LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman has strong opinions

Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman has routinely opposed efforts by her colleagues to block homeless encampments in their districts, voting more than 60 times since 2021 against measures to ban them near schools, libraries, parks, freeway overpasses and other public areas. After announcing her bid for mayor, however, Raman took a sharp turn on the issue. “When I’m mayor, if the council wants to create new (no camping) zones, I’m not going to stand in the way,” she told an audience in May.

Add the no-camping turnabout to a list of political issues on which Raman took one position only to later shift her stance — or in some cases, reverse it completely. During her first run for City Council in 2020, Raman called for the defunding of the police, telling her followers that “the path is not complicated.” Two years later, she voted for a nearly 3% increase in spending on the Los Angeles Police Department, allocating an additional $82 million. Raman urged voters in 2022 to approve Measure ULA, the tax on real estate sales above $5.4 million, dubbed by some as the “mansion tax.” On social media, she downplayed warnings that the tax would discourage apartment construction, saying the impact would be “very minor.”

The council member later changed course, saying the tax has had a disastrous effect on apartment construction and desperately needs an overhaul. “You can’t address a housing crisis with a policy that worsens our housing shortage,” Raman said in January. Raman also voted this year to oppose a request from Mayor Karen Bass to add 170 police officers. The mayor said the hires were needed to replace officers who are retiring — and keep the department from shrinking. Weeks later, after launching her mayoral campaign, Raman went on NBC4 and declared that city leaders need to maintain the size of the LAPD and keep sworn staffing from getting smaller.

Raman and her team have defended her various policy shifts, saying she made them after receiving new information, learning about changed circumstances or simply giving an issue a second look. “My thinking has changed on this issue,” Raman told The Times in August, explaining why she no longer supports defunding the police. “I have voted for multiple budgets that have maintained our police staffing, sought to expand our police staffing. But I’ve also spoken up when I felt like raises being provided to police officers unbalanced our budget so much that we wouldn’t be able to provide other essential services across the city.” Raman’s shifts have become fodder for Bass, her opponent in the Nov. 3 election, and the mayor’s allies. Bass, at a debate in Sherman Oaks, said Raman “talks out of both sides of her mouth” when discussing police hiring.

Raman’s tendency to rethink her policy decisions has also contributed to her strained relations with her council colleagues, nearly all of whom are backing the mayor’s reelection bid. Council member Traci Park, who has not endorsed in the race, said she believes Raman is altering her public positions on police hiring and homeless encampments to appeal to more moderate voters — including those who backed Republican Spencer Pratt in the June 2 primary. “It makes me question what she stands for, or if she actually stands for anything at all,” she added. On Measure ULA, Raman said she changed her mind after reviewing studies on housing production. On police hiring, she said the mayor had acted irresponsibly, calling for more officers without providing a long-term strategy to pay for them.

And on homeless encampments, her team said a mayor lacks the legal authority to block council members from creating new no-camping zones. Raman’s shifting stances even apply to the election itself. Raman initially endorsed Bass’ bid for a second term, appearing in news releases in January promoting the mayor. Weeks later, she jumped into the race herself, saying her decision was the product of mounting frustration over the state of the city. Asked why she backed Bass in the first place, Raman said she did so to ensure the mayor would provide resources to her Hollywood Hills district. “Endorsing the mayor is part of that,” she said.

Those types of responses have riled her critics, who have portrayed her as indecisive at best, and an opportunist at worst. Council member Monica Rodriguez, a Bass ally, said Raman dismissed warnings about Measure ULA, the so-called mansion tax, when it was still on the ballot and her views might have made a difference. She compared Raman earlier this year to an arsonist who shows up dressed as a firefighter, vowing to put out a fire they set themselves. Even Council member Heather Hutt, perhaps the council’s least combative voice, said she doesn’t trust Raman after seeing her first endorse the mayor and then run against her.

“One day she’s yes, the other day she’s no,” Hutt told a crowd at a pro-Bass rally last month.