Chapo Trap House - BONUS: Nithya for LA Mayor

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

LA city councilmember Nithya Raman returns to the show to talk about her insurgent campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles. They discuss the city's converging crises and how corporate landlords, the police union, and MAGA are conspiring against working people. They discuss housing costs, homelessness, immigration and ICE, public transit, the budget, and the strange rise of Spencer Pratt as Karen Bass and national right-wing money turn the race into a perfect LA spectacle. Find out all about the campaign here: http://nithyaforthecity.com

Hello, everybody. It's Will here. And I'm coming at you with a bonus episode, an interview that I think will be of a particular interest to our listeners in the great city of Los Angeles. Because joining me now, making her return appearance to the show is LA City Councilperson and mayoral candidate, Nithia Rahman. Nithia, welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Nithia, like, I know ballots are out in Los Angeles. I want to talk about the mayor's race. And just right now, as of now, it's sort of a three-person race between you, Karen Bass, the incumbent, and reality TV, right-wing personality, Spencer Pratt. So what is the state of the race in your campaign as of right now? You know, I think this, yeah, we are the top, in every poll that's come out, these are the top three candidates, is me, Karen Bass, the incumbent, and Spencer Pratt. National MAGA money is pouring in to support Spencer Pratt, who, you know, is tapping into legitimate frustration.

but in ways that are really scary. And he isn't just, I think, a MAGA politician. He's very, very extreme. He's appeared on Alex Jones's Info Wars multiple times. He doesn't believe in the COVID vaccine. He thinks 9-11 was an inside job. Like, he's, you know, a right-wing extremist who is doing very well in the polls. And the Basque campaign is now actively boosting Pratt because she thinks,

thinks he'll be easier to beat in the general election. And it's a top two primary here. And, you know, I'm the only person who is polling, who has a chance to get into the general election and who is polling basically neck and neck with Pratt right now. Well, I guess it should, I mean, I suppose he's had some surprising success since entering this race, but it shouldn't be all that surprising given like, you know, a right wing TV personality that people respond to, given the failures of like an incumbent, an incumbent Democratic administration. It's very unpopular. You talk about what is the message of your campaign and how are you

positioning itself to counter both Spencer Pratt, sort of, I don't know, exterminate the Brutes campaign and the failure of an incumbent mayoralty in Karen Bass? I mean, I think what you're seeing in this race is very similar to what you're seeing in a lot of progressive, amongst a lot of progressive candidates across the entire country. You're seeing a corporate Democrat who has governed and often very difficult, disappointing ways, and particularly here in Los Angeles, has been historically unpopular. Me, a progressive challenger who's talking about the incredible cost of living crisis, wants to address it, wants to take on some of the forces that have kept Los Angeles unaffordable and unlivable in many ways for ordinary people, and this MAGA Republican. And it's this kind

of microcosm of what you're seeing across the entire country. And for me, I think, think it is very important that in this city we stand up and say, this is a city that can vote for a progressive, that can vote for somebody who's really fighting for the working class. And I hope that voters can see that and choose that before June 2nd. Just from sort of a national perspective, the issue that I've seen most associated with Spencer Pratt or that like his campaign has gotten the most traction from is the issue of homelessness. And I remember back when we had you on when you're running for city council, that was a, that was an issue that that you had kind of made your own. It's, you know, years later, it's still, it's still a problem in Los Angeles. And I,

and I think, like, people have a certain anger about that. What is the difference between your approach to homelessness and the Spencer Pratt and Karen Bass's campaign? Well, you know, I think homelessness is, is still an incredibly important issue here. And I think we have to be able to take it on head on. What I think has been frustrating for a lot of Angelinos is that we have asked and received a lot of a lot of tax dollars from residents here. Angelinos have now taxed themselves, voted to tax themselves three times in the last few years to respond to our homelessness crisis with housing and with services. And that is an extraordinary thing about this city. That's what I love about representing the city, that that's how this city wants to approach the crisis on our streets.

Unfortunately, even though in my district, I've made real progress, we have actually reduced tents and encampments by 54% in just a space of three years, by providing housing, moving people indoors into safety, not arresting people, not moving people down the block or into another neighborhood. That approach is very, very successful in my district. But across the entire city, what Angelinos are seeing is that we're paying extraordinary amounts of money to address this issue and they're just not seeing enough progress. And I think that's a very real source of worry and frustration for people. And what I want to do, what this mayor has not done is to actually solve the problem across the entire city. It will require building a real system in city hall

that can respond to this issue, that can respond to it with the same urgency that I've done in my district, and that can really deliver results for the people who are living on the streets and for every resident across this city. And I think this is a very important moment. to do that because I think what happens when you have these kinds of situations is that people lose faith in government when it doesn't deliver on big progressive goals that they support. And I think if you don't make sure that you're actually bringing as many people indoors as possible into safety, that you're actually addressing this issue with the values that Angelino's actually do hold and making that system as effective as possible, if that's not the drug,

driving, you know, driving thing behind the government, voters will lose faith. And that, that I think is a very real fear that I have. And that's part of the reason why I want to be the mayor so that we can actually do, you know, build that system citywide and address this problem effectively across the entire city. Yeah, I remember when we had you on, like I said, previously when you were running for city council. I'm like, I seem to remember, like, your message about like, what is the policy solution to homelessness is basically putting a roof over of the people's heads who are currently living, you know, under highway overpasses or encampments, that, like, you know, that will ameliorate the problems. And, like, crucially, it is cheaper

than the alternative, which I think is probably more emotionally satisfying for a political campaign and for, like, perhaps a voting public that feels a sense of anger about this. But, like, what would the cost to a city like Los Angeles be to what you're proposing versus simply locking up and incarcerating a homeless population the size of... of Los Angeles. Oh, I mean, incarcerating a homeless population, the size of Los Angeles, would be, I mean, absolutely, you know, enormous, enormous costs well beyond what the city or the state could afford. And the other issue is that, you know, what we've seen in the past, when this kind of effort has been tried to,

that's what Los Angeles did for a very long time, was to shove people from block to block or to arrest people who were experiencing homelessness over and over again. And what they would do is cycle from jail to sidewalk, cycle over and over again. It didn't actually resolve homelessness in any way. What my approach is is really to bring people into shelter, into housing, resolve the issue that keeps them on the street in the first place, and then ensure that we are doing everything in our power to when they come indoors, to help them stay indoors and to stay housed. We have to do that work. And that is really the work that I think the city needs to be doing. For a political campaign in this race for mayor, do you find it hard to make that case to the

public when there is like, I guess, like a more easily sounding and more psychically satisfying to like, I don't know, like I said, the anger people feel about this issue of the sort of lock them up approach? You know, I think one of the things that has made it easier for me to make this case to people is that I can point to success in the district. that I've represented over the last few years and say, you know, look at places where there have been large encampments. Do you remember where this encampment was? Do you remember where this encampment was? We've housed everyone there. And that area has stayed clear and homelessness has been addressed. And if you build that kind of system citywide, you can actually make real progress on this issue.

And I will say that I really believe in Angelinos. I really believe in our voters. And I think given the choice, they will always pick. the pathway of compassion, that they want to address this crisis the right way. They want to address this crisis with housing and shelter and services. What we need to deliver for them is a system that works to do it the right way. And if you don't do that, you lose people. And that, that I think is the prospect that's before us on the issue of homelessness and why I feel this kind of intense sense of urgency to make this system work. Because if we don't do it and if we don't do it the right way, then we will lose people

to a far darker pathway to addressing this issue. We talked about homelessness, but what in your opinion are, let's say the top three biggest issues affecting the lives of Angelinos today? I'm like, what would be your day one agenda for addressing them? You know, I think we talked about homelessness. I do think homelessness and addressing it is still kind of, you know, top of mind for Angelineos 100%. The other thing that I think people are really, really overwhelmed by here and talk about constantly is the cost of living here. That is driven

by the cost of housing. It is very expensive to live in Los Angeles. And that's driven by very, very high rents that don't seem to be really going down. It is still an incredibly expensive city. We are one of the most rent-burdened cities in America. We also have a huge housing shortage. We have the fewest homes per adult of any major city in America. And the housing that we do have, our rent-stabilized housing stock, is still very expensive because for a long time in the city, even in our rent-stabilized units, landlords had a lot of power in the city, and rents were allowed to go up a lot. So the cost of housing here is very, very high. And, has remained persistently high for many, many years.

And do you think an expanded campaign of rent stabilization or rent control would be an appropriate policy approach to the cost of housing in Los Angeles? So the state of California actually limits us from expanding rent control or rent stabilization beyond homes that were built after 1978. And so for older homes, we have about, you know, we have about, you know, hundreds of thousands of units of older housing stock that is rent stabilized right now. And I'm proud because I have actually significantly expanded renter protections, tenant protections for these residents. In fact, we expanded renter protections for the first time really in 40 years here in the city of Los Angeles, including

bringing down allowable rent increases in these rent stabilized units for the first time in four decades. landlords used to be able to charge up to 10% annually in rent increases connected to inflation and additional costs that they were allowed to tack on. And we were able to bring that ceiling down to 4% thanks to my efforts. And I think that was a really big change. In the past, landlords could even add on. Like if you had a second child in your apartment, they could add another 10% rental increase to your rent. we took away that kind of allowable rent increase.

So I was really able to lead on ensuring that people who are in rent-stabilized units, who the rules had, they were in rent-stabilized units. I think they weren't experienced the kind of rent-gouging that you can see in the, in the, you know, unregulated market. But they were still facing extraordinary challenges. And we were able to change the laws to actually make it more possible for them to have better, lower rent increases, which I was really, really excited to lead in the city council. Well, I will note that the landlord lobby has spent, you know, has invested heavily in this race,

you know, for your opponents. Yes. People in L.A. who aren't in a rent-stabilized unit, like for people who are in the, you know, like unregulated housing market. If, you know, rent control is prohibited by the state of California, what is a solution then to bring down the cost of housing? Is it construction of more residential housing, rezoning. I mean, what do the people do who aren't in a rent-stabilized unit and find housing unaffordable? Yeah, I mean, I think that we have to build more housing. And we have to push to kind of build the kind of housing that we need, you know, family-sized units, multi-bedroom units,

building that really can accommodate workers and working families and middle-class people. And I think we can do that if we do our planning better. I do think we need. I do think we need. need to rezone for more density, particularly in neighborhoods that have historically resisted housing in Los Angeles, that have contributed to the segregation of this city in many ways through housing policies that are embedded in our planning laws. And I think ensuring that we're able to add more density and regulate for these new kind of new zones in ways that incentivizes the largest number of deed restricted affordable units. And incentivizes the production of the kinds of units that aren't going to be $5,000 studio apartments,

but really are going to be, you know, multi-bedroom family-sized units, there are policies that I want to put in place, including policies that will allow us to unlock smaller lots of housing, you know, to build on smaller units to make sure that we can change some of our building codes that make every single unit that we ultimately produce significantly more expensive. I want to make sure that we're doing all of that to drive us towards actually generating the kind of housing that we need here in L.A. in the neighborhoods that have historically resisted it.

And I think it's totally possible to do that. Is there some zoning thing in L.A. that restricts the height of buildings? Because, like, I mean, one of the things, I think that L.A. is most well known for as being such a sprawl, being so spread out. But at the same time, like, building, like, tower blocks of residential units, It's more like apartment building style residential construction. Like is that a possibility or is that something?

Yeah. And that's exactly right. So it's allowing for more apartment buildings to be built to allow for more apartment buildings to be built that are, you know, along our major roads. Like here in Los Angeles, often even on our biggest streets, what you see along our major roads are strip malls, one-story strip malls. And allowing for apartments to be built along those units. along those roads can actually generate the kind of housing that we need. We need apartments. We need this kind of housing. And L.A. has resisted it for a long time, often led by wealthier homeowners associations. And I think pushing back against that and rezoning and densifying the city can actually allow L.A. to become, again, a place of opportunity. Can allow the kind of housing to be built

that welcomes, you know, young people, working people back into it in ways that it hasn't done in the past. I also think it's really important to make sure that we're protecting the housing that we do have. And this is things like ensuring that we're not losing huge chunks of our housing stock to Airbnb. And actually, even yesterday, I was pushing back against a change that this mayor wanted to put into her most recent budget that would have allowed people to convert second homes and investment properties into full-time tourist rentals. during a housing crisis, which would let thousands of homes be taken off the rental market, would drive up rental housing prices.

And I've led the effort on the council to limit Airbnbs and to really regulate them, and I'm continuing to push back against this. But I do want to say that this effort is part of part and parcel of the pay-to-play politics that have resulted in Los Angeles being so expensive just yesterday, we saw that Airbnb is the major contributor to a million dollar super PAC that is set up to keep this mayor in office, to support this mayor's reelection. And I think this is exactly the kind of local policymaking that I think has made it hard for L.A. to continue to be a place that is welcoming to working class families. And my vision is very different.

Just to switch gears for a second in terms of L.A. being a well, welcoming city. You wrote Los Angeles the sanctuary city bill, which is supposed to stop resource sharing between city departments and ICE, because you talk a little bit about how that's been working and what, were you to emerge victorious from this election? How was your mayor's office, like what would be their policy towards dealing with something like ICE and federal immigration enforcement in a city like Los Angeles? Yeah, you know, I think, I was very proud to be a co-authorized of the Sanctuary City ordinance and to push it through counsel before this Trump administration came in. And I think the actions of ice on our streets have been so horrifying. And I really want to

make sure that we are living up to what is in that ordinance and doing more to ensure that this city, which is home to so many immigrants, I'm an immigrant myself. It is a city of immigrants, truly. I think this city needs to be the model of how we respond to ICE. It needs to be demonstrating the full strength of a city government to be able to push back against federal immigration and what it's doing on our streets. So if I were mayor, I would want to make sure that the rules that are embedded in that ordinance are actually being followed. I want to audit our data sharing practices to make sure that no data is being shared with immigration enforcement. That is on the books, but is it actually being carried out?

I think the public deserves to know that. I want to make sure that when ICE is actually deploying on our streets, that we are challenging unconstitutional actions by them, in partnership with our city attorney, we have to be making sure that we're holding federal agents accountable when they break the law. And Los Angeles has done less of that than other cities across America. And I think that's a shame.

We need to change that. I also want to make sure that LAPD is not cooperating with ICE. We've seen instances where LAPD has shown up to kind of operations that have involved federal law enforcement. They've been there. And it has appeared to the public or it has been that they're actually supporting ICE and carrying out their actions on our streets instead of defending Angelinos. And I think that's a huge problem.

and the city cannot be seen as cooperating with ICE in any way. And our law enforcement has really, you know, needs to be working to protect Angelinos not to protect the actions, unlawful actions of ICE on our streets. Is it a matter of like, I don't know, like the police commissioner, like you need a new police commissioner as a matter of appointments or legislation? Like what would be something that the mayor's office could do to, as you said, ensure that local city law enforcement isn't collaborating. with kind of a federal occupation or, you know, ongoing immigration raids in Los Angeles.

Yeah. I mean, I think the mayor has the power to kind of push on the PD in multiple ways. One is in appointing our police commission, which oversees our LAPD. And I would want to make sure that I was appointing people who shared these values of, of protecting immigrants and making sure that that was at the core of what the city was doing. But also in the selection of the police chief, it's the prerogative of the, the mayor to be able to select the police chief. And I would want to ensure that I was selecting a police chief, a police chief that understood that standing up for immigrants was central to what we need to be doing here in the city of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, our police chief actually said

that, you know, LAPD would not enforce a state mask ban on federal law enforcement because he didn't think that that law was well written. And I think, you know, that law is now tied up in court. But to be out in the public at a moment when so many Angelenos have so much fear and to dismiss that, that callousness was so out of touch with this moment. And I think represents a broader kind of culture shift that needs to happen in the department where protecting immigrants needs to be at the core of their work. And I think I would ensure that by making sure that I was appointing a chief who had that as a central value. And do you have a short list of people who fit that bill? I have some people within the police department with whom I've worked, who I, who, you know,

I like. But I think this is a position that is often recruited from across the entire country. And so, you know, I would, I would do that work to make sure that we were appointing the best person for the job. Okay. We've talked about homelessness, affordability, immigrants in Los Angeles, the city's relationship to the federal government and ICE. But like, is there a lower key or I don't know, like less spoken about issue that you're interested in focusing on or that you're interested in confronting that maybe is not being talked about enough or is absent from Karen Bass or Spencer Bratt's campaigns?

Oh, you know, one thing that I really love about Los Angeles is it's transit sector and get in. trying to get around the city in different ways. I know L.A. has this reputation as being a car city, but I actually think that there is a growing desire and a growing movement within the city to rethink how we get around it and to rethink our relationship to kind of its geography in exciting ways. I was just in L.A. for about a month.

And L.A. is a very pleasant city to walk around in the day, provided that like you maintain, you stay within certain, like, it's hard to go from neighborhood to neighborhood on foot without a car, but within given neighborhoods, LA is a lovely city to walk around. Although sometimes the sidewalks could use maybe, sometimes there's some tree roots growing up beneath them. Sometimes I feel like I'm looked at like some sort of criminal for walking around. No, I'm just kidding. But no, LA is a very pleasant pedestrian city in a surprising way. Yeah, it's a very, you know, it's a very pleasant pedestrian city. I think it could be a city that could be very amenable to more bicycle infrastructure.

I also think it could be a city where you could take transit around the city much more easily than you can right now. And I see it not as pushing back against car culture. Like people can still drive their cars. But I think it would be great to have an option to be able to move around without having to rely on a car. A car is really expensive. and it is another additional, often mandatory expense that you have to have in L.A. And what if in Los Angeles you actually had other ways of getting around that weren't, you know, four or five times as long as driving a car around?

And I think it could be a really transformative thing for Los Angeles. Like how do you fill those gaps? I mean, LA does have a subway. Yeah. But like the reach of the system is, you know, not not great given how large Los Angeles is a city. You have a public bus system. You mentioned like, you know, probably more bike infrastructure. But like, how do you, how do you foresee or how would you plan to like expand the purchase of public transportation on Los Angeles?

Yeah. So, Tim, I really love the bus system. And actually, the majority of people who use public transit in Los Angeles actually use the bus system. And I think if we were able to, you know, train investments are billions of dollars. They take an incredibly long time. They're often held up in court by people who are suing their expansion and suing tunneling projects and the like. You can actually invest in more bus lines and frequency of buses much more cheaply. You can make dedicated bus lanes or bus lanes that are there during part of the day,

like during rush hour that can move from one side of the street to the other during rush hour. that can actually make it totally possible for you to get on a bus and get around the city. And it's a relatively cheap investment, which is really exciting. And one thing I'm really about that. Is you looking to expand the fleet of buses in rotation in Los Angeles? You would have to invest in some new buses, I think. But actually, we used to have greater frequency of buses and we've reduced the frequency. So I think it's actually just advocating as a metro board member that's our

regional transit authority. The mayor has a lot of power in those spaces. And I would want to ensure that I and my appointees were advocating for more frequency and more access to buses in the city of Los Angeles where so many people rely on them. And that's a very possible, low-cost way. And in partnership with changes that the city can make on its streets can actually make public transit much more possible to take and use and be effective here in the city of Los Angeles. And it's something I'm excited about that I think a lot of Angelinos are excited about, but not a lot of the other candidates are excited about. The last big issue I want to ask you about is L.A.'s city budget.

Here in New York, obviously we have a new mayor, Zeron, came in and immediately had to confront about a $12 billion gap in the city budget. Now, he was taking over from Eric Adams, who's another sort of, I don't know, more conservative, moderate Democrat from that side of the party. But like, what is the situation with L.A.'s budget? And like, in particular, why is it like Democrats who come from a moderate or fiscally conservative brand of the party? Like, why is it so hard for them not to, to balance a city like New York or Los Angeles budget? Here in L.A., we have also had a budget crisis. Last year, we had a billion dollar budget deficit that threatened, you know, over a thousand

layoffs, which were barely avoided. And that was a direct result of political decision-making by our mayor that I pushed back against, that I voted against. That billion-dollar budget deficit was driven in large part by a new contract with the police union that was signed in 2023 that the mayor pushed for, which gave the police more money than the city had. And it, along with some other knock-on effects, that ended up leading directly to a billion-dollar budget deficit that resulted in every single city service being cut in response to that. Now we have 30,000 streetlights out across the city, and the average repair time for a broken street light is a year in L.A., a year to fix a broken street light. Our sidewalks are broken. Our streets are full of potholes. I mean, it has had real impacts

across every aspect of our city, all for kind of winning the support of the police union, which is now supporting this mayor in her reelection campaign and spending at this point over a million dollars against me to prevent me from getting elected because I spoke out against this police contract. And I think, you know, I think this is a very clear example of the pay-to-play politics that have left our city's hobble. in response to huge needs. Well, I don't know if you can get out of the contract. You're probably stuck with that.

But were you to come into office and face a similar budget shortfall? Or like close a gap in the city's budget. Where would you be looking to cut or where would you be looking to raise revenue from? Yeah, you know, I think we're in the contract now, but we have a chance, you know, the contracts are up for renegotiation. I would be making sure that we're negotiating contracts that we can afford. which is really, really important. I wouldn't be investing in wasteful projects like, you know, we invested in a hugely expensive convention center, which was also supported by vested interests, who are now supporting the mayor and her re-election. So I think there's all kinds of ways that you can make

better fiscal decisions. But I think a big thing that we can do to try and figure out how to respond to our budget crisis is also to take charge of things like liabilities. We have had about $300 million in liability payouts over the last couple of years, 40% of which are LAPD-related liability payouts, the other 60% coming from a range of departments, and just getting our liabilities in order, which means ensuring that departments can take on more of the responsibility for paying liabilities, including PD and others, making sure that we have a pathway to actually managing this problem. I think this kind of effort can actually ensure that we have revenues coming in

that are actually going towards serving Angelinos instead of serving bad management in the city. All right. I'm going to get you out of here with a not so serious question, but a very important one that I think this election may hinge on. Now, we all know you're running from mayor of Los Angeles. It's well known that I am a diehard New York partisan. And I interviewed New York's current mayor, so who knows? I'm something of a kingmaker in the mayor's game for big American cities.

But as someone who's running to be the mayor of Los Angeles, what is your clearest and most succinct case for why Los Angeles is the better city than New York? You know, clearest and most succinct case. I mean, I think this is, to me, L.A. is really a magical city. It is a place that, you know, I grew up on the East Coast. I grew up outside of Boston in a suburb, and I was born in India. And both of those places felt really like a lot of what you, your opportunities, the opportunities that you had access to were determined by the families that you were born into.

And L.A. doesn't feel like that. L.A. is a place that really opens itself up to newcomers. It welcomes them in. It allows them to dream big. it invites them to dream big. And I've never been in another place in the world that is like this, that has this sense of this kind of effervescence and sense of opportunity that L.A. has. I've never felt it anywhere else. And I think that's why so many people move here wanting to dream big. And, you know, that's the thing that makes me think this is the best place in the world.

Well, it's hard to argue with that. I also love L.A. I think it's a very unique place. It's a very unique American city that really there's no other place like it. Nithia Raman, I understand ballots are currently out, but like when is the election? What, if anyone listening to this, what appeal would you like to make to them? And just like, I guess what is your closing message for this campaign as you enter like the home stretch of it? Yeah, you know, I think ballots are out. You need to get them in June 2nd. is the last day to vote, so make sure you vote. And I think we have an option before us. I think we have we can continue with our very broken status quo. We can have a MAGA Republican or we can have a progressive challenger who, you know, I have a vision for Los Angeles that is more affordable, more a place of opportunity, more beautiful, more joyful than anyone else who's running right now. And so I want to invite people to join me and to fight back against, I think, a very kind of prescribed vision for L.A.

And let's dream a better city together. Nithia Raman, L.A. City Council member running for mayor of Los Angeles. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.