L.A. mayoral candidate Nithya Raman has strong opinions. But they often change

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Set us as preferred Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman has routinely opposed efforts by her colleagues to block homeless encampments in their districts, voting more than 60 times since 2021 against measures to ban them near schools, libraries, parks, freeway overpasses and other public areas.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.

The mayor said the hires were needed to replace officers who are retiring — and keep the department from shrinking.Weeks later, after launching her mayoral campaign, Raman went on NBC4 and declared that city leaders need to maintain...