Three members of the Los Angeles City Council’s progressive bloc are throwing their support to Mayor Karen Bass in her bid for reelection, dealing a blow to challenger Nithya Raman, their progressive ally on the council.
The council members endorsing Bass — Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Martínez — are all members of the Democratic Socialists of America, as is Raman. The four routinely cast dissenting council votes on increased police spending and creation of new anti-encampment zones in the city.
Hernandez and Jurado planned to announce their endorsements of Bass on Tuesday, with each citing Bass’ handling of the Trump administration’s immigration raids over the summer and her work to reduce homelessness as significant reasons for their support of the mayor.
“When immigrant communities across our city came under attack, Karen Bass stood up and spoke out. She showed real leadership and conviction,” Hernandez, who represents a district running from Pico-Union to Highland Park, said in a statement.
Soto-Martínez, who endorsed Bass earlier this year, joined his DSA colleagues with a statement saying he was caught off-guard by Raman’s surprise decision to challenge Bass, which she announced just before the filing period closed.
“Even when we disagree, I’ve never doubted Mayor Bass and her long-standing commitment to the community,” Soto-Martínez said.
Raman herself endorsed the mayor’s reelection bid two weeks before jumping into the race. Raman said later that her endorsement of the mayor actually came months before it was officially announced.
Despite being part of the progressive bloc, Raman has tacked more centrist as she runs for citywide office. She now states that that the LAPD should maintain its current sworn officer strength, and said that if elected mayor she wouldn’t block council members from enacting anti-encampment zones in their districts. Previously Raman has sometimes voted against hiring officers and even posted “Defund the police” on X during her first council run.
She has voted repeatedly against implementing anti-encampment zones during her time on council, saying it just moves the problem somewhere else.
But she has also promised reforms often considered progressive, such as allowing denser buildings in single-family neighborhoods, releasing a strong climate plan, and calling for the ouster of Bass’ police chief, Jim McDonnell, in favor of a chief committed to protecting immigrants, according to her website.
Analysts said Tuesday’s planned endorsements are aimed at denting Raman’s appeal to progressives.
“This is a major blow to Councilwoman Nithya Raman,” said Mike Trujillo, a Democratic consultant in Los Angeles. “If the people that sit inches from her are rejecting her candidacy, that should speak volumes to every other voter in the city.”
Polls show Bass leading all candidates in the June 2 primary, but without the majority support to win outright. That would set up an expected Nov. 3 runoff against Raman or former reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, who are running neck-and-neck for a second-place finish.
Raman didn’t respond to a request for comment on the endorsement.
Raman has suggested that Bass is seeking to knock her out in the primary because the mayor would prefer to face Pratt in a potential Nov. 3 runoff. Although the race is nonpartisan, Pratt is a Republican in a city where GOP registration is not quite 15%.
Bass has denied she would rather face Pratt than Raman.
“I don’t think he is preferable as a competitor. I don’t want any competitors, how about that?” the mayor said during a one-on-one debate with Raman at the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.
The support for the mayor from the progressive bloc highlighted the fractured nature of the city’s left-leaning voters this cycle.
Despite making six endorsements in other local races, DSA declined to endorse in the mayoral race in which two candidates — Raman and community organizer Rae Huang — are both dues-paying members of the left-wing group. DSA instead said it “recommended” voting for Raman, falling short of a formal endorsement.
“The progressive electorate is still dancing between Raman and Rae,” said Mike Bonin, a former progressive L.A. City Councilmember who now leads the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA.
Bass’ announcements of the endorsements is “an attempt to chip away at Nithya,” Bonin said, though he added that endorsements for someone with Bass’ level of name recognition are not of utmost important, as voters are already very familiar with her.
Zev Yaroslavsky, another former L.A. council member who now leads the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said the endorsements might have less to do with political ideology and more to do with council members wanting to maintain working relationships with the mayor, who is polling ahead of Raman.
“These are people who have worked with Bass and have gotten things from the mayor’s administration and want to keep that going,” Yaroslavsky said.
Still, the endorsements from the council’s progressive members could reap benefits come election day, Yaroslavsky said.
“These endorsements give Bass some credibility among a segment of the electorate that might not have necessarily been for her,” he added.
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