With just over a week to go before election day, Nithya Raman\u2019s endorsement for mayor from the Democratic Socialists of America\u2019s Los Angeles chapter is in jeopardy, as members of the local and national branches tussle over the city council member\u2019s bonafides on Palestine.<\/p>\n
The local chapter voted to endorse<\/a> Raman last month, and with that comes teams of eager doorknockers canvassing for her across the city. <\/p>\n The endorsement wasn\u2019t exactly full-throated \u2014 the tally was 937 in favor and 484 against \u2014 and since then factions within the DSA have argued that she isn\u2019t in compliance with the organization\u2019s stance on Palestine, namely, that she doesn\u2019t support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. <\/p>\n The DSA\u2019s National Political Committee, or NPC, emailed the local\u2019s leaders saying that they were out of compliance with \u201cR22,\u201d a DSA resolution that requires local chapters to inquire about a politician\u2019s positions on the BDS movement before they are endorsed, DSA-L.A.\u2019s co-chair Leslie Chang told The Times.<\/p>\n Chang acknowledged that the chapter didn\u2019t include a question about BDS on its questionnaire for Raman before it endorsed her. <\/p>\n \u201cThis was an oversight,\u201d she and co-chair Sean Wakasa wrote in an email to DSA-LA members. To the group\u2019s national political committee, leadership wrote that Raman \u201chas always supported the right of private citizens to engage in boycotts, including BDS.\u201d<\/p>\n The Raman campaign declined to comment. At a forum last month, Raman called BDS a \u201clegitimate form of peaceful protest\u201d <\/a> without saying whether she supports the movement.<\/p>\n The DSA\u2019s national political committee, which was originally set to meet on the issue last week, is now expected to meet Monday to mull either suspending the endorsement or asking Raman to clarify her position.<\/p>\n Chang insists the national group has no authority to rescind an endorsement made by the L.A. chapter. <\/p>\n \u201cOur endorsement of Nithya was a democratic decision made by the membership, and the NPC is violating its own bylaws by considering un-endorsement and expulsion without following proper procedure,\u201d she said in a statement to The Times. \u201cSo we\u2019re going to continue campaigning for our entire slate and protect our chapter\u2019s vote by all means necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the DSA national organization declined to comment.<\/p>\n You\u2019re reading the L.A. on the Record newsletter <\/p>\n Sign up to make sense of the often unexplained world of L.A. politics.<\/p>\n By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n \u2018City of L.A. on steroids\u2019<\/p>\n As voters ready to go to the polls next month, another local race is already looming large in the background: the contest for top dog in Los Angeles County government.<\/p>\n Measure G, approved by a slim margin of voters in November 2024, set in motion the process of creating both a new CEO position with broad executive powers and an independent ethics commission, and it expanded the Board of Supervisors from five members to nine.<\/p>\n But Supervisor Kathryn Barger is now asking her fellow supervisors to take a \u201cpause,\u201d telling the Times in an interview that \u201chaste makes waste\u201d and that she is concerned about that process and the speed of its implementation. She also called into question the ethics of a sitting supervisor running for an office that is expected to pay $558,000 in total compensation.<\/p>\n \u201cThis position is going to change the county. We\u2019re going to become the city of L.A. on steroids,\u201d she said Wednesday, a day after the board\u2019s latest meeting devolved into a contentious discussion of the county executive issue and Barger\u2019s intention to slow down the process. <\/p>\n \u201cOnce again,\u201d she added, \u201cwe are rushing to put something together, I think maybe in the hopes that no one will peel back the curtain and expose what is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n At Tuesday\u2019s board meeting, Barger committed to not run for the CEO position and called on her fellow board members to do the same. Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Hilda Solis have now publicly stated that they too will follow the pledge.<\/p>\n But Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, widely viewed as a potential top contender for the position, has declined to pledge not to run. Instead, she criticized Barger\u2019s approach in an emailed statement to The Times.<\/p>\n \u201cPressuring others out of an election is political interference, no matter how many times she calls it ethics,\u201d Horvath said, adding that voters \u201ctook this power away from politicians like Supervisor Barger because they wanted to make this choice themselves. She doesn\u2019t get to claw it back and dress up a power grab as an ethics crusade.\u201d<\/p>\n Golfing for Gates<\/p>\n Thirty-four years after he left his post, former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates continues to be an unexpected flashpoint in this year\u2019s mayoral contest. <\/p>\n Raman said during an Oct. 13 debate that the LAPD under Gates was \u201cthe gold standard\u201d for its noncooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Bass responded by accusing her of romanticizing a chief who presided over the mistreatment of Black and Latino residents.<\/p>\n Raman initially accused Bass of twisting her words. But this week, the council member began issuing apologies, telling CNN<\/a> she \u201cshould not have said it.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Bass has repeatedly denounced Gates\u2019 14-year tenure on the campaign trail, one of her biggest financial supporters has been keeping his legacy alive.<\/p>\n The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents rank and file officers and is backing Bass, has been a long-standing host of a memorial golf tournament named after Gates, who died in 2010. This year\u2019s was billed as one of the union\u2019s \u201cpremier fundraising events<\/a>.\u201d According to the union, proceeds go to its Officer Needs Help Fund, which helps officers and their families in times of need.<\/p>\n Bass\u2019 campaign, asked about the tournament, did not immediately offer a comment. Neither did Raman and the police union.<\/p>\n Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed. <\/p>\n State of play<\/p>\n \u2014 WILL SHE, WON\u2019T HE: Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath endorsed Raman on Tuesday<\/a>, giving the City Council member a powerful boost in the battle for votes on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley.<\/p>\n Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, however, declined once again to endorse either Bass or Raman<\/a> in the Nov. 3 runoff election, but expressed what he called \u201cextreme concern\u201d about Raman\u2019s plans to remove Police Chief Jim McDonnell.<\/p>\n \u2014 VALLEY RAIL: Construction is set to begin this week on a 6.7-mile rail line linking Van Nuys and Pacoima<\/a>. The nearly $4-billion project, which will run along Van Nuys Boulevard, will include 11 street-level stations and is projected to open in 2032, according to L.A. Metro, the Los Angeles County transit agency.<\/p>\n \u2014 TOP COP FLOP: Raman\u2019s police chief woes<\/a> continued this week<\/a> when she was asked by CNN anchor Elex Michaelson to name a police chief she respects. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know,\u201d she said, before Michaelson continued with another question. <\/p>\n \u2014 GHOST OF GASC\u00d3N: In the homestretch of the mayor and city attorney contests, George Gasc\u00f3n has been conjured as a boogeyman<\/a> by opponents of progressive candidates Marissa Roy and Raman.<\/p>\n \u2014 LET THE GAMES BEGIN? The next mayor of Los Angeles will be in the global spotlight in 2028, when L.A. plays host to the Summer Olympic Games. And if Raman prevails over Bass, that mayor will be someone who didn\u2019t even want the Olympics<\/a> here in the first place.<\/p>\n QUICK HITSWhere is Inside Safe? The mayor\u2019s signature program did not launch any new encampment operations this week. That\u2019s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@latimes.com<\/a>. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here<\/a> to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With just over a week to go before election day, Nithya Raman\u2019s endorsement for mayor from the Democratic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[10706,1409,2323,6703,4579,3802,2424,3985,2303,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,534,10263,1519,430,72],"class_list":["post-506691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-barger","tag-city","tag-council","tag-county-government","tag-district","tag-fire","tag-friday","tag-horvath","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-pacific-palisades","tag-region","tag-trump","tag-week","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506691","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=506691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
On the docket next week: The DSA National Political Committee will meet Monday to discuss DSA-LA\u2019s endorsement of Raman. Stay in touch<\/p>\n