{"id":170529,"date":"2026-02-09T16:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/170529\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T16:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:17:20","slug":"new-mayoral-challenger-in-los-angeles-draws-mamdani-comparisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/170529\/","title":{"rendered":"New mayoral challenger in Los Angeles draws Mamdani comparisons"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Los Angeles\u2019 political world was uniformly floored when Nithya Raman announced her eleventh-hour campaign for mayor.<\/a> Maybe they shouldn\u2019t have been.<\/p>\n

The progressive councilmember who had been a longtime ally of Mayor Karen Bass had, in recent months, become increasingly exasperated with what she saw as dysfunctional city government \u2014 and more vocal about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t frame it in the context of entering into a mayoral campaign,\u201d Raman told Playbook, \u201cbut I have talked about my frustrations with the city to a lot of people \u2026 I don\u2019t yell and shout but I have made my frustrations very, very clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently, this was news to Bass. The mayor learned about Raman\u2019s plan just before the surprise announcement became public; later that day, Bass said she was \u201cflabbergasted,\u201d according to journalist David Dayen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So was practically everyone else in town. For the last year, most of the attention on this race fixated on very public will-they-or-won\u2019t-they teases from Rick Caruso, the billionaire developer, and County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who both eventually decided not to run. Raman, meanwhile, kept her deliberations to a very small circle of family and confidantes. With the filing deadline rapidly approaching, she began seriously mulling a bid last week and did not make her final decision until Friday evening, after Horvath announced she\u2019d be running for reelection instead.<\/p>\n

Now, Raman is building a campaign apparatus on the fly, with most of her staff and strategy still TBD. Still, her candidacy started with an enviable earned media jolt, given her immediate status as Bass\u2019 most formidable opponent and unmissable parallels to a certain New York City mayor.<\/p>\n

Raman certainly isn\u2019t dissuading pundits from linking her to Zohran Mamdani, the nation\u2019s newest political phenom. The two have a lot in common, including their affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America and, as she noted, their shared South Asian ethnic background.<\/p>\n

But there are key differences between the two politicians, and the cities where they live. First, while Raman\u2019s first City Council win in 2020 heralded the new ascendance of DSA and progressives broadly in Los Angeles, her relationship with the left has been rocky at times.<\/p>\n

\u201cNithya is more of a known brand than Zohran was. He was more of a blank slate. Nithya has more of a record,\u201d said Mike Bonin, a former councilmember and fellow progressive who now leads the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA. \u201cIt\u2019s always harder to be the progressive savior when you\u2019ve been in office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raman also hails from a markedly different political climate than Mamdani. Part of what made her decision so stunning is because it is so rare in Los Angeles; it\u2019s been more than 20 years since a sitting councilmember has challenged an incumbent mayor. That\u2019s a stark difference from New York City\u2019s aggressive electoral culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s more of a confrontational political style. It\u2019s okay to take a shot across the bow, throw your hat in the ring and have competitive elections,\u201d said Rob Quan, a longtime LA City Hall watchdog. \u201cWe don\u2019t really have that here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Raman\u2019s launch unnerved many in and around City Hall. Some insiders view Raman\u2019s campaign as a show of disloyalty, given that Bass endorsed her in a competitive reelection bid last year. Even her ideological allies aren\u2019t immediately jumping to her side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I recognize Nithya\u2019s contributions to the city, I was caught off-guard by her last-minute maneuver, and I continue to strongly support Mayor Bass,\u201d said Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, a member of the progressive bloc, in a statement. \u201cEven when we disagree, I\u2019ve never doubted Mayor Bass and her long-standing commitment to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raman is well aware that she\u2019s ruffled feathers, and she acknowledges that her move may affect the relationships in City Hall that are so crucial for getting anything done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have wanted to jeopardize that in any way,\u201d she said, \u201cif I didn\u2019t feel like there\u2019s no other option.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like this content? Consider signing up for POLITICO\u2019s California Playbook newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Los Angeles\u2019 political world was uniformly floored when Nithya Raman announced her eleventh-hour campaign for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2331,81771,4132,48,52,51,6685,47,50,49,80699,80054,20923,14039],"class_list":{"0":"post-170529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-councilmember","9":"tag-incumbent-mayor","10":"tag-karen-bass","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-headlines","13":"tag-la-news","14":"tag-lindsey-horvath","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles-news","18":"tag-mayoral-campaign","19":"tag-nithya-raman","20":"tag-rick-caruso","21":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}