ICAN calls for an accounting of Karen Bass’s and Nithya Raman’s records on antisemitism and public safety in the Los Angeles mayoral race.
As Los Angeles prepares to choose between Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman in the November 3 mayoral runoff, antisemitism and public safety demand more than campaign assurances. They demand an accounting of both candidates’ records.
Under the leadership of both Raman and Bass, Los Angeles has already seen where unchecked extremism can lead. In June 2024, violence erupted outside Adas Torah in Pico-Robertson; a federal indictment now alleges that a protester approached a Jewish man from behind and punched him in the jaw. In December 2025, protesters blocked access to and disrupted a public-safety symposium on the Wilshire Boulevard Temple campus. According to a federal civil complaint, Turtle Island Liberation Front leader Audrey Carroll was inside the event. Nine days later, the FBI arrested Carroll and three alleged co-conspirators as they prepared to test explosives in the Mojave Desert. Carroll was later indicted on terrorism-related charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.
In that threat environment, Raman chose Hasan Piker’s platform for a mayoral campaign interview. Piker said “America deserved 9/11,” called Orthodox Jews “inbred,” and said Hamas was “a thousand times better” than Israel. Raman chose to use his platform to advance her candidacy.
On August 30, 2026, at a mayoral candidate event hosted by the Muslim Public Affairs Council at the Islamic Center of Southern California, Raman told the audience that American tax dollars were “funding a genocide” in Gaza. In its August 31 statement, ICAN rejected that accusation and called on her to apologize, withdraw from the mayoral race, and resign from the City Council. Those concerns remain.
Bass’s record also demands scrutiny. Her deputy mayor for public safety, Brian Williams, fabricated a bomb threat against City Hall and falsely attributed it to a man supposedly angered by the city’s support for Israel. Williams pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation. The official responsible for helping safeguard Los Angeles manufactured a threat that exploited Israel and sent police searching City Hall.
Within weeks of Bass taking office, a senior staffer from the City’s Cultural Affairs Department worked behind the scenes to “repeal and replace” the City Council’s unanimous resolution adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Just days after the attempt began, Jaime Tran shot two Jewish men leaving Pico-Robertson synagogues. Only those shootings stopped the effort; Bass then faced the community at a February 20 town hall. The repeal attempt came before October 7 and preceded Zohran Mamdani’s revocation of New York City’s IHRA adoption by three years.
Neither candidate has a record that merits automatic trust from Jewish or pro-Israel voters—or anyone concerned about public safety in Los Angeles.
These concerns extend beyond Jewish and pro-Israel voters. Everyone concerned about public safety in Los Angeles deserves more than condemnations after the damage is done. They deserve leaders who will protect access to synagogues, enforce the law when protest becomes intimidation or violence, preserve the city’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, and reject political alliances that normalize hatred or excuse terrorism.
Bass and Raman should not be judged by how they engage in performative politics. They should be judged by what they have done, whom they have empowered, and what they commit to change, if anything.
ICAN’s California voter guide will be available when ballots drop. Jewish and pro-Israel voters—and everyone concerned about public safety—should use it to make informed choices.