Aaron Sosnick, a Reno-based hedge fund manager who manages A.R.T Advisors, has emerged as the biggest single contributor in the Los Angeles mayor’s race, injecting $4 million into campaign committees backing City Councilmember Nithya Raman.
The Financial Blueprint Behind the Pro-Raman Committees
According to city contribution records, Sosnick distributed his substantial campaign investment across two separate independent expenditure committees. An independent expenditure committee backed by the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters, known as Estamos Con Nithya for Mayor 2026, received $3 million from him last week. An additional $1 million went directly to a pro-Raman committee sponsored by Streets for All, an advocacy group pushing for multimodal street designs and traffic reduction.
Michael Schneider, who heads the political action committee for Streets for All, noted that Sosnick’s motivation stems from his personal cycling habits in Los Angeles. Schneider stated, “He likes to ride his bike in L.A., and he doesn’t want to die. He thinks L.A. should be better run and should be more multimodal … that you should be able to ride your bike or take a walk without risking your life.”
Although campaign contribution reports place Sosnick’s primary base in Reno, Schneider explained that the hedge fund manager divides his time among Reno, New York City, and Los Angeles’s Los Feliz neighborhood.
Clashing Visions for Los Angeles Streets and Governance
The influx of out-of-town wealth has drawn sharp criticism from supporters of incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. Alex Stack, a spokesperson for Bass, asserted that Raman’s wealthy backers are “trying to buy the election.” David Huerta, president of Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West, which is backing the mayor, echoed that sentiment by stating, “One out-of-state billionaire who is bankrolling Nithya Raman’s campaign has no idea what our communities deserve.”
Raman defended the support during a Sunday news conference, describing Sosnick as both a constituent and a board member of the Oaks Neighborhood Assn. Quality-of-life concerns affecting Los Feliz residents, such as party houses and proposed hillside development projects, have been discussed with Sosnick by the mayoral candidate, according to Liz Garcia, a spokesperson speaking on Raman’s behalf.
Schneider revealed that Streets for All’s political action committee is coordinating closely with the carpenters union’s Estamos Con Nithya committee through regular check-in calls and strategy sessions to cover mutual campaign gaps.
A Track Record of Infrastructure Advocacy
Sosnick’s financial footprint in Los Angeles politics extends well beyond the current mayoral race. In 2024, campaign records show he provided $686,000 to Streets for All’s campaign for Measure HLA. That ballot measure passed by a wide margin, requiring the city to implement its plan for adding bike lanes, bus lanes, and pedestrian safety measures whenever repair crews fix at least one-eighth of a mile of street.
Schneider tied the slow administrative progress on Measure HLA construction work directly to traffic fatalities in Los Angeles, noting that traffic deaths now outpace homicides annually. Joe Linton, editor of Streetsblog—a publication that has received funding from Sosnick’s nonprofit group—remarked on the donor’s long-term goals for the region, stating, “He wants to see L.A. transportation look more like a world-class city and less like a car-centric suburb.”
Historical filings also show Sosnick contributed $350,000 in 2016 to support Measure M, the countywide half-cent sales tax backed by Mayor Eric Garcetti to fund subway extensions, light rail lines, and large-scale transportation projects. The following year, he sent $100,000 to a committee fighting an unsuccessful effort to recall then-City Councilmember Mike Bonin on the Westside over contentious road diet projects.
Critics of these initiatives remain wary of the influence tied to Sosnick’s spending. Venice resident Mark Ryavec, who ran unsuccessfully against Bonin that year, expressed concern that the hedge fund manager is using his financial resources to “tell the rest of his neighbors how to live,” predicting that a Raman victory would lead to the installation of bike lanes that “very few people will use.”
