After announcing her bid for mayor, however, Raman took a sharp turn on the issue. “When I’m mayor, if the council wants to create new [no camping] zones, I’m not going to stand in the way,” she told an audience in May.
Add the no-camping turnabout to a list of political issues on which Raman took one position only to later shift her stance — or in some cases, reverse it completely.
During her first run for City Council in 2020, Raman called for the defunding of the police, telling her followers that “the path is not complicated.” Two years later, she voted for a nearly 3% increase in spending on the Los Angeles Police Department, allocating an additional $82 million.
Raman urged voters in 2022 to approve Measure ULA, the tax on real estate sales above $5.4 million, dubbed by some as the “mansion tax.” On social media, she downplayed warnings that the tax would discourage apartment construction, saying the impact would be “very minor.” The council member later changed course, saying the tax has had a disastrous effect on apartment construction and desperately needs an overhaul.
“You can’t address a housing crisis with a policy that worsens our housing shortage,” Raman said in January. Raman also voted this year to oppose a request from Mayor Karen Bass to add 170 police officers.