Karen Bass, Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt trade jabs over the Palisades fire, Hollywood, housing in L.A. mayoral debate

Karen Bass, Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman each came into Wednesday night’s mayoral debate at the Skirball Cultural Center with goals for what may be their only time together onstage.

As the incumbent mayor, Bass had to weather blows from her challengers while trying to sell voters on her fitness for another term, despite a disastrous 2025.

The three leading candidates for Los Angeles mayor — incumbent Karen Bass and challengers Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt — traded jabs over the Palisades fire, police hiring and other issues in their first and possibly only televised showdown together.

In one of the evening’s most striking moments, Raman accused Bass and Pratt of working together to attack her. She said Pratt and Bass want to finish first and second in the June 2 primary, and then face each other in the Nov. 3 runoff election.

Near the end of the debate, the candidates were asked whether they support Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez’s proposal to allow noncitizens to vote in city and school board elections.

Pratt said no, while both Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman said it would depend on the final version of the proposal.

“It’s not a yes or no,” Bass said. “When you say ‘noncitizens,’ it doesn’t mean they’re undocumented. They could have green cards, they could be here perfectly legal … We have to see what the councilman is proposing.”

Raman noted that school boards in some other cities already allow noncitizens to vote.

A moderator then asked Pratt to clarify his comments about working with the federal government to ensure that ICE does not enter L.A.

Pratt said he would target all levels of serious offenders, including drug dealers, murderers, rapists and child traffickers.

“If they’re legal or illegal, if they’re a danger — I want them off our streets, that’s what I said,” Pratt said. “ICE won’t be coming here because … everybody they’re supposedly looking for, they’re going to be in jail when I’m mayor.”

Bass replied that immigration agents didn’t do that in L.A. Instead, she said, they chased down day laborers, car wash workers and street vendors, many of whom had no criminal history.

“The majority of them, over 70% had no record, no police record whatsoever. That is not what was going on here. I was against it. I physically went out and did everything I could to stop it, and we’ll do that again,” Bass said.

When federal immigration agents swarmed MacArthur Park in July, Bass arrived at the park and asked them to leave.

Pratt, in a high-pitched tone, asked, “Was that that phone call when you were like, ‘Hello, please don’t go here?’”

He added, “Just to be clear, I didn’t say what she said. I said I’m gonna target all criminals.”

In an interview with NBC after the debate, Raman was asked about being targeted by the other two candidates on stage.

“I think it was very clear to me that both Mayor Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt were attacking me because both of them want to face the other person in this general election. And I believe that our choices in this election do not have to be the very broken status quo that is frustrating so many Angelenos or a MAGA Republican.”

“I just don’t believe that my vision of Los Angeles is one that is hopeful. We can fix the problems that we have today. We can build a Los Angeles that works for people,” she said.

Raman was also asked about the criticism from both candidates that, as a sitting councilmember, she has not achieved the changes she is now pushing for as a mayoral candidate.

“If things are not happening, it is ultimately the mayor who runs every single department,” Raman said. “I want to be the mayor because I want to run every department and push us all in the same direction to deliver better outcomes, to deliver more accountable outcomes, and to deliver a better Los Angeles for every single person who lives here.”

Asked whether the city has done enough to restore Hollywood and film production to its pre-COVID 19 glory, Bass pointed to expedited permits and lower filming costs. “We are starting to bring the industry back,” she said, pointing back to tax credits she advocated for when she was California state Assembly speaker.

Pratt disagreed that the efforts were enough, contending that Bass should have fought for uncapped tax credits and post-production tax credits.

“And Councilmember Raman will tell you, ‘My husband’s a producer, blah blah blah,” Pratt mocked.

Raman then said the issue was personal to her because her husband is a longtime writer in the industry and argued the mayor should be the loudest advocate for uncapped tax credits.

Pratt and Bass said that whoever wins the gubernatorial election in November needs to do more to help Los Angeles recover from the Palisades fire and prevent future wildfires.

“The governor needs to clear all the dead fuels around our communities,” said Pratt, whose house burned down in the Palisades fire.

Bass said the state needs to provide more recovery funding to fill the gap left behind because “our federal administration has abandoned us.”

She also said power lines should be buried underground in the Palisades to reduce the risk of electrical equipment sparking blazes.

Pratt has been critical of Bass’ performance during the response to the fire, which has come under intense scrutiny over the past year. He didn’t hold back Wednesday night.

“I blame this person for burning my house and my parents’ house down,” he said of Bass.

In recent months, the U.S. Department of Justice has brought several cases against L.A.-area individuals alleging fraud in homeless spending programs.

Asked how the public can trust funds are being properly spent, Bass said, “I don’t think it’s shocking that you do find corruption in big programs like this and I think it is extremely important to hold them completely accountable.”

She then pivoted to defending her record.

“I will just say, that for the first time we have had a reduction of homelessness two years in a row because of policies that I have put in place,” she said.

“I also believe we need to have an overhaul of the system, but I can tell you that [on] streets we have cleared, crime is down.”

Raman said she has been working to get the city to conduct greater oversight over how it spends money fighting homelessness, including pushing for the creation of a new bureau that would do just that.

But she criticized Bass for not dedicating enough resources to the new Bureau of Homelessness Oversight.

About 25 minutes into the debate, Raman addressed the audience, predicting that Bass and Pratt would spend the night attacking her because “they want to run against each other.”

“Each of them thinks that running against each other is what’s going to help them win, and they don’t want to run against me because my ideas are based on real results in my district,” she said. “I want to take this citywide. This is why this is happening today.”

With 14 candidates running for mayor, if no one gets more than 50% of the vote in the June 2 primary, the top two finishers will face each other in the November general election.

Pratt appeared offended by the idea that he would work with Bass, noting that he and his family lost two homes in the Palisades fire.

“First off, Mayor Bass and I are definitely not working together. I blame this person for burning my house and my parents’ house down and my town and all my neighbors down,” Pratt said while gesturing toward Bass, who was positioned between him and Raman. “Second off, if I want to run against anybody, it would be the council member who is terrible.”

“You think it’s easier to run against the incumbent mayor with all the unions [who support her], or a random city council member who’s been a failure for six years?” he continued. “I would much rather run against Councilwoman Raman.”

The candidates all agreed that the city needs to focus on hiring and retaining new LAPD officers. Bass and Raman said they are more focused on keeping the department from shrinking, for now.

The department stands at roughly 8,600 sworn officers, the lowest total in years. Officials say that about 9% of officers are on leave or restricted duty.

Bass said that she takes crime seriously. She said that a federal drug sweep in MacArthur Park was done in collaboration with the LAPD, and that her efforts to grow the LAPD have been derailed by the City Council.

Raman has repeatedly accused the mayor of signing off on raises for police officers with a contract that has done little to make a dent in the department’s recruitment struggles, while coming at the expense of city services.

Bass has argued that part of the problem with bringing on new officers is a years-old administrative bottleneck within the city’s personnel department, which runs the background process for police hires. She has said that she signed an executive order last fall aimed at streamlining the process, which in some cases forced applicants to wait more than a year before being hired. In the meantime, many took jobs with other agencies.

Pratt said that he supports growing the department. “You know what’s more expensive than hiring them, is overtime,” he said. He said that despite police crime statistics, which show that homicides have tumbled to levels not seen in 60 years, Angelenos still don’t feel safe.

He suggested that he wanted the LAPD to take over the entire hiring process, which some say may require changes to the city’s charter.

For months, LAPD officials including Chief Jim McDonnell, have warned that public safety will suffer if the city doesn’t hire more officers to replace the hundreds that are expected to leave the LAPD before the Olympics.

Poll after poll has shown that Angelenos don’t like how Mayor Karen Bass has performed on, well, everything, during her first term. So it’s no surprise that her rivals, Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman, fired plenty of salvos at her early in tonight’s debate.

Pratt called Bass an “incredible liar” after she pushed back on his claim that the winds that sparked the devastating Palisades fire weren’t initially that strong, leading to a reprimand by KNBC co-moderator Colleen Williams.

Raman, whose two city council campaigns were backed by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, tried to paint Bass as not just pro-cop for giving LAPD officers a big raise, but fiscally irresponsible for doing so.

Bass remained cool as she fired back at her two opponents, with a special focus on Raman.

“She doesn’t understand,” the mayor said of the councilmember regarding the financing of the police department.

When it came to Bass’ Inside Safe homelessness program, Bass said her teams have helped clear encampments in Raman’s district.

Raman, who frequently talked over her time limit, claimed that both Pratt and Bass were trying to knock her out because they want to face each other in the November general election.

That led Bass and Pratt to team up and make Raman’s fears come true — at least for a few moments during the debate.

Pratt lambasted the idea that it would be easier for him to face off against an incumbent mayor than a random councilmember, as Bass laughed in agreement. And when Raman began to talk over Bass, Pratt interjected, “Mayor Bass would like to respond.” Williams then commended Pratt for “directing traffic.”

Raman appeared flummoxed.

“See how nice they’re being to each other?” she exclaimed, sounding as defeated as the L.A. Rams.

When discussing homelessness, Pratt said the underlying problem is drug addiction.

“The reality is no matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth, they are on fentanyl,” he said.

Bass has made homelessness a signature issue during her time as mayor, launching a program known as Inside Safe that cleans encampments and moves people into motel rooms.

The program has been credited with helping reduce unsheltered homelessness in the past two years, but 40% of participants have returned to the streets.

Raman criticized the program as too expensive and also promised to clear half of all encampments by the Olympics and all of them by the end of her term.

“I don’t think anybody in Los Angeles right now can say that we are satisfied with spending extraordinary amounts of money on our homelessness response and getting only incremental progress,” Raman said. “I want to change that.”

Bass defended Inside Safe and the results it has achieved.

“Inside Safe is the only citywide program that we have had that has reduced homelessness two years in a row,” she said. “Prior to that there was no citywide strategy and homelessness was going up year after year.”

Pratt called himself the “adult in the room” compared to Bass and Raman, arguing he would take better care to prevent the waste of L.A. city tax dollars.

While still attacking both of his opponents, he’s so far avoided the more heated rhetoric he’s become fond of on social media. He hasn’t called Bass “Basura” — a play on the Spanish word for trash — yet.

Responding to whether they support the city law Municipal Code 41.18, which bans homeless encampments near schools and daycare centers, Bass and Pratt replied that they did.

Raman, who has previously argued the law simply moves encampments down the block, said “the way this ordinance was structured does not keep our children safe.”

The owner of the historic Langer’s Deli submitted a question asking all three candidates whether they would be willing to shutter the city’s free needle exchange program, which provides 125,000 sterile syringes to drug users annually in an effort to prevent HIV/AIDS and other bloodborne diseases.

Bass and Pratt said they would end the program. Raman said no.

Norm Langer has told The Times that business at his deli has slowed because of drug activity, crime and homeless encampments at nearby MacArthur Park, and that he has considered closing the business.

Mayor Karen Bass was asked by Conan Nolan why she should get “should get a second contract as mayor of this city” in the wake of the disastrous Palisades fire, which ignited while she was visiting Ghana.

“Jan. 7 was horrible and as I have told you before, it was one of the worst moments of my life to not be here when my city needed me,” Bass said.

The Palisades fire burned over 23,000 acres of Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu, killing 12 people and destroying more than 6,800 homes and buildings.

Former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, whose Palisades home burned in the fire, claimed Bass under-funded the fire department and blamed her for the fact that the Santa Ynez Reservoir was empty on Jan. 7.

“As mayor, I will never drain the reservoirs that we need for wildfire protection,” Pratt said.

Bass said the reservoir had been used for drinking water, not fire suppression in recent years. Asked about under-staffing on Jan. 7, she blamed her former fire chief, saying she “sent home 1,000 firefighters.”

Councilmember Nithya Raman cited a 54% reduction in tents and encampments in her district over the last three years.

“I am very very proud of those results,” she said. “That is how you achieve real public safety outcomes. That is how you ensure the people of Los Angeles are safe.”

Responding to a question as to why she should get a second term, Mayor Karen Bass said street homelessness has come down 17.5% in the past two years, bucking a national trend.

“I have expedited the building of housing, because our number one issue in this city is affordability,” she said. “And one of the main drivers for affordability is housing.”

If you think the mayoral politics of 2026 are ugly and personal, they don’t hold a candle to the blood feud that was the 1973 race.

It turned out to be a game-changing election, with Tom Bradley becoming L.A.’s first Black mayor despite years of racial, and racist, taunts by incumbent Sam Yorty.

Yorty made race-baiting the centerpiece of his reelection bid against Bradley, a former top LAPD cop. Despite Bradley’s record of public service, Yorty argued that L.A. would collapse into chaos and lawlessness if his opponent were elected. He even sent out a mailer explicitly urging whites not to vote for Bradley because Bradley was Black.

This worked in 1969. But the rematch in 1973 was different. The city had changed, with the Westside and non-white communities tiring of Yorty’s angry Valley guy persona. A series of City Hall scandals hurt Yorty, as did his penchant for out-of-town travel.

The debates that year were nasty, marked by personal attacks, scare tactics and vitriol.

This time, Bradley gave as good as he got, and the race card didn’t work for Yorty.

Some felt that the debates helped Bradley by letting residents see Yorty for who he was. Bradley hammered Yorty on ethics and argued that his LAPD experience would make him tough on crime.

It turned out that voters had tired of Yorty.

And on Election Day, it was Bradley who made history.

A much-anticipated debate featuring leading candidates in the Los Angeles mayor’s race is set for Cinco de Mayo before the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. But it won’t include all the leading candidates.

The influential homeowners group has invited just incumbent Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman, and not the three other top contenders Spencer Pratt, Adam Miller and Rae Huang.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s David Zahniser, giving you the latest on city and county government.

We’ve got a month left before the June 2 primary election, with mail-in ballots already heading to voters’ mailboxes.

While Spencer Pratt has been extremely active on social media, this will be his first mayoral debate.

He needs to participate in at least one debate or forum to receive city matching funds, so tonight’s appearance is important for him.

Pratt, whose house burned down in the Palisades fire, will be the wild card tonight — especially after Karen Bass and Nithya Raman went toe-to-toe last night.

Will he call Bass “Karen Basura” (Spanish for trash) to her face, as he has in Instagram videos?

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman faced off Tuesday in a freewheeling 90-minute slugfest, digging at each other over homelessness, police hiring and other major issues.

The event, hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., began politely enough, with the two candidates exchanging niceties and Raman saying she had “incredible respect” for the mayor.

Last week, the Hollywood Reporter published a great essay describing Spencer Pratt’s mayoral run not as a joke or even a headline-grabbing act, but something as L.A. as the Dodgers.

The piece situated the reality TV star’s “grievance politics” in a long-standing L.A. tradition of “consequential strains of backlash” against the city’s liberal establishment, from former Mayor Sam Yorty and Trump advisor Stephen Miller to Prop. 13 prophet Howard Jarvis.

Writer Gary Baum also referenced Pratt’s reimagining of the poster for the 1993 Michael Douglas film “Falling Down,” about a laid-off defense contractor’s increasingly violent trek through a dangerous L.A.

Pratt has every right to be angry, of course. He and his father lost their homes in the Palisades fire. Residents across the city are furious about — take your pick — Mayor Karen Bass’ seeming ineffectiveness, homelessness, traffic and the rising cost of everything.

But Pratt isn’t just channeling a vibe. His campaign is built on an archetype Baum alluded to but didn’t name outright: the Angry L.A. White Guy.

The local political and media landscape has always made room for gringo men lashing out at a changing L.A. (Other examples: former LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates, the late television commentator George Putnam, podcast titan Adam Carolla). Victimhood, real or not, is their fuel. And like an inferno, their tirades have the pesky habit of paying off in the form of election wins, legislative changes, boffo financial success or all of the above.

Pratt has embodied the Angry L.A. White Man brilliantly. He repeatedly calls Bass “Bassura” (“trash” in Spanish). One of his campaign ads was filmed outside Bass’ home and that of City Council member and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman, contrasting them with the Airstream on his burned-out lot in the Palisades.

The Angry L.A. White Guy always needs a population to demonize, and for Pratt, that’s homeless people — he repeatedly refers to them as zombies.

His campaign has raised almost as much money as Raman’s has, and he’s starting to get national attention. But the former star of “The Hills” has campaigned mainly in the friendly confines of social media and softball interviews.

At tonight’s debate at the Skirball Cultural Center, hosted by NBC4 and Telemundo 52, Pratt will finally run into political reality.

It’s the first time he’ll face off against Bass and Raman, seasoned politicas who know how to fight — expect them to repeatedly highlight that he’s a Republican. He’ll have to offer actual answers on a myriad of issues besides fire recovery to sway undecided voters looking for more than just invectives.

This might be the day that the Pratt train is revealed to be all huff and no puff. But the Angry L.A. White Guy has lasted this long for a reason: He knows how to rage.

A poll from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs released Friday found that Latinos are largely undecided on whom they plan on voting for in the L.A. mayoral primary.

Only two months out from election day, 44% of Latinos said they were undecided about who should lead the city with the largest percentage of Latinos in the United States.

Three of the leading candidates for Los Angeles mayor — incumbent Karen Bass, Councilmember Nithya Raman and reality television personality Spencer Pratt — will share the stage for a debate Wednesday evening.

The hourlong forum, broadcast on NBC4 and Telemundo 52, will be held at the Skirball Cultural Center in Brentwood starting at 5 p.m.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris endorsed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for reelection on Monday.

“Mayor Karen Bass is the leader Los Angeles needs right now. She has done what so many said couldn’t be done — the first ever two-year decline in homelessness, reducing crime to levels this city hasn’t seen since the 1960s, and refusing to back down when the federal government came after our neighbors,” Harris said in a statement. “She has my full support for re-election.”

It was a risky move and Jonathan Torres knew it, but he did it anyway. He let an out-of-town guest stay with him in his room.

Torres, 40, had been living at the Highland Park Motel as part of Inside Safe, Mayor Karen Bass’ flagship program to combat homelessness. He and his neighbors, many of them from a downtown encampment, were told that visitors were not allowed.

For the next week or so, in homes all over California, ballots will be arriving for the June 2 primary.

Since 2020, a ballot has been mailed to every active registered voter in the state — more than 23 million, by last count. The time to choose is drawing nigh.

Two days after her surprise entry into the Los Angeles mayor’s race, Nithya Raman staked out her position on public safety, saying she doesn’t want the Police Department to lose more officers.

“We need to maintain the size of our police force and grapple with the fact that even the size of our existing police force is not enough to respond to 911 calls in a timely fashion,” she said Monday in an interview with NBC Los Angeles.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Noah Goldberg giving you the latest on city and county government.

For a long time, Spencer Pratt refused to be put into a political box.

Mayor Karen Bass has had a lengthy political career, spending six years in the state Legislature, 12 years in Congress and the last three in the top elected office at Los Angeles City Hall.

Now, facing the toughest reelection battle of her career, Bass is marketing herself in a way that might surprise some Angelenos: She’s running as a champion of change.

Karen Bass made history four years ago, beating real estate developer Rick Caruso by about 10 percentage points and becoming the first woman elected as Los Angeles mayor.

This time around, the 72-year-old incumbent is in an even tougher fight, facing a field of 13 challengers, four of whom have emerged as serious rivals in polling and fundraising.