Bass leads the field for L.A. mayor, but many voters view her unfavorably, poll finds

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has a lead over her challengers in her bid for reelection, but more…
#NewsBeep #News #Topstories #angelenos #Bass #bonin #campaign #candidate #city #danschnur #field #Headlines #l.a.mayor #majorissue #mayoralrace #poll #pratt #raman #TopStories #voter
https://www.newsbeep.com/447078/

Nithya Raman filing papers on Saturday morning to
⭐️challenge Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in the
👉 June 2 election
hit like a political bombshell.

Text chains blew up with stunned variations of,
"I didn't see that coming!"

Everyone sought to determine what a run from someone on Bass' left will mean when election day arrives in, gulp, 💥 less than four months.

How this plays out remains to be seen.
But here are some initial takeaways.

This Is Great for Los Angeles!

Elections are best when they involve real choice.
Races where incumbents face no or only token opposition do little for constituents.

That was the case with the last two mayors seeking a second term.

Neither Eric #Garcetti in 2017, nor Antonio #Villaraigosa in 2009, was threatened.

The races were boring. Angelenos yawned.

For a moment it looked like the same thing would happen this year, as
Rick #Caruso,
Austin #Beutner and Lindsey #Horvath opted against running for various reasons.

Bass may briefly have envisioned coasting to term two.

#Raman does not arrive at this moment with decades in the game and deep connections in far-flung halls of power
-like #Bass when she entered the 2022 mayor's race.

But with five years on the council, progressive bona fides, and key positions including chairing the Council's Housing and Homelessness Committee,
✅ Raman will force Bass to defend her first-term record on everything from homelessness to housing construction to Palisades fire response.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-bass-raman-battle-is-great-for-los-angeles-and-other-mayor-s-race-reverberations/ar-AA1W0wHQ

#Nithya #Raman,
a progressive urban planner,
entered Los Angeles politics with a bang when she was elected to city council in 2020,
defeating an incumbent Democrat endorsed by Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton.

⭐️More than five years on, the 44-year-old is making waves again
with her last-minute entry into the
⚡️LA mayoral race.
Raman filed to run just hours before the deadline
– after recently endorsing Mayor #Karen #Bass for re-election
– to the surprise of constituents, and political allies and opponents alike.

The bombshell development came after the race had finally appeared to be swinging in Bass’s favor,
following months of criticism over the city’s handling of last year’s wildfires and ever present frustrations about homelessness and housing.

👉Several competitors had recently announced that they would not run, seemingly easing Bass’s path to victory.
That also presented an opening for Raman.

It’s rare to have a serious contender join a race so late, the veteran LA journalist Jim Newton noted,
but Raman immediately emerged as one of the strongest and well-known candidates.

While running for city council, Raman had received endorsements from stars Jane #Fonda and Mindy #Kaling.
Media outlets have drawn inevitable parallels between her and Zohran #Mamdani, another #Democratic #Socialist.

Raman said in a statement to the Guardian that she viewed running for mayor is
an “extraordinary opportunity” to make Los Angeles more affordable
and “to govern with urgency and accountability”.

Her candidacy has changed the calculus of the race,
and fueled fascination with the race and her split with Bass.

In a lengthy interview with Raman,
the NBC Los Angeles political reporter Conan Nolan suggested that,
to Bass, the development was not unlike Brutus’s betrayal of Julius Caesar.

“I don’t think we should talking about the future of LA in the context of friendship or betrayal,” Raman said.

“We need to be talking about the issues that are facing us and how we can fix them.”

Now the question is whether she can build a campaign that will resonate with voters, particularly when key portions of the city’s liberal base have already aligned with Bass.

“A lot of folks on the left are taken aback by her candidacy because it was so sudden
[and] because at the present moment with the current chessboard, it threatens the traditional progressive coalition in Los Angeles,”
said Mike Bonin, who spent nearly a decade on the Los Angeles city council.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/22/nithya-raman-los-angeles-mayoral-race?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Others bow out, Raman jumps in. Allies are now foes in the L.A. mayor’s race

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass was having a really bad week. But then it turned into a pretty good…
#NewsBeep #News #Topstories #ally #Bass #bigchange #CityHall #fernandoguerra #fire #formerl.a. #handling #Headlines #homelessness #losangelestimes #mayor #other #palisadesfire #race #raman #TopStories
https://www.newsbeep.com/388698/

Councilmember Nithya Raman to run for L.A. mayor, challenging onetime ally Karen Bass

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman is running for mayor, shaking up the field of candidates one final…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #announcement #asaadalnajjar #Bass #campaign #candidate #city #district #home #Housing #l.a.mayor #onetimeallykarenbass #primaryelection #race #raman #reelection #UnitedStates #Us #USA
https://www.newsbeep.com/388420/

Im in the mood for some weird #raman.

Ok..like this.. theres grocery store salt lick raman.. theres resteraunt ooh nice raman, and then at the asian grocery stores theres weird raman.

An isle full of ramans, a lot with multiple flavor packets, some so hot youll cry for your mama and every seafood and critter flavor under the sun.

Thats the one Im talkin about.

Might be makin a raman run today..

#food
#life
#WeirdRaman

Raman – I Do – zeker een album dat de moeite van het luisteren waard is.