The campaign between Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman has seemingly been fraught from the start. Raman shocked the community when she announced her intention to run for mayor at the eleventh hour. A one-time ally to Bass now turned enemy.
Since then, things have only escalated as the two have quarreled in-person at debates, via press releases, sound bites and more. Now, Mayor Bass has created a website blatantly outlining Nithya’s faults as Councilmember and her recorded absences from crucial election votes.
NoShowNithya.com is the latest barb in the back-and-forth attacks to prove who they believe is most competent to win. With only a few months left until the election, it seems subtlety has long gone out the window.
According to the newly-published website, Raman missed 2,966 votes between taking office in December 2020 and August 20, 2026. This equates to 1 in 7 council votes she failed to cast out of a total of 20,973 votes taken.
This issue was brought up in the Sherman Oaks debate the two attended a few weeks ago and Raman stated her role as a mother as one reason she was unable to attend some of the meetings.
Additionally, the website states that Raman canceled 40 Housing & Homeless Committee meetings, which Bass’ campaign argues resulted in over 130 items being stalled. A statement from the Bass campaign stated, “Key votes that Raman missed included banning encampments near schools and daycare centers, funding homelessness prevention and eviction defense services, and supporting the film and TV industries… If Angelenos can’t trust her to show up for work, we sure as hell shouldn’t give her a promotion to be our next mayor.”
Raman’s campaign has responded, arguing that Bass’ claims are a misleading representation of her attendance and involvement in key measures. A spokesperson for her campaign stated, “This is ironic coming from a mayor who was missing during our city’s most devastating emergencies, failed to show up for more than half of LAHSA homelessness meetings, including Friday’s meeting, and had one of the worst attendance records when she was in Congress.”
While each candidate disputes the attendance of one another, it reflects a larger issue of how each woman has handled their responsibilities in the past and how that will reflect on how they handle them in the future. With approximately two months until the November 3 general election, the community has to anticipate that more pettiness than progress will occur between Raman and Bass.
