Spencer Pratt attacks Bass in heated Los Angeles mayor debate

Spencer Pratt used Los Angeles’ first televised mayoral debate to frame his campaign as a rebuke of City Hall, pressing Karen Bass on the 2025 Palisades Fire and the city’s wider sense of frustration over homelessness and disaster recovery. The debate, held Wednesday at the Skirball Cultural Center, brought Bass, City Councilmember Nithya Raman and Pratt onto the same stage for the first time in the race.

Pratt, a registered Republican running in the non-partisan contest, opened his critique with Bass’ handling of the fire that destroyed his home. After the blaze, Pratt moved to Santa Barbara, a shift that has also fueled questions about whether he meets the city’s residency requirements. Los Angeles City Clerk candidate materials say mayoral candidates must be registered voters in the City of Los Angeles and residents of the city at the time of nomination and election.

The June 2 primary is the first major test of that campaign. Pratt has tried to turn the race into a verdict on conditions many Angelenos say remain unchanged, leaning on ads that attack Bass and Raman over homelessness and portray them as detached from the daily reality of the city. That message is landing in a political environment shaped by stubborn public anger, even as official counts show some progress. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority finalized the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count after HUD review and put the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Los Angeles Continuum of Care at 67,777. The agency also said unsheltered homelessness has fallen 17.5% in the City of Los Angeles over the last two years.

Bass has answered by emphasizing her administration’s efforts to reduce street homelessness and by putting wildfire recovery at the center of her defense. She issued emergency orders in 2025 to speed rebuilding in Pacific Palisades and ordered an after-action review of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s response to what she called one of the worst natural disasters in city history. CAL FIRE lists the Palisades Fire as starting on January 7, 2025, and said in a January update that aerial imagery suggested about 5,000 structures may have been damaged or destroyed in the broader footprint.

The debate made clear that Pratt’s candidacy is about more than celebrity. It reflects a larger political opening in Los Angeles, where homelessness, fire recovery and distrust of incumbents have created space for outsider attacks to resonate in a city still searching for proof that government can keep up.