Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is up against three well-financed challengers in the June 2 primary, with reality television star Spencer Pratt and Councilmember Nithya Raman leading the pack in fundraising.
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 the start of the year. She began fundraising for reelection in 2024, however, and still has nearly $2.3 million in cash on hand.
A fourth candidate, tech entrepreneur Adam Miller, reported that he lent his campaign $2.5 million. He also took in about $200,000 in donations, reports show.
Miller has been lagging far behind Bass, Raman and Pratt in public opinion polls, which also show a large percentage of voters undecided.
Dan Schnur, a politics professor at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine University, said the fundraising reports show the three highest-polling candidates evenly matched heading into the final weeks of the campaign.
“There’s no meaningful difference in the amount of money the top three candidates have raised,” he said. “The fact that Bass hasn’t raised more than her challengers as the incumbent should be of some concern to her campaign.”
The numbers also demonstrate that Pratt has become a “legitimate top-tier candidate,” Schnur said.
“The odds are still against him winning in a deep blue city, but he has the potential to make a significant impact on the race,” he said.
The mayor’s race is nonpartisan, but city voters have generally elected Democrats to the job.
Because Raman and Pratt entered the race late, they still trail Bass significantly when it comes to the total amount raised. Since launching her reelection bid, Bass has brought in more than $2.8 million, records show.
Once publicly funded matching funds are added in, the mayor’s campaign has collected about $3.7 million. Raman has already received about $612,000 in matching funds, putting her total proceeds above $1.1 million.
Money is far from the only factor in a mayoral race. In 2022, billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent more than $100 million of his own fortune while running for mayor, only to lose to Bass by just under 10 percentage points.
Still, the money being raised by the major mayoral candidates will be critical as they seek to purchase television advertising, social media ads and other campaign essentials.
If no single candidate wins more than 50% in the June 2 primary. the top two vote-getters will advance to a Nov. 3 general election.
Bass has been running for a second four-year term while seeking to overcome high disapproval numbers, with voters expressing dissatisfaction over her handling of housing production, homelessness and other issues.
On Friday, Bass announced she is spending more than $1 million on a new 30-second spot that will appear on television and digital platforms. In the ad, she touted reductions for two straight years in street homelessness and talked up her willingness to fight back against federal immigration raids.
At the same time, Bass acknowledged the discontent being expressed by Angelenos.
“I haven’t always got it right,” she said in the ad posted to YouTube. “There’s more work to do.”
Most polls have shown Bass with a slight lead over Raman and Pratt, who have hovered in second and third.
More than a quarter of Angelenos were still undecided last month, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by The Times. In that poll, Bass was at 25% support, with Raman trailing at 17% and Pratt behind her at 14%.
Well behind the three top contenders are Miller and community organizer the Rev. Rae Huang. Miller, a first-time candidate, has already launched a seven-figure ad campaign on billboards, television and social media networks as he works to boost his name recognition.
Huang, who has raised just over $165,000 since Jan. 1, has been competing with Raman for the left wing of the city’s electorate. That brings her total to nearly $273,000, records show.
Raman was twice elected to the council with the backing from the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. She and Huang have both courted the group, but neither secured its endorsement for the June primary.
Huang did pick up donations from a number of politically progressive civic leaders, including attorney Erin Darling, who lost to Councilmember Traci Park in 2022, and small-business owner Jillian Burgos, who was defeated by Councilmember Adrin Nazarian in 2024.
Raman’s fundraising haul reflected her close ties to the television and film industries, with contributions from “Saturday Night Live” star Colin Jost and “Bob’s Burgers” voice actor Dan Mintz among others. Both provided the maximum $1,800 to her campaign.
“More than 1,700 grassroots donors have powered our mayoral campaign to make LA an affordable city that works for everyone,” Raman said in a statement touting her fundraising totals.
Bass raked in money from others parts of Hollywood, collecting $1,800 apiece from the political action committee representing the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the Motion Picture Assn. Local PAC.
The mayor also pulled in contributions from an array of Democratic state and federal elected officials, including U.S. Reps. Judy Chu and Sydney Kamlager-Dove and state Assembly members Josh Lowenthal, José Luis Solache Jr. and John Harabedian. Labor unions representing the construction trades, the entertainment industry and workers at City Hall and the Department of Water and Power also gave to her.
“We are leading the way with a people- powered campaign fueled by support from across the city for the changes Karen Bass is making in Los Angeles. It’s why she has a broad base of support and also leads the fundraising totals,” said Bass campaign spokesperson Alex Stack.
Pratt’s campaign didn’t respond to requests for comment.
His contributors included donors from Pacific Palisades, where thousands of homes along with his own were destroyed in the 2025 wildfire.
On social media and elsewhere, he has excoriated Bass over her handling of the disaster and the subsequent recovery.
In L.A.’s other citywide races, City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto led the pack of candidates, reporting that she has raised about $830,000 over the course of the campaign. Deputy Atty. Gen. Marissa Roy was not too far behind, taking in nearly $620,000.
Deputy Dist. Atty. John McKinney has collected nearly $73,000, while human rights attorney Aida Ashouri took in about $14,000, Ethics Commission reports show.
In the race for city controller, real estate executive Zach Sokoloff continued to outpace incumbent Kenneth Mejia in fundraising, raising about $510,000 by the April 18 filing deadline. Mejia took in just over $110,000.
Both of those numbers were overshadowed by the $2.5 million given by Sokoloff’s mother, Sheryl Sokoloff, to an independent expenditure committee supporting him.
That contribution, reported earlier this week, was immediately denounced by Mejia, who told his followers on Thursday that he is up against “big money.”
“Los Angeles, our race just got real,” Mejia said in a social media post. “Someone from Montana dropped $2.5 million to oust me. And it’s someone — let me check — wow. It’s my opponent’s mom. Holy crap. What could you do with $2.5 million?”
“No one has ever dropped this amount of money in the controller’s race,” he added. “This is wild.”
Times staff writer Melissa Gomez contributed to this report.
The post Pratt and Raman lead Bass in latest fundraising for L.A. mayoral race appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
