John Phillips: LA needs a dose of reality. Is Spencer Pratt the answer?

On the one year anniversary of the fire that burned down Pacific Palisades, reality show star, fire victim, and frequent social media critic of the city of Los Angeles’ pathetic leadership, Spencer Pratt announced that he would be challenging hapless Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in her 2026 reelection bid.

While speaking at the “They Let Us Burn!” protest in the Pacific Palisades near the charred remains of his house, Pratt said, “On Jan. 7, 2025, [his wife] Heidi [Montag] and I lost our home. We lost every material possession we own. My parents lost their home too and, with it, decades of memories lost inside those walls.”

Pratt, a registered Republican, has never run for public office before and said that he grew up in the Palisades, “thinking that my two boys would grow up here just like I did with that same hometown feeling. Then, right before my eyes, that future that I envisioned burned to the ground.”

He went on to say, “I have realized that the city I love is being managed into the ground by people who don’t have the courage to actually lead…Business as usual is a death sentence for Los Angeles, and I’m done waiting for someone to take real action. That’s why I am running for mayor.  And let me be clear, this just isn’t a campaign. This is a mission.”

Good for him.  Even by LA standards, this announcement was a breath of fresh air.

Karen Bass, the Billy Bass of mayors, is an internationally recognized embarrassment, and shouldn’t get to waltz to reelection without being forced to defend her awful record: not just on the fires, but the budget deficit, homelessness, wasteful spending, and everything else that has been horribly mismanaged on her watch.

In a city that’s had some pretty bad mayors, Karen Bass stands out.  Her ability to mismanage several things at once is truly remarkable.  What other mayor would have the foresight, the vision to travel to Ghana for an inauguration nobody cares about at the height of the California wildfire season? That’d be like a guy going to the racetrack with his buddies right when his pregnant wife’s water broke.  Only this time it was LA’s water that broke.  And now Karen Bass wants to be reelected.  Amazing.

But, beating Bass will be a tough putt, as LA is bluer than a Smurf’s convention, and Bass is an incumbent Democratic mayor who will be running for reelection with the full support of the Democratic Party.

Plus, for reasons that escape me, Democrat voters in Los Angeles have been highly tolerant of abysmal government.  I certainly don’t understand that impulse. But it’s the truth.

Karen Bass’ equally inept predecessor, Eric Garcetti, sailed to reelection, despite letting the homeless crisis explode on his watch, a sky-high murder rate, and tolerating a messy sexual harassment scandal involving a top aide – not to mention his king-like behavior during COVID.  As mayor, reckless Eric did everything but screw up throwing out the first pitch at Dodger Stadium.

All of that being said, here is what Pratt does have pretty important going for him: a reason to run.

It sounds so easy, but many candidates have fallen on their faces when asked that simple question.

Typically, the true answer to that question has more to do with the arc of a politician’s career than anything else.  Ambitious political hacks are always looking to move up the food chain, and being mayor of Los Angeles is the next step up the ladder. Or maybe they’re termed-out of their current job and need some place to land. Or it’s because they come from a famous political dynasty and running for office is the family business. And in some cases people want to be mayor of LA so they can park wherever they want.

I’m sure Spencer Pratt would prefer to live in his house, make television shows and raise his kids…but then they burned his home down. Now it’s personal.

When something like that happens you have two choices — you can move away and start over, or you can stay and fight.

Spencer Pratt has chosen to stay and fight.  And he’s going after the city government that failed him.

Unfortunately for Pratt, less than one percent of LA’s total population resides in the Palisades, and the fire is not something that negatively impacted 99 percent of city residents. It should also be noted that Altadena, another community ravaged by fire, is in unincorporated Los Angeles County, and not within the city limits.

Pratt’s challenge will be to demonstrate to greater LA how Bass’ negligence and incompetence have not just hurt fire victims, but residents from the valley to the harbor, and all points in between, on any number of issues.  He can start by vowing that, as mayor of Los Angeles, he won’t be attending any presidential inaugurations in Ghana — especially during wildfire season.

Good for Spencer Pratt. Because LA could use a dose of reality.

John Phillips can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 pm on “The John Phillips Show” on KABC/AM.