Nithya Raman Gets Votes As 'Gotcha' by Bass Goes Bust
HANS ACROSS LA - The progressive challenger for L.A.’s mayorship, Councilmember Nithya Raman, survived a failed attempt to shred her district five years ago and shove her into unfamiliar territory, aimed at forcing her off the Council. This week, she survived another ambush by City Hall insiders feverish to keep a reformer away from the levers of power.
At the televised mayoral debate Oct. 13 between Raman and wobbling incumbent Karen Bass, Raman criticized the mayor over cooperation between the L.A. Police Department (LAPD) and federal immigration agencies terrorizing and traumatizing L.A. residents.
Raman in the debate made reference to a policy in LAPD from 47 years ago, called Special Order 40, which sought to protect Angelenos from intimidation by local police officers over fear of immigration enforcement. Special Order 40 bars LAPD officers from questioning Angelenos for the sole purpose of ascertaining immigration status. Its goal is to encourage witness statements in criminal investigations and follow-up testimony and to discourage lawlessness.
“I’m an immigrant to America myself,” Raman told viewers on NBC 4 at about the 16-minute mark of the debate, moderated principally by esteemed longtime news anchor Colleen Williams. Shortly thereafter, Raman added: “This city used to be the gold standard in terms of non-cooperation with immigration enforcement.”
Raman went on to indicate the irony that such humane policy in LAPD decades ago came during the tenure of a police chief more renowned for bigotry and thuggery, Daryl Gates. Gates presided over the LAPD not only during an infamous police riot against striking janitors in June 1990, but also during the savage beating of motorist Rodney King in March 1991, which was captured on video by an amateur Good Samaritan and eventually viewed by a worldwide audience. Gates finally left the job in June 1992, just after the massive civil uprising that followed LAPD officers’ acquittal in the King beating.
Bass, in her immediate response at the debate, did not dispute Raman’s allusion to Special Order 40 or the mention of Daryl Gates. Worth noting is that Bass’s reelection campaign is benefiting from outside spending of more than $2.1 million by the L.A. Police Protective League, the association of city officers. In glossy mailers and by other means, this independent expenditure is mounting a drumbeat of attacks on Raman’s character and credibility in order to defeat Raman in the Nov. 3 runoff election.
In the days after the debate, however, Bass and numerous allies came to belatedly fixate on Raman’s remarks. They falsely alleged that Councilmember Raman had praised Daryl Gates directly instead of the humane policy to encourage witnesses in criminal investigations that coincided with his tenure.
Also worth highlighting is that Nithya Raman, in a separate public address on Oct. 4 to mark the start of voting, praised the courage of the striking janitors in June 1990 who endured beatings by LAPD officers in Century City in June 1990. Raman uplifted that chapter of L.A. history to describe the struggles by working people that have created pathways of opportunity for working people and families today and hope for later generations.
Progressive voters, meanwhile, are tilting toward Nithya Raman. East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD) released its widely used Ballot Guide in early October reflecting the club’s endorsement of Raman, with 76 perfect of members’ votes.
The attempted gotcha by Bass supporters targeting Raman very much resembles a dust-up just two years ago in the closing weeks of a hotly contested runoff for City Council in Council District 14. In October 2024, a staffer of now-defeated former Councilmember Kevin de Leon was implicated in a sting aimed at besmirching progressive challenger Ysabel Jurado over her use of rap lyrics to characterize disgust at police violence against community members. That fracas, which also involved reporting by the same L.A. Times journalist closely covering the attempted gotcha by Bass, backfired badly on de Leon. Jurado won the election in a wipeout, by about 15 percent.
Even with a long and venerable record of fighting for racial justice and police accountability, Mayor Bass has no unique ownership over the anguish, community organizing, hard-won empowerment, and progress that grew out of injustices, grit, and resilience of the past five decades. That honorable track record does not grant her or any loyalist the license to distort the words of her challenger in this reelection campaign.
The current line attack on Nithya Raman by Bass supporters is manufactured to distort and trigger distrust about a reform-driven, progressive candidate. Raman’s resourceful, citywide campaign has an incumbent mayor, reliant on police-association money, on the ropes with two weeks left before Election Day.
(Hans Johnson is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, environmental justice, and public education. His columns have appeared in USA Today and leading newspapers across more than 20 states. Based in Eagle Rock, he serves as president of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), California’s largest grassroots Democratic club with over 1,100 members. Hans brings decades of organizing and policy experience to his work, advancing equity and accountability in local and national politics.)
