Others withdraw, and Raman jumps. The allies are now enemies in the Los Angeles mayor’s race

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has had a really bad week.

But then it turned into a pretty good week, and she must have breathed a sigh of relief.

Until Saturday morning surprise.

I had to set fire to my scorecard, and to the column I just drafted, which touched on all the expected big-name contenders who have dropped out of the mayoral race in the past few days: Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, billionaire businessman Rick Caruso (who forced a runoff with Bass last time), and former Los Angeles Unified Schools chief Austin Beutner.

It was as if we wouldn’t get a much-needed face-to-face, for months, about all that was right and wrong in the sprawling city of high hopes and low expectations. In a conversation I had with Fernando Guerra of Loyola Marymount University, an observer of the local political scene for decades, he made this observation about the lackluster political season that was shaping up:

“What’s interesting to me is that no one from the establishment political class is running against him [Bass] When it is clearly weak.”

Weak due to its handling of the Palisades Fire and its aftermath.

They are at risk due to limited progress on basic issues such as homelessness, housing affordability, and the shameful condition of our streets, sidewalks, and parks.

But then came Saturday morning, when Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, in an unexpected move, decided to escalate the matter, injecting a new element of drama into the race.

It was a surprise because Raman and Bass are not political enemies. In fact, they were very much allies, and each supported the other’s re-election bids.

So, what was Raman thinking when signing up for the challenge in which she is clearly the underdog?

“I have deep respect for Mayor Bass. We’ve worked closely together on my biggest priorities and her biggest priorities, and there’s great alignment there,” Raman told the Times. “But over the last few months in particular, I’ve really started to feel that unless we have some big changes in how we do things in Los Angeles, the things we rely on aren’t going to work anymore.”

There is more to it than that, politically speaking. Raman is located to the left of Bass and the traditional left of Los Angeles. She and three other council members with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America changed the conversation at City Council, with more emphasis on social service, housing and labor issues, and less on traditional law enforcement.

This agenda will not appeal to conservative voters and neighborhoods where public safety is a big issue, but potential supporters for progressives include renters, immigrants, young people, disenfranchised groups, and front-line workers in the minimum wage economy.

Raman’s nomination — along with DSA’s candidates for other city offices — makes the election a referendum on Los Angeles’ evolving center of political influence. And it raises questions about whether the city is ready to blow things up and move more in the direction of New York City, which just elected a very progressive mayor, Zahran Mamdani.

For all that, it also raises the question of whether progressives will be able to deliver on their promises as well as balance the budget. Not an easy task, there.

As for Bass, you don’t get where you are in politics — from the state Legislature to Congress to City Council — without sharp survival skills and without amassing friends you can count on, even when the road to reelection is full of potholes.

Even when an ally comes after you.

“What a surprise,” Guerra said as Raman entered the race.

He regards her as a formidable enemy who was the first to prove “that the DSA could win in Los Angeles” and who brought many advantages to the campaign against Bass.

For example, she has a record of some success on homelessness in her district and was involved with the issue in the Silver Lake area before she took public office, when she noticed a striking lack of coordination and continuity. Given her age, 44, she aligns herself with young voters hungry for a change in political leadership.

It’s possible that with Raman in the race, and fundamental governance issues now taking center stage, there will be a little less focus on Bass’ handling and mishandling of the Palisades Fire, which destroyed thousands of properties, wiped out a vibrant community and killed 12 people.

When I said at the top of this column that Bass was having a really bad week, I was referring to the Palisades fire and the latest story from Times investigative reporters Allen Chekmedian and Paul Pringle. They have already proven that the Los Angeles Fire Department failed to adequately deploy ahead of time to respond to the fire, and that they failed to extinguish a previous fire that later led to the epic disaster.

Reporters also demonstrated that the so-called “after-the-event” report on the fire had been edited to downplay the failures of the department and the city, all of which was scandalous enough.

But on Wednesday, Chekmedian and Pringle reported that Bass had participated in the reviews despite her previous denials. The mayor “wanted to remove or water down key findings about LAFD’s actions before making the report public,” the sources said.

Bass strongly denied the allegations and criticized The Times. But even before the latest story, Bass’s report card in the Palisades was one a wise person would feed to a dog. She left the country just before the fire despite warnings of potentially catastrophic conditions. Many other missteps followed, including botched hiring and the premature departure of the Reconstruction Czar.

Raman didn’t take aim at Bass’ handling of the fire, and we’ll see if that changes. I don’t see the response to the ICE raids as a point of contention between Raman and Bass. One of the mayor’s strengths in office has been her advocacy for immigrants in the city and her opposition to President Trump.

“Bass gets high marks for resisting ICE,” Guerra said of polls and public opinion surveys he has conducted or reviewed. “But on other issues, including homelessness, it is not doing so well.”

Two-thirds of voters in one poll said they would not support Bass in the June primary, Guerra said. But this poll did not provide an alternative to PAS, and now there is an alternative.

In fact, several. Others include Brentwood technology entrepreneur Adam Miller, who has money to spend; reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, a Republican who lost his home in Palisades and has been attacking the mayor; and minister/community organizer Ray Huang, a democratic socialist.

Does it matter to them, given the odds are against them and Raman’s entry into the race?

Yes, they probably do. Bass needs more than 50% of the vote in the June primary to win outright. But with Raman and the others receiving varying percentages of votes, a two-person runoff is likely in November, and the two candidates are almost certain to be Bass and Raman.

After a crazy week in Los Angeles, allies are now enemies.

The race for mayor is getting interesting.

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