than five years ago, Nithya Raman made history as the first candidate backed by the Democratic Socialists of America to win a City Council seat in Los Angeles, ushering in a wave of other progressive candidates who pushed the council to the left.

Now, her surprising last-minute entry into the L.A. mayor's race is prompting inevitable comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, another DSA-backed politician who was recently elected mayor of New York City.

But Raman's record as a City Council member hasn't always aligned with the far left.

In fact, her stances on issues like homelessness, transportation and protecting immigrants from the Trump administration are similar to those of her opponent and former ally, Mayor Karen Bass.

As her campaign moves forward, Raman will have to differentiate herself from Bass — as well as address the narrative that she betrayed Bass, who offered an important boost to her reelection campaign in 2024.

On housing, Raman, 44, has at times angered progressives by aligning with the YIMBY movement, which has pushed for the city to boost housing production and to rewrite Measure ULA, the so-called mansion tax, which applies to property sales of $5.3 million or more.

In an interview Monday, she portrayed herself as not beholden to any special interest groups.

“Yes, I'm a YIMBY,” said Raman, referring to the pro-housing “Yes in My Backyard” acronym. “I'm a DSA-endorsed — multiple times — candidate.

“But I feel like I have demonstrated over and over again that my decision-making has been independent. ... I stand up and talk about policy change, even when it alienates my allies.”