The problem with Nithya Ramans campaign perfectly captured in election night party photos

Nithya Raman’s mayoral campaign was supposed to be Los Angeles’ answer to Zohran Mamdani’s socialist uprising in New York City.Instead, the city councilwoman’s election night party may have perfectly captured why her campaign fizzled.Photos from Raman’s Tuesday night watch party at Boomtown Brewery in Downtown Los Angeles showed supporters dancing, cheering and chanting her name — even as early returns showed the far-left candidate falling behind Mayor Karen Bass and reality TV star-turned-political candidate Spencer Pratt.Comedian Adam Conover was among the supporters seen dancing at the party, where the mood appeared more like a progressive happy hour than a political earthquake.That was exactly the problem, according to Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano, who wrote that the scene at the function showed why Raman’s chances of becoming the city’s next mayor “were slim from the start.”“The gathering felt like happy hour at a Silver Lake bar: far whiter than the city overall, with few Latinos,” Arellano wrote.He added that Raman’s remarks to the packed room amounted to a “a grab bag of platitudes mixed with broadside against MAGA” — a message he dismissed as “a political nothing in LA politics.”The criticism cut to the heart of Raman’s failed pitch: Her campaign appeared aimed at national progressive anxieties rather the daily frustrations consuming Los Angeles voters over homelessness, crime, affordability and City Hall dysfunction.Raman entered the race late, stunning city political observers after previously backing Bass.The Democratic Socialists of America-aligned councilmember was touted by some left-wing supports as Los Angeles’ version of Mamdani, whose campaign in New York drew national attention and energized progressive supporters.But Raman never managed to build the same kind of citywide movement.While Pratt’s campaign leaned hard into voter anger over the Palisades Fire, homelessness and the city’s q...