A 30-second campaign video spot making the rounds this week claims to oppose Spencer Pratt in the June 2 primary for Los Angeles mayor. But to many viewers, the list of criticisms against Pratt seem more like a roster of his selling points for L.A.’s Republican voters.
Pratt wants to add more police officers, rein in the power of public employee unions and spend less on brand-new housing for the homeless, the ad proclaims. Those all seem aimed at boosting Pratt’s appeal with conservative voters, political analysts say — a strategy they think is aimed at helping the Republican Pratt, and not progressive City Councilmember Nithya Raman, make it into a Nov. 3 runoff with Mayor Karen Bass.
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which is backing Bass, spent $221,000 in connection with the ad, according to a filing with the city Ethics Commission.
“The Fed wants the easiest path for Bass in the run off, which would be against Pratt instead of Nithya Raman because only 18% of registered voters in L.A. are Republicans,” said Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University.
In a non-partisan primary where all the candidates are polling at under 30%, getting Pratt more votes from Republicans could be the push he needs to get past Raman, with whom he is polling neck and neck, Guerra said.
In a statement, the labor federation denounced Pratt as a candidate, but didn’t respond when asked if the new ad was aimed at boosting Pratt’s appeal to Republicans in the non-partisan race.
“Pratt’s half-baked ideas are harmful to working-class Angelenos and out city’s most vulnerable residents. It’s important that voters in Los Angeles are reminded of the dangers of electing another inexperienced reality TV star,” said Kristal Romero, a spokesperson for the labor group.
Raman called the video from the labor federation “cynical,” saying it seemed to encourage Republican voter turn out. She also asserted that Bass took a friendlier stance toward Pratt in last week’s televised debate at the Skirball Cultural Center.
“I think she was definitely doing that in the debate,” Raman said, in response to a question at an unrelated news conference Tuesday. “To me boosting Pratt’s chances to get into a mayoral run off feel very scary.”
Raman raised a similar complaint against Bass when the two debated before the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association on May 5.
“Why are you promoting the campaign of a MAGA Republican who vows to work with ICE, who vows to attack L.A.’s immigrants, who calls people zombies on the regular?” she asked. “Is he preferable to you as a competitor to me? Is he preferable to L.A.?”
Bass shot down Raman’s attack.
“I don’t think he is preferable as a competitor. I don’t want any competitors, how about that?” the mayor said during the debate.
In the debate the following day, which was televised on NBC4, Raman again claimed that Bass wanted to face Pratt over her in a run off.
“They don’t want to run against me, because my ideas … are based on real results in my district,” said Raman, who represents a Hollywood Hills district on the City Council.
During that debate, Pratt rejected any suggestion that he and Bass were working together. He has instead asserted that Raman and Bass are ganging up against him.
“Karen saw I was a serious threat and she made Nithya jump in the race to block me out from the No. 2 slot,” he said in a video earlier this month.
Bass campaign spokesman Alex Stack rejected the claims from both campaigns.
“Both campaigns are pushing their own conspiracy theories: Spencer Pratt is accusing us of coordinating with Nithya Raman, and Nithya Raman is accusing us of coordinating with Spencer Pratt,” he said. “But this is just a distraction from Raman’s bad debate performance and her fear of not making the runoff.”
“The truth is, people had high expectations for Nithya Raman when she jumped into this race — but her campaign hasn’t lived up to the hype. Especially after the debates last week, we would be happy to face Nithya Raman in the general,” he said.
Pratt’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The strategy of trying to boost a Republican in a primary to have an easier run off has precedent in California, where Democrats outnumber Republicans.
In 2024, then-Rep. Adam Schiff put out an ad casting his race for a California senate seat as a two-way battle between him and Republican Steve Garvey — which political analysts said was an effort to ice out Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.
“Schiff is trying to bolster Garvey’s credibility as his opponent,” said Garry South, a Democratic political consultant, at the time.
Schiff ended up winning the primary and trounced Garvey in the runoff. In Los Angeles, the Democrat to Republican ratio is even higher. More than 50% of registered voters are Democrats, whereas just 18% of them are Republicans.
Guerra said he disagreed with what he said was the labor federation’s effort to tilt the odds toward a Bass-Pratt runoff.
“Just man up and face whoever your going to face and convince people of your argument,” Guerra said.
Bass and the Fed, which is spending money as an independent expenditure, aren’t allowed to communicate about campaign messaging by law. Guerra called it an “arms-length relationship,” between the coalition of unions and the mayor’s campaign.
Zev Yaroslavsky, a former City Council member who is now the director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said that the spending on the ad by the Fed is a drop in the bucket for the mayoral race.
“The ad seeks to elevate Pratt’s bonafides with more conservative and moderate voters, but I think Pratt is doing a better job of that than the ad does,” Yaroslavsky said.
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