How badly are things going for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in her attempt to survive the upcoming primary on June 2nd?
I noted earlier that things were not looking good for the mayor, especially since 40% of the electorate were still unsure who they would vote for next month.
Well, the pool of friendly media available to her seems to be fairly shallow. For instance, her latest interview was with former MSNBC anchor Katie Phang.
Chucking over her city’s current travails, a grinning Bass slammed grassroots activist and mayoral competitor Spencer Pratt as “exploiting the grief of the people” of Pacific Palisades.
“Before this, I had never heard of Spencer Pratt… I feel like he’s exploiting the grief of people in the Palisades, and I think that’s reprehensible… I am so well served and I served at the state at level and at the federal level. So I have the relationships. I know how our government works. I think he could benefit by a basic civics course, because I don’t think he understands the basics of how, uh, any government works.”
Pratt then challenged Bass’ take on the matter during an interview on a more widely accessed platform…Fox News’ show “The Ingraham Angle.”
Pratt justifiably went scorched earth on Bass.
Yeah, I’m not sure if Karen Bass forgot that she let my house burn down and my parents’ house burn down, and I had actual neighbors burn alive across the street from my childhood home.”“The only grief is my grief, my community’s grief, that I initially started this fight on behalf of and she forgets, I have received two community advocate awards from the Pacific Palisades community.”“So, it’s the most insane, psycho, diabolical thing I’ve heard in a minute, but it’s not shocking.”“This is the same woman that will allow 7,000 houses to burn to the ground, 12 people to burn alive, and then actively cover it up.”“Get caught covering it up, and then say that the LA Times is lying, even though they have the emails where she’s altering the after action report, which, as far as I’m concerned, is obstruction of justice.”
Pratt then went onto to interview a victim of the Pacific Palisades inferno, with the title “Reprehensible”.
Pratt continues his effective grassroots campaign, leveraging new social media and AI tools. His efforts have paid off. Pratt’s fundraising is now outpacing incumbent Karen Bass in the first filing period of the year….as well as the designated Mamdani-style challenger, Nithya Raman
Pratt, whose home was destroyed in the 2025 Palisades fire, has raised nearly $540,000 for his campaign since Jan. 1, according to figures reported this week to the city’s Ethics Commission.Raman, who joined the race in February, has brought in $530,000 in contributions through the April 18 filing period, much of it from writers, producers and others in the entertainment industry, the city’s numbers show.Bass reported taking in nearly $495,000 since Jan. 1. She began fundraising for reelection in 2024, however, and still has nearly $2.3 million in cash on hand.
Hot Air’s Beege Welborn details many other of Bass’ reprehensible failures, and notes that Pratt’s message is resonating.
Bass is running scared, and she should be, as should Pratt’s other serious competitor, LA councilwoman Nithya Raman, who is considered to be even more progressive than Bass.This is a hometown, homegrown bad boy. He’s pissed, and his message is resonating across all sectors and income levels.
The cherry on top of this particular sundae is that former Vice President Kamala Harris has decided, after all the wildfire failures and inept disaster recovery operations, to endorse Bass.
Harris released a statement on Monday, which reads in part: “She has done what so many said couldn’t be done – the first ever two-year decline in homelessness, reducing crime levels this city hasn’t seen since the 1960s, and refusing to back down when the federal government came after our neighbors.”
As the June 2 primary looms, it’s hard to escape the sense that Bass is less “running for re‑election” than fleeing the political wildfire she helped spark. In the span of a few news cycles, the incumbent mayor managed to sneer at a fire victim with national name recognition as “exploiting grief,” only to watch Pratt methodically document his losses and torch her with reality.
It appears that the mayoral race has crystallized: it’s a battle between brittle, self‑congratulatory self-serving politicos versus a furious, media‑savvy challenger armed with receipts and a flamethrower’s worth of hot receipts.
If Bass is what “well served” leadership looks like, don’t be surprised if on June 2 the still‑smoldering electorate decides to extinguish Bass’s ambitions instead.
[Featured image via X and YouTube]
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY