Republican Spencer Pratt has been gaining traction in his challenge to unseat incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, who has faced a great deal of criticism for her handling of the Palisades fire a year ago, which destroyed more than 18,000 structures.
Pratt's home was one of those structures, and he has made the response central to his campaign, accusing city leaders of negligence.
"I think that Spencer Pratt is a good guy who has the right motivations for running for mayor. I think that Karen Bass has been largely outed as an incompetent, feckless fool," observes Kevin McGary, chairman of The Frederick Douglas Foundation of California.
He says Pratt, a former reality TV star, is "brilliant in a lot of ways."
"He's come up with these nice memes and these videos of him being a superhero and really does match the motif, I think, that people would like to see in Los Angeles," McGary details.
He also does not think Mayor Bass is in any position to accuse Pratt of having no experience in running government.
"Karen Bass bringing up his lack of experience is rich, considering that she completely fumbled every single thing that Los Angeles has attempted to do over the past couple of years … most notably the fire scenario last year," McGary notes.
Bass was traveling abroad when the fires broke out in January 2025 and did not return until conditions had worsened. The city's response appeared disorganized in the early stages, with concerns about coordination between the mayor's office, fire officials and emergency systems.
More than a year later, though rebuilding is underway, most communities are still in early stages of recovery, and the process remains slow, complicated and incomplete.
Pratt has capitalized on that narrative by positioning himself as a fire survivor and outsider who would have handled emergency response differently. His messaging repeatedly ties Bass to "bungled wildfire recovery" and broader governance failures, which resonates with voters already upset about homelessness, cost of living and public safety.
"I think Pratt has a strong position," McGary tells AFN. "I'm hoping and praying that he can actually pull it out. It looks like momentum is definitely going his way as of late, so, we'll definitely keep a close eye on that race."
There is a crowded field of roughly 14 candidates running in the June 2 primary, but the race is mainly shaped around Bass, Pratt, and Nithya Raman, a Los Angeles City Council member.
If no candidate gets a majority of the vote in the June 2 primary, then the top two will face off in the general election in November.
