I have a confession. I don’t watch reality shows.
So the first time I ever saw or heard about Spencer Pratt was last summer, when he was releasing video reports about what he was hearing from sources in the Los Angeles Fire Department. Then I saw that he was having meetings in Washington, D.C., with U.S. senators and administration officials about investigations into and recovery from the catastrophic fires of January 2025.
That was not a TV show. It was advocacy. It was government work.
I cited Pratt’s reporting in a column I wrote in November. It was about the California Coastal Commission fining the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power $1.9 million in 2020 for trying to prevent a fire in Topanga State Park that would threaten lives and property in Pacific Palisades. At that time, LADWP workers were replacing old wooden power poles with new steel poles, replacing power wires to improve fire resistance and widening roads to enable the fire department to increase access. The work was stopped and the department was fined for damaging about 200 Braunton’s milkvetch plants, which are on the federal endangered species list.
LADWP paid the fine, but Courthouse News reported that Brian Wilbur, the director of power transmission and distribution, refused an order to issue a public apology. He said the work was “crucial” for wildfire safety.
People with integrity and common sense are still around, if you look for them. Or if they look for you.
“I spoke with a fire chief that was told by a Newsom state representative that the LAFD could NOT bring in a dozer to the Lachman fire site because of protected plants,” Pratt reported in a November 15 video, which I quoted in the column.
As a result, the Lachman fire on January 1, 2025, was never completely extinguished, and it rekindled in high winds a week later to kill 12 people and destroy thousands of homes, including the homes of Pratt and his parents.
The fire could have been stopped much sooner if Mayor Karen Bass’s appointee to head the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the “equity-focused” Janisse Quinones – “equitably” paid a salary nearly double that of her predecessor – had not allowed two reservoirs serving the Palisades to be empty and dry, with no back-up preparations for impending fire danger. Developer Rick Caruso brought in water trucks to successfully protect his retail property in the Palisades. The same public information about the threat was available to city officials. They did nothing.
Well, not nothing. Bass went to Ghana for a cocktail party and her public safety deputy was home on leave after calling in a bomb threat to City Hall. To be precise, they did nothing that was helpful.
Frustrated at Bass’s apparently unimpeded path to re-election, Pratt announced on January 7, the one-year anniversary of the Palisades catastrophe, that he would run for mayor. He has been out there every day since, shining a light on the visible failures of Los Angeles government, talking with people who formerly did the problem-solving work to find out why the problems are allowed to continue. It turns out there are a lot of people in Los Angeles who know what to do, but the city government won’t let them do it.
The hunger for change is evident in the fundraising reports. As the incumbent mayor, Bass had accumulated a significant war chest for the campaign, but Pratt rapidly caught up. In the most recent reporting period (April 19 to May 16), he raised $2.72 million, while Bass raised only $283,000.
Another indication that people in L.A. want change can be found in a new poll from the L.A. Times and UC Berkeley showing that Bass has the support of only 26% of likely voters.
From personal experience I can tell you that candidates hear from people about what’s really going on in their lives. Put your name on the ballot, and suddenly the conversational response of “I’m fine, thanks,” is replaced by stories of kids who came out of college and can’t find jobs, crushing utility bills, unaffordable insurance, dangerous parks, unsafe sidewalks, homeless encampments and decrepit RVs that seem to have rights afforded to no one else, local stores closing due to rampant theft, police who do nothing when your car or home is broken into, and businesses smothered by taxes, fees, high-cost labor mandates and petty regulations about everything from signage to trash disposal, while street vendors are allowed to cover the sidewalks with full-scale shops and restaurants.
Candidates who challenge the powerful can draw strong but silent support, because there is open fear of reprisals from city officials against those who back any challenger to the people in charge. “Nice little business you’ve got there, shame if anything should happen to it,” could be the official motto of the Los Angeles city government, and the state government, too.
So it’s all the more remarkable that Spencer Pratt is raising significant money despite the potential threat of negative consequences from government officials. Many, many people are at the end of their rope, ready to leave L.A.
Pratt has vowed to end corruption in the Los Angeles government, promising to bring in the IRS criminal division to investigate the flow of tax money into and out of non-governmental organizations. He contends in a new video that the city has enough money, if it wasn’t being stolen. With three proposed city tax increases on the June ballot and at least three more planned for November, it’s a message that resonates.
Pratt plans to enforce the laws against open drug use on the streets and get people the substance-abuse treatment that will give them their lives back. No more government funded “street medicine” teams handing out free needles and pipes. No more camping, or pooping, or nudity on the sidewalks.
Imagine a mayor who solves problems instead of preserving them to justify more funding.
Spencer Pratt for mayor of Los Angeles.
Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley