STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
California Governor Gavin Newsom made an endorsement in the Los Angeles mayor's race. He said Thursday he's supporting current mayor Karen Bass. The primary is on Tuesday. Bass faces challengers left and right. One is a Democratic Socialist who hopes to follow the lead of the mayor of New York. A second got his start in reality TV and has run a populist campaign with viral videos. Here's Frank Stoltze of LAist News.
FRANK STOLTZE, BYLINE: Spencer Pratt came to prominence as a self-described villain on "The Hills," which chronicled the lives of several young men and women in Los Angeles.
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SPENCER PRATT: I was proud of myself for not doing what I wanted to do to you, 'cause what I wanted to do and say to you, dear...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Whew.
PRATT: ...I didn't, 'cause I was praying.
STOLTZE: Pratt declined an interview with LAist but has said he was inspired to run for mayor after his house burned down in last year's Palisades fire, which destroyed nearly 7,000 structures and killed 12 people. The 42-year-old Pratt blames the city's lack of preparedness for the devastation. Pratt says he's a Republican. He's also a COVID-19 vaccine denier who sells crystals online. He has the support of President Trump and Joe Rogan. And he's tapped into deep voter discontent, not just over the fire response, but over a homelessness crisis, a lack of affordable housing and departing film and TV production jobs. During one debate, Pratt says drugs are driving the homelessness crisis.
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PRATT: The reality is, no matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth. They are on fentanyl. These people do not want a bed.
STOLTZE: Pratt says people need to be arrested and placed into rehabilitation - repeatedly, if necessary. But housing experts say the main driver of the crisis is a lack of affordable housing. More than 40,000 people are homeless in LA. Voters say ubiquitous tent encampments and images of people using drugs on the streets create a feeling of chaos, even though crime is down. Mayor Bass says she's made progress on the problem, pointing to an almost 18% drop in street homelessness from 2023 to 2025. At a labor rally, she acknowledges there's work to be done.
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KAREN BASS: We are beginning to turn things around, but the bottom line is, I'm not finished.
STOLTZE: The 72-year-old Bass has the backing of the establishment, the Democratic Party, big labor and numerous business groups, but she's vulnerable with an unfavorable rating topping 50%. That's one reason city council member Nithya Raman got into the race. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who is running to the left of Bass. At a debate, the 44-year-old Raman says Bass has not done enough to tackle homelessness.
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NITHYA RAMAN: 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 in response. I want to change that.
STOLTZE: On the city council, Raman fought to lower the amount landlords can increase rents, supported a $30-an-hour minimum wage for hotel workers and opposed pay raises for police officers, saying the money should go to social services. The police union and big real estate interests, in turn, have spent nearly a million dollars in attack ads against Raman. A UC Berkeley/LA Times poll this week shows Bass with 26% of the vote, Raman with 25 and Pratt with 22. If nobody gets a majority of support in the June 2 primary, the top two vote-getters will face off in a November runoff.
For NPR News, I'm Frank Stoltze in Los Angeles. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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