Progressive on tenants workers and immigrants; recommend reelection. Running unopposed.

Lifelong Angeleno who decided to go into public service when Proposition 8 stripped marriage equality. Transform office into largest public interest law firm.

LA Forward is built by hundreds of members whose voices guide our organizational priorities. When deciding who we support for the next mayor of LA, our members are clear: Nithya Raman won the support of 90% of LA Forward members who cast ballots in a vote with record-breaking turnout.

Being LA’s Mayor is an incredibly difficult job in the best of times. And needless to say, these are not the best of times. As former Deputy Mayor and Deputy Controller Rick Cole has noted, “beneath the broken sidewalks is a broken system that desperately needs fixing.”

Of the two candidates in this race, Councilmember Raman is best suited to ensure LA City government truly delivers for all Angelenos.

Mayor Bass is smart, hard-working, and rooted in a long history of justice organizing and progressive legislating. That’s why we were proud to endorse her in 2022. But with notable exceptions such as standing up to ICE, she hasn’t risen to the challenge of being Mayor, especially when it comes to managing our massive city government and communicating effectively with the public. Bass has frequently taken the political path of least resistance, taking for granted the progressive voter base that got her elected in the first place and appeasing powerful interests like the police union and Airbnb, which are the same forces that have funded conservative candidates across the city.

Despite Raman’s much shorter tenure in local politics, she has a clearer understanding of the ineffective areas of our city government, and a vision for how to fix them.

Raman’s track record in office over the last six years has largely aligned with LA Forward’s priorities. She helped move LA toward a citywide unarmed crisis response system, spearheaded new protections for renters (even before new progressive colleagues joined her on council in 2022), co-authored the sanctuary city ordinance to protect immigrants, championed good governance reforms to reduce corruption and increase the effectiveness of government, secured a unanimous council vote for building electrification climate policy, and backed expanded transportation and mobility options.

• Raman used her position as chair of the Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee to try to get the Venice Dell affordable housing project out of the red tape purgatory to which Mayor Bass, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, and Councilmember Traci Park had consigned it.

• Raman was one of only a few votes against deals created by Mayor Bass that drained the city’s coffers through overspending on police salaries and a Convention Center overhaul, leading to cutbacks of other vital city services.

• Raman fought for real charter reform, including council expansion, greater oversight powers for the City Controller, and increased police accountability, while Mayor Bass unnecessarily delayed the Charter Commission’s start by eight months and then thwarted attempts at broader reform.

• Raman used her role on the AQMD board to fight climate change and air pollution before Mayor Bass removed her for being too hard-charging.

Aside from all the issues where we’ve appreciated Raman’s leadership more than Bass’s, we are most hopeful about things that are not policy-specific.

We need a Mayor who pays attention to management, hires top leaders who understand how to get things done at City Hall, and communicates in a way that meets the challenges of the always-on media landscape.

We need a Mayor who is laser-focused on ensuring LA City government works well on a daily basis, holds Department leaders accountable for outcomes, and keeps policy implementation and Angelenos’ experience of government top of mind for everyone in leadership, as well as the rank-and-file.

This is not an easy task for anyone; however, we see Raman asking the right questions and setting the right priorities.

We’re also impressed by Raman’s ambitious and detailed policy agenda. We’re reassured by the commitments she’s made to us personally for collaborative governance and coalition-building, including on issues where we don’t agree.

For all these reasons and more, LA Forward is proud to join partners such as ACCE and City Controller Kenneth Mejia in endorsing Nithya Raman for Mayor.

Source (https://www.laforward.org/endorsements)

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