{"id":591811,"date":"2026-02-15T13:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/591811\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T13:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:26:16","slug":"bass-helped-raman-win-reelection-now-raman-wants-to-unseat-her-some-call-it-a-betrayal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/591811\/","title":{"rendered":"Bass helped Raman win reelection. Now Raman wants to unseat her. Some call it ‘a betrayal’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two years ago, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass went to Sherman Oaks to cut a quick campaign ad<\/a> for a trusted ally: Councilmember Nithya Raman.<\/p>\n

Standing next to Bass, Raman looked into the camera and praised the mayor\u2019s work on homelessness, saying she was \u201chonored\u201d to have her support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be prouder to work alongside her,\u201d Raman said.<\/p>\n

That video, recorded at a get-out-the-vote rally for Raman\u2019s reelection campaign, feels like a political lifetime ago. On Feb. 7, Raman launched a surprise bid<\/a> to unseat Bass, saying the city is at a \u201cbreaking point\u201d and no longer capable of providing basic services.<\/p>\n

Raman\u2019s entry into the race, hours before the filing deadline, shocked the city\u2019s political elite and infuriated the mayor\u2019s supporters. Some observers called it a betrayal of Shakespearean proportions.<\/p>\n

Raman\u2019s name had appeared on a list of Bass endorsers just weeks earlier. Bass\u2019 support for Raman\u2019s 2024 reelection bid had helped the councilmember earn 50.7% of the vote and avoid a messy runoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can she treat a relationship like this, and dispose of it once it\u2019s served its purpose?\u201d said Julio Esperias, a Democratic Party activist who volunteered with Raman\u2019s 2024 campaign at Bass\u2019 request. \u201cIt\u2019s a breach of trust, a betrayal, and it\u2019s kind of hard for me to stomach at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, Bass \u2014 then at the peak of her popularity \u2014 was featured prominently in Raman\u2019s campaign mailers. She sent canvassers to knock on voters\u2019 doors. A speech Bass delivered at Raman\u2019s rally in Sherman Oaks was turned into a social media video with stirring background music.<\/p>\n

\"Councilwoman <\/p>\n

Councilwoman Nithya Raman talks to attendees during an election night party held by the Democratic Socialists of America – LA chapter at The Greyhound on Nov. 4 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

That video<\/a>, along with other posts highlighting Bass\u2019 support for her<\/a>, still appears on Raman\u2019s Instagram page, which now promotes her run for mayor.<\/p>\n

Bass, politically bruised over her handling of last year\u2019s devastating Palisades fire, now faces an insurgent campaign from one of the City Council\u2019s savviest players.<\/p>\n

Esperias said he regrets helping Raman claw back the endorsement of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party in 2023, after it nearly went to her opponent.<\/p>\n

Bass, for her part, has downplayed any hard feelings, saying she intends to run on her record \u2014 including her collaboration with Raman. Asked if she viewed Raman\u2019s candidacy as a betrayal, she responded: \u201cThat\u2019s not significant now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mayor <\/p>\n

Mayor Karen Bass speaks before signing a rent stabilization ordinance passed by the Los Angeles City Council, the first update to the ordinance in nearly 40 years, at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy in Los Angeles Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cI will tell you that it was a surprise, absolutely,\u201d Bass said. \u201cBut I am moving forward, I am going to run my race, and I look forward to serving with her in my second term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raman has been delivering a similarly complicated message, expressing deep respect for the mayor while arguing that the city is in desperate need of change.<\/p>\n

On the morning of Feb. 7, before filling out her paperwork at the city clerk\u2019s office, Raman called Bass to inform her she was running.<\/p>\n

The next day, the two women met privately at Getty House, the mayor\u2019s mansion. Neither would say why they met or what they discussed.<\/p>\n

At City Hall, both supporters and critics of Bass have been retracing recent events, looking for clues as to how things went wrong.<\/p>\n

In November, while watching election returns for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Raman told The Times that Bass was the most progressive mayor the city ever had \u2014 noting that Angelenos \u201cvote their values.\u201d Last month, Bass twice announced that she had Raman\u2019s endorsement. <\/p>\n

On Friday, Raman said she could not remember exactly when she endorsed Bass, saying she believed it came during a phone call with the mayor \u201cprobably in the fourth quarter of last year.\u201d At the same time, she said her exasperation with the city\u2019s leadership has been building for months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been actually frustrated by the conditions in the city for quite some time, particularly over this last year, where we are both unable to deliver basic services, like fixing streetlights and repaving streets for my constituents, but also are not moving toward a more accountable, transparent and efficient system of addressing issues like homelessness,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\"Gloria <\/p>\n

Gloria Martinez, center, of United Teachers Los Angeles, speaks at a rally outside City Hall featuring opponents of the effort to rewrite Measure ULA, a tax on property sales to pay for housing initiatives.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Raman pointed to Measure ULA, the voter-approved tax on property sales of $5.3 million and up, as a catalyst for her mayoral bid. Although she has been a supporter of the tax, she has also concluded that it is a major obstacle<\/a> to building new housing.<\/p>\n

Last month, Raman tried without success<\/a> to put a measure on the June 2 ballot that would have scaled back the types of properties covered by the tax, in hopes of jump-starting apartment construction.<\/p>\n

Raman also told The Times that Inside Safe, the mayor\u2019s signature program to move unhoused people indoors, needs to be redesigned so it is \u201cfiscally sustainable.\u201d She said she \u201csimply did not see any progress\u201d from the mayor\u2019s office on that issue.<\/p>\n

Asked whether she betrayed Bass, Raman said her decision to run was driven by the growing problems facing the city \u2014 and the need for change.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy most important relationship in this role is with the people of Los Angeles, not the politics of City Hall,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bass campaign spokesperson Douglas Herman pointed out that Raman is head of the council\u2019s housing and homelessness committee \u2014 and that she repeatedly voiced support<\/a> for Bass programs that have delivered back-to-back reductions in street homelessness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman scans a QR code to get election updates during an election night party in March 2024.<\/p>\n

(Myung Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are developing more cost effective models, it is absolutely urgent that we get people off our streets immediately,\u201d Herman said. \u201cNithya Raman is acting like a typical politician and knows it because she congratulated Mayor Bass for cleaning dangerous and long-standing encampments in her district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raman\u2019s decision has sparked an outcry from an unlikely combination of Bass allies. Danny J. Bakewell, Jr., executive editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel, condemned Raman\u2019s actions last week in an editorial<\/a> that invoked the O\u2019Jay\u2019s 1972 hit \u201cBack Stabbers<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of life\u2019s greatest disappointments is discovering that someone you believed was a friend is not,\u201d wrote Bakewell, whose newspaper focuses on issues facing the city\u2019s Black community.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file LAPD officers and opposed Raman\u2019s reelection in 2024, offered a similar take.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf political backstabbing were a crime, Nithya Raman would be a wanted fugitive,\u201d the union\u2019s board, which has endorsed Bass, said in a statement. <\/p>\n

Zev Yaroslavsky, a former county supervisor and City Council member, does not believe that Raman\u2019s recent history with Bass \u2014 endorsing her and later running against her \u2014 will be an issue for the electorate. In L.A. political circles, however, it will be viewed as a transgression, at least in the short term, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a politician, you don\u2019t have much currency. What you have is your word,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said he is certain that Raman and the other major candidates \u2014 community organizer Rae Huang<\/a>, reality television star Spencer Pratt<\/a> and tech entrepreneur Adam Miller<\/a> \u2014 have looked at polls showing that Bass is politically weakened and vulnerable to a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Raman becomes mayor, nobody\u2019s going to remember this, including the political class,\u201d he said. \u201cIf she doesn\u2019t, it\u2019ll be a little more difficult for her. It\u2019s not irreparable. But there will be a residue to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the council, Raman belongs to a four-member voting bloc, each of whom won office with support from Democratic Socialists of America. While Bass is generally considered more conservative than Raman on public safety issues, the two share many of the same policy priorities, particularly around homelessness.<\/p>\n

In her first campaign for City Council in 2020, Raman ran on a promise to address the city\u2019s homelessness crisis in a humanitarian way, by moving unhoused residents into temporary and permanent housing.<\/p>\n

Bass, a former state Assembly speaker and 12-year member of Congress, took office two years later and made homelessness her signature issue, convincing the council to expand her power to respond to the crisis.<\/p>\n

Raman backed Bass\u2019 declaration of a homelessness emergency<\/a>, which gave the mayor the power to award contracts and sign leases directly. A week later, Bass staged her first Inside Safe operation in Raman\u2019s district, on a stretch of Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

As recently as July, Raman appeared on a Bass press release touting the city\u2019s progress on homelessness.<\/p>\n

Bass first announced that Raman had endorsed her on Jan. 27. Raman said she did not begin seriously contemplating a run for mayor until the following week, as the filing deadline approached.<\/p>\n

Over a tumultuous 48-hour period, former L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner exited the race, while real estate developer Rick Caruso and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath announced that they, too, would stay out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized we were potentially not even going to have a real competition, and that troubled me,\u201d Raman said.<\/p>\n

Esperias, the Bass supporter, said he is still processing Raman\u2019s decision to run.<\/p>\n

He said Bass tapped him to help Raman in 2023 after one of Raman\u2019s opponents, deputy city attorney Ethan Weaver, cleared a key hurdle in his bid for the endorsement of the county\u2019s Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

Esperias, who lives in L.A.\u2019s Vermont Square neighborhood, said he worked with Raman\u2019s team on a plan to persuade party members to pull Weaver\u2019s endorsement, then flip it to Raman. While Esperias and others called and texted party members, Bass sent a letter urging them to endorse Raman.<\/p>\n

Weaver, in an interview, said he immediately felt the difference. After Bass\u2019 letter, interest in endorsing him evaporated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt changed the amount of people that would take my call,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Once the election was over, Esperias said, Raman sent a text message thanking him for his help during a tough campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put my credibility, I put my relationships on the line to help build this coalition to get that endorsement,\u201d Esperias said.<\/p>\n

Raman argued that the support has gone both ways.<\/p>\n

During Bass\u2019 first mayoral campaign, Raman held a fundraiser at her Silver Lake home and introduced Bass to key people in her district. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did help her in her election as well, just like she helped me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.<\/p>\n