California dreamin', MAGA screamin'- Trump and co see red in PIO Nithya Raman's surge in LA

TOI correspondent from Washington: Welcome to LA LA land’s latest political plot twist — where an Indian-American democratic socialist crashes the establishment party, a reality TV star cries foul, and MAGA mavericks smell yet another election heist.


Spencer Pratt, the former star of MTV's The Hills and the only Republican in the Los Angeles mayoral race, went to bed on primary election night with what looked like a ticket to the November runoff: a lead of nearly 40,000 votes over progressive City Council member Nithya Raman.


Then California started doing what California always does: Counting ballots. Lots of them. Very slowly.


As fresh batches of mail-in votes trickled in over the next several days, Pratt's lead shrank like a hollywood career after an Oscar fumble. Raman surged past him into second place, setting up an all-Democrat showdown against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in November.


Cue MAGA outrage


Trump declared the result "impossible." Vice president JD Vance said it looked "shady." MAGA influencers flooded social media with charts, graphics and all-caps declarations suggesting that the Democrat machine had pulled off another stolen election.


The allegation? That late-counted mail ballots mysteriously favoured Democrats. The reality? It's complicated — but not necessarily sinister.


California is America's undisputed heavyweight champion of counting votes at the speed of continental drift. Every registered voter receives a mail ballot, and ballots postmarked by Election Day can arrive several days later and still count. Each one must be verified before being added to the tally.


Election experts insist this isn't a bug; it's a feature. It also happens to be a feature that drives Republicans absolutely bananas. The same thing happened in 2022, when Karen Bass herself trailed billionaire Rick Caruso on election night before overtaking him days later.


Still, Pratt supporters, including the MAGA boss, aren’t buying it. Adding fuel to the fire are claims circulating in right-wing media that homeless residents in LA’s' Skid Row were paid to vote for Bass and Raman. Videos featuring individuals making such allegations spread rapidly online.


But so far, there has been one awkward problem for the conspiracy camp: Evidence. No law enforcement agency has announced an investigation confirming organised vote-buying. No charges have been filed. No independent verification has emerged to support the claims.


That hasn't stopped MAGA from zeroing in on California's ballot-collection laws, which critics refer to as "ballot harvesting" and supporters call helping people vote. Under state law, voters can authorise someone else to return their completed ballot. MAGA says the system invites abuse. Democrats counter that it boosts participation among elderly, disabled and working-class voters.

"This is what democracy looks like," Silicon Valley congressman Ro Khanna argued, dismissing allegations that counting legally cast votes amounted to fraud.



Lost amid the uproar is perhaps the race's biggest surprise: Nithya Raman's remarkable ascent. Born in India and educated at Harvard and MIT, Raman worked on urban policy initiatives in Chennai before entering Los Angeles politics. Elected to the City Council in 2020, she built a reputation as a housing activist and progressive reformer. If elected mayor, she would lead America's second largest city after NYC -- which itself elected a Mayor of Indian heritage – at a time of raging xenophobia in Red America.


Ironically, Raman is hardly the darling of the Democratic establishment. Former vice president Kamala Harris endorsed Bass, and many mainstream Democrats lined up behind her because Raman's progressive socialist credentials made party moderates nervous. The final irony? Polls suggest Pratt would likely have lost comfortably to Bass in November anyway. Raman, however, leads Bass in some polls.


Which means that Los Angeles voters may not have traded one political drama for another. They may simply have upgraded the script. After all, this is hollywood.

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