Nithya Raman has not said whether she would support the Democratic Socialists of America–Los Angeles agenda if she becomes Los Angeles mayor. The city’s police union, meanwhile, is warning that Raman and her progressive allies could seek to advance those policies from City Hall.
Tom Saggau, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents about 8,700 LAPD officers, renewed the union’s criticism of Raman. He claimed she had agreed to “co-govern” with DSA-LA, a relationship he said explains the group’s endorsement of her campaign.
“They are wolves masquerading as sheep, skilled at misinformation and distraction,” Saggau said. “Make no mistake, they are playing a long game designed to embed a socialist regime in Los Angeles.” He argued that Raman and her supporters have focused on other issues rather than addressing the specific policy demands published on the organization’s website.
Last week, The California Post asked Raman’s campaign whether she would continue supporting 16 DSA-LA proposals, including reducing police funding, closing jails and further decriminalizing drug use.
The newspaper sent a follow-up email Thursday, but the campaign did not respond. Los Angeles voters are expected to cast ballots in just over six weeks in the mayoral contest against incumbent Karen Bass.
Among the organization’s proposals is a plan to replace police officers with unarmed personnel for certain responsibilities, such as traffic enforcement and responding to mental health emergencies.
DSA-LA also opposes Los Angeles’ anti-camping ordinance, which bars homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools. Raman has faced sharp criticism over her support for that policy during her time on the City Council.
Other priorities include a call to “expropriate privately owned housing” and expanding public ownership of businesses and services, including grocery stores and internet providers.
The group is also advocating free public transportation, universal rent control and a vacancy tax on landlords who keep housing units unoccupied.
Its platform further calls for tighter restrictions on short-term rentals and extending voting rights in local elections to residents who are not U.S. citizens.
Raman has maintained longstanding connections to the DSA. The organization endorsed her first City Council campaign in 2020 and identified her as a dues-paying member in its voter guide.
DSA-LA also supported Raman’s successful reelection bid in 2024 and has backed her campaign for mayor.
In May, Raman distanced herself from her earlier “defund the police” rhetoric during an interview with CNN. Days later, however, she declined to give a direct answer when asked whether she still supported the position.
Earlier this week, Raman voted against allocating $100,000 for LAPD participation in the Joint Regional Intelligence Center, a program that enables federal and local agencies to share and analyze information related to terrorism and other criminal threats.
She voted in favor of a separate City Council measure providing $320,000 in federal funding for de-escalation training for LAPD recruits. The program is designed to teach 450 prospective officers about strategic withdrawal and use-of-force guidelines.
The LAPPL said its focus groups have shown that many voters react negatively after learning about DSA-LA’s platform.
Saggau said most participants “knew little” about the organization or its proposals before taking part. The union conducted four focus groups, each involving between eight and 10 people.
“We wrote DSA policy demands directly from their website,” Saggau said.
The organization’s housing proposals, including its call to “expropriate privately owned housing,” generated some of the strongest responses during the sessions.
“Once people figure ‘expropriate’ means they could lose their house, everything gets real,” Saggau said.
He added that some participants in Armenian and Jewish focus groups had “visceral reactions” to the proposal, citing family histories in which their grandparents and great-grandparents had property seized by governments.
City Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents much of LA’s Westside, told The Post she ran for office in part after watching her predecessor, Mike Bonin, support defunding the police.
Bonin embraced several policies aligned with DSA-LA’s agenda and often joined Raman in pushing them, including efforts to cut LAPD hiring, redirect police money to unarmed response programs and oppose the city’s anti-camping law.
“The DSA has already proven they will make our city unlivable,” Park said. “That must serve as cautionary tale for voters headed to the polls in November.”
Susan Collins, who helped lead a recall effort against Raman after she was first elected, said DSA-backed policies can pressure property owners without the government directly seizing their property.
“They’re legislating people out of their homes and commercial properties,” Collins told The Post, pointing to regulations affecting landlords and brick-and-mortar businesses.
DSA-LA’s pledge to roll back portions of Los Angeles Municipal Code 41.18, which restricts sitting, lying, sleeping and storing belongings in designated public spaces, also rattled the focus groups.
“To a person, they don’t understand her position on 41.18,” Saggau said of Raman.
Nico Ruderman, a sitting Venice Neighborhood Council member who helped lead the recall effort against former Councilman Mike Bonin, said Westside residents have already experienced policies he believes are similar to those advocated by DSA-LA.
“We lived through the DSA playbook and the policies it brought to the Westside,” Ruderman told The Post. “We watched the chaos it brought to our neighborhoods and our children’s schools.”
Ruderman pointed to encampments near schools during Bonin’s tenure, including an overdose death, RV explosion, discarded needles and open drug use.
“Nithya Raman follows the same philosophy,” he said, pointing to Raman’s opposition to a blanket 500-foot anti-camping buffer around schools and daycare centers.
Ruderman also pointed to DSA-LA’s push for what the organization calls “co-governance” between its members and socialist elected officials. DSA-LA documents describe formal strategy meetings between chapter leaders and council members around policy campaigns.
“Mike Bonin gave us the Westside version of these policies,” Ruderman said. “Raman and DSA want to take them to the mayor’s office.”
“Let’s call co-governing what it really means,” he added. “Taking political marching orders from DSA while making city policy.”
The LAPPL is preparing to make the DSA’s agenda a major focus of the mayor’s race, which is heating up ahead of the Nov. 3 election between Raman and Bass.
The union has released a twelve-page voter guide boiling down DSA-LA’s agenda to five issues involving private housing, businesses, homeless encampments, police and drugs.
“These are the ones that stood out,” Saggau said. “It’s tough when you’ve got a whole bag full of crazy to pull five things out.”
Saggau — whose union this week released an ad blasting Raman’s stance on homeless encampments — said upcoming digital ads will feature homeowners and a longtime family business owner confronting the organization’s property provisions.
“What do you mean my family built this business and they can just take it?” Saggau recalled the owner reacting during filming. Saggau also attacked the DSA’s push for expanded publicly funded programs.
“There’s not a tax they don’t embrace. They are the party of free sh**. Somebody has to pay for that,” he said.
The DSA-LA did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.
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