Los Angeles Democratic mayoral candidate Nithya Raman drew ridicule after proudly celebrating the completion of a crosswalk requested late last year, even as her before-and-after photos showed the cracked pavement beneath it remained unrepaired. 
“The Los Feliz Neighborhood Council alerted our office in late 2025 to the need for a crosswalk at Sunset Dr. and Bates St., which has just been completed,” Raman, a far-left member of the Los Angeles City Council, wrote Wednesday. “Thank you to our incredible CD4 Field Team for continuing to problem-solve, push for solutions, and make our streets safer.” 
Raman did not specify when in late 2025 her office received the request, adding to the uncertainty of precisely how long the project took to complete. Her post also did not identify which city agency installed the crosswalk.
Spencer Pratt, the former reality television star who finished third behind Raman in the June mayoral primary, mocked the announcement. 
Pratt wrote: “Nithya Raman&#8217;s big accomplishment is taking 9 months to paint 7 yellow stripes over a cracked street? How dumb do you have to be to post this?” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
The Los Feliz Neighborhood Council alerted our office in late 2025 to the need for a crosswalk at Sunset Dr. and Bates St., which has just been completed!
Thank you to our incredible CD4 Field Team for continuing to problem-solve, push for solutions, and make our streets safer. <a href="https://t.co/AmNAyPAhdR">pic.twitter.com/AmNAyPAhdR</a>
— Councilmember Nithya Raman (@cd4losangeles) <a href="https://x.com/cd4losangeles/status/2092727636959346891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
Raman’s graphic, labeled &#8220;Street Infrastructure,&#8221; showed that yellow crosswalk stripes had been added to the intersection. Large cracks visible in the pavement before the project remained afterward.
Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro called the post “beyond parody.” 
&#8220;Eight months to paint some yellow lines,&#8221; Shapiro said. &#8220;Huge infrastructure victory! Make her mayor!” 
Pratt initially held second place on election night in L.A.&#8217;s nonpartisan mayoral primary. Raman overtook him as additional vote-by-mail ballots were counted and ultimately advanced to the November runoff against incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass.
Raman has represented L.A. City Council District 4 since December 2020 and won a second term in 2024. She has prioritized rent control, supporting climate initiatives, and alternatives to traditional law enforcement responses. She also supported expanding sanctuary-city policies.

Families for Nithya event

Left-Wing L.A. Mayoral Candidate Touts Yellow Paint On Cracked Street As ‘Infrastructure’

karen bass

los angeles city council

los angeles mayoral election

nithya raman

politics

spencer pratt

A 21-year-old has identified himself as the man behind the fake polling operation that presented itself as an independent polling firm before admitting its surveys were fabricated.
Rahil Prakash told the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/20/fake-polling-website-median-strategies">Guardian</a> Thursday that he created Median Strategies by himself as a “social experiment” to see whether fabricated polling could spread through the political media without being independently verified.
“I wanted to see if fake polls could really penetrate the ecosystem that easily,” Prakash said. “And as it turned out, it could.” The experiment, however, had already <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mysterious-group-admits-to-faking-polls-one-showed-socialist-up-big-before-loss">produced real-world consequences</a> before Prakash revealed himself.
Median released fake polls showing Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass leading democratic socialist challenger Nithya Raman by 12 points. Bass subsequently touted the poll before deleting the post after the polling operation was exposed as fraudulent.
The group also released a poll claiming socialist Francesca Hong was leading the Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary by more than 20 points, as well as a survey showing Republican Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo leading his re-election race.
Median abruptly withdrew all of its polling earlier this week, claiming it had been designed to examine how “purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.”
Prakash told the Guardian that he was surprised by how quickly the polls spread. “I did not expect the California political press to pick it up on their own,” he said.
Median initially presented itself as something entirely different from a prank or experiment. Before the operation was exposed, its website described Median as an “independent polling and research” firm and promised to rebuild trust in polling. The Guardian identified Prakash through domain registration records connected to the Median Strategies website. Prakash said he built the website using artificial intelligence and was the sole person behind the operation.
Prakash was quick to acknowledge the negative influence the false numbers had on candidates, adding, “I’ll apologize straight out to the campaigns of Karen Bass, Nithya Raman and Francesca Hong for this.”
The American Association of Political Consultants has rejected the idea that publishing fabricated polling constitutes a legitimate “social experiment,” calling it “a deception directed at voters, at the press, and at the campaigns that rely on public data to make decisions.”
Prakash said his motivation came partly from frustration with polling errors in the Michigan Senate primary, where surveys had significantly overstated Abdul El-Sayed’s eventual margin of victory.

Nevada polls

Meet The Fraud Pollster Who Boosted Socialist With Fake Stats

fake polling

francesca hong

median strategies

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass can finance her re-election campaign with public funds through a program that uses taxpayer dollars to match eligible campaign contributions.
The &#8220;Super Match Program,&#8221; overhauled by the L.A. city council in 2019, deems any candidate running for mayor, city attorney, city controller, or city council eligible to participate in the program. Bass advertised the initiative in a video released earlier this week, proudly stating that her campaign is funded “by YOU!” 
“Thanks to LA’s Super Match Program, every qualified donation from Los Angeles Residents is matched six to one by the city. If you donate $5, the city turns it into $35&#8230;chip in $25 right now, and the city turns it into $175. Make your matching donation today, thank you so much,&#8221; she said.
&#8220;So we need you to rush your matching donation right now to help fuel this campaign,&#8221; she added.
The &#8220;Super Match Program&#8221; caps donations able to be matched for a mayoral campaign at $257 per contributor and $1,507,000 per candidate for the general election. Bass’ opponent — leftist Nithya Raman, who only secured her spot in the race after late-counted mail-in ballots pushed her ahead of Republican Spencer Pratt in June — is also eligible for the taxpayer-funded donation match.
For the candidate to receive the matching contribution, a contributor certification must be completed that <a href="https://ethics.lacity.gov/wp-content/uploads/Sample-Contributor-Certification.pdf">requires</a> the contributor’s name, residence address, job title, and employer. Los Angeles Municipal Code <a href="https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/los_angeles/latest/lamc/0-0-0-224109">states</a> that if a candidate “knows or should know” that a request for matching funds is based on false information, the candidate can be charged with a misdemeanor and must pay back the matching funds they received. If the candidate is elected, a court could also remove them from office.
Common Cause California says that the program “has led to a wider range of candidates from all backgrounds and perspectives receiving matching funds and running campaigns for citywide and council offices.” The organization adds that the program “has paved the path for a city government that better reflects the diversity of Los Angeles and represents the needs of all Angelenos.”
L.A. isn’t the only city with a Matching Funds Program. New York City matches contributions from city residents at an eight-to-one ratio. New York City created its public funds matching program in 1988 under then-Mayor Ed Koch. In <a href="https://www.nycvotes.org/news-and-press/articles/nyc-matching-funds-program/">1988</a>, the funds matched dollar for dollar. 
Portland, Oregon, also uses its Small Donor Elections program to match contributions with public funds. Other cities, including Seattle and Oakland, have adopted “Democracy Vouchers,” which do not require residents to donate any of their own money for a candidate to receive public funds. For Seattle’s upcoming city council election, residents in District 5 receive two $50 Democracy Vouchers that can go to the candidate of their choice with no strings attached. 
Raman, Bass’ opponent, has <a href="https://cd4.lacity.gov/press-releases/cd4release_democracyvoucher_061323/">advocated</a> for democracy vouchers to be available in L.A. elections.
&#8220;Though democracy vouchers will by no means solve this issue in one fell swoop, they will help create a more equitable campaign finance system that everyone can participate in,&#8221; she said. &#8220;By making campaign financing accessible to all, the City can boost political engagement, diversify the donor pool, and ensure that candidates and officeholders are more representative of the electorate.&#8221;

2026 BET Awards – Arrivals

Yes, It’s Legal For L.A. Mayor To Finance Her Re-election Campaign With Taxpayer Dollars

2026 midterm election

campaign finance

los angeles

A mysterious entity behind a poll showing leftist Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong with a double-digit lead admitted to faking its polls as part of a “social experiment.” 
Median Strategies <a href="https://medianstrategies.com/">directed</a> media outlets on Monday to discount the polls it released this election season, claiming it was conducting an experiment on trust in unverified polling. The group released polls on the Los Angeles mayoral race and Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary, which it now says were fabricated. 
“All previously published polling releases have been withdrawn and should not be cited or treated as genuine polling data,” the entity said. “Median Strategies was created as a short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.&#8221;
The group added that the &#8220;experiment&#8221; was not funded by any candidate, campaign, PAC, or media entity. It also said no one received any financial benefit from the project or had any ties to betting markets. 
Hong narrowly lost the bid to be the Democrats’ nominee in the Wisconsin governor’s race to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. While the poll from Median Strategies showing her up by 23 points turned out to be fake, <a href="https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/governor/democratic-primary/2026/wisconsin">numerous</a> other polls, including from Marquette University Law School, showed her up by over 20 points as well. 
The Los Angeles Times <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-08-17/poll-showing-bass-leading-raman-by-double-digits-was-bogus-company-says">first reported</a> on the fake polling after reaching out to Median Strategies about one of its polls showing incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass with a 12-point lead over leftist Councilwoman Nithya Raman. According to the poll, most of those who backed Spencer Pratt in the June election were shifting to Bass. 
“Faced with a choice between the incumbent and a Democratic Socialists of America-aligned challenger, most Pratt voters appear to be treating Bass as the more familiar, more moderate option rather than sitting out the race,” a memo from Median Strategies said. 
The poll purported to be a survey conducted between July 30 and August 5 of 560 Los Angeles voters. When pressed by the L.A. Times, Median Strategies admitted to faking the poll. That did not come before Bass cited the poll in a now-deleted post on X.
“Doing the work, showing up, and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!” the Bass campaign posted. 
After learning of the revelation, Bass called for a criminal investigation. 
“Any bad faith attempts to influence elections should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” a spokesman for Bass told the L.A. Times. 
Before its website was scrubbed and replaced with the announcement that its polls were fake, Median Strategies <a href="https://archive.ph/DU9yK">billed</a> itself as an “independent polling and research” firm. 
“Polling has a credibility problem. Ours is the fix: no partisan clients, no campaign or party money, numbers that go wherever the data takes them even when it’s inconvenient. Trustworthy polling, rebuilt,” the website said. 
The Daily Wire reached out to Median Strategies, asking if it will release the results of its experiment or provide any further information.

Democratic Socialists Seek Latest Shock In Wisconsin Primary

Mysterious Group Admits To Faking Polls — One Showed Socialist Up Big Before Loss

los angeles mayoral race

wisconsin governor election

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is blaming President Donald Trump for a recent surge in homelessness that has left thousands more people living on the streets of the so-called City of Angels.
<a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/los-angeles-homelessness-expected-rise-3-5-sources-say-ahead-lahsa-count">FOX11 reported</a> that homelessness in America&#8217;s second-largest city is expected to rise by about 3.5% when the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority releases new data Friday.
Ahead of Friday&#8217;s official release, FOX11 reported that the city estimates roughly 45,000 people are living on its streets—an 8% increase from last year—underscoring Los Angeles&#8217; ongoing struggles with homelessness and quality-of-life issues.
The looming report also undercuts Bass&#8217; campaign narrative that homelessness has significantly dropped under her rocky tenure. Her signature Inside Safe initiative has spent <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-04-05/under-la-mayors-300-million-homeless-program-40-have-returned-to-street">more than $300 million</a> to move roughly 5,800 people into interim housing, mostly hotels and motels, but about 40% have since returned to the streets, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/could-spencer-pratt-be-l-a-s-outsider-hero">The Daily Wire</a> reported. Just one in four participants has reached permanent housing, at a cost of more than $200,000 per permanent placement.
To explain the recent surge, Bass turned to her party’s favorite political punching bag: President Trump. 
&#8220;For two years straight, we drove down homelessness by historic margins — but as expected, last year our efforts ultimately couldn’t keep up with policies and funding cuts on the federal and state levels,&#8221; Bass said, according to FOX11. &#8220;The Trump administration has driven up the cost of gas, groceries, and rent — pushing more families to the edge — and slashed critical safety net funding.”
The embattled mayor, who is facing a stronger-than-expected challenge from her left flank, also took aim at Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom&#8217;s handling of the state budget.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
WATCH: Inside sources tell me L.A.’s homeless count is expected to rise… ending two straight years of reported declines.
The official numbers won’t be released until Friday, but multiple sources familiar with LAHSA’s latest count say homelessness is trending upward in Los… <a href="https://t.co/sUYPMVcN54">pic.twitter.com/sUYPMVcN54</a>
— Matthew Seedorff (@MattSeedorff) <a href="https://x.com/MattSeedorff/status/2080162994324144515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2026</a></blockquote>
“And, last year’s state cut of over $70 million severely impacted our work to keep people housed and get more Angelenos off the streets,” she said in a <a href="https://x.com/MattSeedorff/status/2080161071936221606?s=20">statement</a>. “The lack of adequate services continues to be a real problem and a contributing factor to people cycling in and out of homelessness, and these services are controlled by LA County.” 
The latest figures come as little surprise to many Los Angeles residents, including billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, who unsuccessfully challenged Bass in the 2022 mayoral race. “I doubt anyone living in LA is surprised,” he <a href="https://x.com/RickCarusoLA/status/2080334679530758318?s=20">said.</a>  
Some residents questioned the city&#8217;s count, arguing the actual homeless population is far higher than reported.
“I don’t listen to the numbers, my eyes are better than numbers,” one man <a href="https://x.com/RickCarusoLA/status/2080334679530758318?s=20">told FOX11</a>, in a report showing littered streets, vandalized buildings, and open drug use. 
Leftist L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman will face off against Bass in the November mayoral election after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/spencer-pratts-race-has-been-called-see-the-results">troves of late-arriving ballots</a> locked Republican Spencer Pratt out of the race.
Pratt’s viral campaign ads tapped into the reality TV star’s savvy social media background to push a message of change in a city plagued by chronic challenges. His platform captivated nationwide attention but ultimately fell flat in a deep-blue city dominated by leftists. 
His election defeat, however, has not stopped the Palisades wildfire victim from speaking out against the city’s leadership.  
“SHOCKER&#8230;the LA homeless count is going UP!” Pratt <a href="https://x.com/spencerpratt/status/2080284771846918154?s=20">said</a> Thursday. “I warned you guys: the more homeless people, the more money Nithya Raman and Karen Bass can launder through their corrupt NGOs. You will NEVER fix this problem by electing people who profit off it.”

US-HOMELESS-CENSUS-LOSANGELES

L.A. Mayor Blames Trump For City’s Homelessness Surge

california

Democrats

donald trump

gavin newsom

homelessness

Housing

Housing Crisis

inflation

News

President Trump

Rick Caruso

On June 2, Karen Bass emerged from the Los Angeles primary having secured <a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/la-mayoral-race-raman-closes-gap-spencer-pratt">roughly 34% of the vote</a>. The math is damning: two-thirds of Angelenos essentially voted to fire their mayor. Yet, the machine delivered a runoff regardless. 
This November, Bass will square off against Nithya Raman, a councilwoman deeply aligned with the city&#8217;s Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) bloc. Spencer Pratt, the Palisades fire survivor who campaigned as the authentic outsider, was relegated to third place and is out of the running. This outcome was no statistical quirk. It was the calculated result of a teachers&#8217; union political operation that has spent years colonizing every tier of L.A.’s government and is now poised to seize the final office it does not yet control. 
 
The mechanics are not complicated. The L.A. County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, which represents 800,000 workers across 300 unions and counts United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the American Federation of Teachers&#8217; (AFT) L.A. affiliate, among its members, <a href="https://thelafed.org/news/los-angeles-labor-movement-endorses-mayor-karen-bass-for-re-election/">formally endorsed Bass for re-election in November 2025</a>. 
UTLA&#8217;s own 2026 endorsement slate skipped the mayor&#8217;s race and built out the rest of City Hall around her. Council picks Hugo Soto-Martinez, Eunisses Hernandez, and Estuardo Mazariegos, <a href="https://utla.net/campaigns/2026-endorsements/">all listed on UTLA&#8217;s official endorsement page</a>, belong to the same DSA-aligned bloc reshaping the city. The fix was in months ago. 
 
What did the union have to fear from Spencer Pratt? Look at what he told Bill Maher on his podcast in May. Maher asked whether Pratt was strong enough to &#8220;buck the unions.&#8221; Pratt answered that union leadership was running &#8220;a scam&#8221; on its own members and pledged to push back. &#8220;You had me at hello,&#8221; Maher <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/you-had-me-at-hello-bill-maher-fawns-over-authentic-spencer-pratt-in-podcast-appearance/">told</a> him. 
Pratt was the only candidate in the field who promised to take on the racket controlling California schools and run it into the ground. He was the candidate the union needed to be gone. On June 8, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/los-angeles-mayor-election-bass-raman-pratt-2026/">CBS News</a> called the runoff for Raman over Pratt. Within days, Pratt acknowledged defeat. The union got the November matchup it wanted. 
 
The union&#8217;s political project does not stop at L.A.’s city limits, and it is not abstract. A new Defending Education <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/diverted-state-and-local-teachers-unions-spending/">report</a> finds that state and local teachers union affiliates have funneled $336 million to left-wing groups and political action committees since 2015. 
UTLA itself has spent more than $7 million on this kind of activity. The California Teachers Association&#8217;s PACs have spent over $106 million. None of that went to teaching kids to read. It went to elections, ballot measures, and ideological allies. Some of it went directly to anti-ICE organizing. The union is not even pretending the money is for classrooms anymore. 
 
What has all that buying bought? Ask Bass. In April 2026, UTLA threatened a massive strike against the Los Angeles Unified School District. Bass personally jumped into the talks. &#8220;I stepped into negotiations to make sure that every effort was made to find an agreement,&#8221;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/los-angeles-schools-open-negotiations-labor-deal/"> she said afterward</a>, citing her concern about disruption to kids and parents. Within days, UTLA had a tentative two-year contract with an <a href="https://laist.com/brief/news/education/la-unified-school-district-reaches-tentative-labor-deal-with-teachers">11.65% raise and a $77,000 starting salary</a>. Two months later, the union helped deliver Bass her runoff slot. Call that a coincidence if you want. The union didn&#8217;t. 
 
For Angelenos, the November ballot is a runoff with no real choice. Bass and Raman are both progressive Democrats. Raman ran to Bass&#8217;s left as a DSA ally and gained ground in the count precisely because the city&#8217;s most committed left-wing activists turned out for her. 
The roughly two-thirds of LA voters who picked someone other than Bass wanted accountability for the coalition that delivered Bass to a runoff against an even further-left challenger. In both cities, the candidate who threatened to break the union&#8217;s hold lost. The Teacher Freedom Alliance was founded because teachers should never be conscripted into politics they did not choose. Voters should not be either. 
 
AFT president Randi Weingarten has spent the last several months touring bookstores promoting a manifesto her members paid for. Her local affiliates have used the same months to hand themselves their next mayor. They have until November 3 to make it stick. Same machine, same playbook, and the same political casualty: anyone who tried to compete with the union for the right to govern an American city. 
 
L.A. didn&#8217;t pick its mayor on June 2. UTLA did. November is the formality.
*** 
 
Ryan Walters is the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance and former State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Oklahoma.

Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman hold mayoral election forum

How Teachers’ Unions Torpedoed Spencer Pratt And Picked L.A.’s Mayor

american federation of teachers

democratic socialists of america

DW Opinion

L.A. mayoral election

Teachers Unions

United Teachers Los Angeles

Former MTV reality star Spencer Pratt jabbed at incumbent Mayor Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) when he learned that the mayor&#8217;s own brother had joined a class-action lawsuit against the city over the Palisades fire.
Pratt announced that he and his wife, fellow reality star Heidi Montag, were suing Los Angeles almost immediately after the deadly fire destroyed their home — but he responded on Sunday to the news that Kenneth D. Bass was also joining the suit over the loss of his multi-million-dollar Malibu home.
&#8220;I am proud to be teaming up with Karen Bass&#8217; brother in suing his sister for her reckless negligence that led to the destruction of our homes,&#8221; Pratt captioned a clip from a local news report. &#8220;I hope their Thanksgiving dinner isn&#8217;t too awks. I know ours hasn&#8217;t been the same since last year &#8230;&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I am proud to be teaming up with Karen Bass&#8217; brother in suing his sister for her reckless negligence that led to the destruction of our homes. I hope their Thanksgiving dinner isn&#8217;t too awks. I know ours hasn&#8217;t been the same since last year&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/d8YyGjJ775">pic.twitter.com/d8YyGjJ775</a>
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) <a href="https://x.com/spencerpratt/status/2066200731909021757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 14, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The ABC affiliate revealed court documents that showed Kenneth D. Bass as a plaintiff in a case filed in May, in which he joined the class-action suit and claimed to have suffered from &#8220;smoke inhalation, severe emotional distress, mental anguish and annoyance&#8221; in addition to the loss of his home.
&#8220;As part of the mass tort legal process, Mr. and Mrs. Bass’ names were formally added as some of the nearly 40,000 victims who suffered losses. Their family connections are irrelevant, and as non-public citizens they are entitled to respectful privacy as they pursue their legal rights along with all represented victims,&#8221; attorneys for Kenneth Bass and his wife told <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/06/11/us-news/karen-bass-responds-to-brothers-lawsuit-over-palisades-fire-home-loss/">The New York Post</a>.
The home in question has not been rebuilt, and Bass sold the 1.5-acre lot — that still includes a putting green, a pool, and a guest house that were not lost in the fire — for $2 million last May.
The suit blames the city&#8217;s failure to respond to the fire on the reservoirs that were depleted: &#8220;The Palisades Fire has been a traumatic event for its victims, who through no fault of their own, went from homeowners to homeless in a matter of hours.&#8221;
During a recent campaign event, Mayor Bass — who is facing a run-off challenge in November from Democratic-socialist city councilwoman Nithya Raman — was clearly avoiding the question when she was asked three times about her brother&#8217;s addition to the suit.
&#8220;We’re not talking about that!&#8221; an aide pushed back as Bass was pressed on the issue.

Spencer Pratt Visits “Fox & Friends”

Karen Bass’ Brother Teams Up With Spencer Pratt In Lawsuit Against The Mayor

lawsuit

media

Palisades Fire

Former reality TV star turned Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt dropped another viral video on Friday, declaring &#8220;war&#8221; on what he called &#8220;the machine&#8221; that left voters with &#8220;two corrupt communists&#8221; in the general election.
&#8220;I got in this to expose this corrupt machine,&#8221; Pratt says at the beginning of the video. &#8220;I don&#8217;t have the campaign laws hamstringing me now. It&#8217;s war.&#8221;
The three-minute video, called &#8220;Saving LA &#8211; Phase III,&#8221; targets incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and far-left Councilmember Nithya Raman, two Democrats who advanced to the November runoff after Pratt finished third in the primary.
Pratt said he is now &#8220;moving on to the next, more interesting phase&#8221; of his mission, which includes a secret recording he claims implicates &#8220;one of your exalted candidates.&#8221; He threatened to make the recording public and said it would &#8220;make her resign in shame.&#8221;
<div style="max-width: 728px; margin: 0 auto;">
  <iframe style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; max-width: 100%; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/Zakre00lFFMsjSY0200a31SQZ2vPfxylQ7r?metadata-video-content-type=embed_video&amp;metadata-video-id=e3dab635-9079-4982-ba37-e60002d72ca0&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=2026-06-12%20Spencer%20Pratt%20Goes%20Scorched%20Earth&amp;poster=https%3A%2F%2Fdailywireplus-v2.imgix.net%2Fimages%2Fembedded-videos%2Fe4c93522-e7be-4ab4-b2b8-cb172b285d14.png&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Credit: X: @spencerpratt
</div>
&#8220;Go ahead and pick your demon, certify your choice, and then you get to see it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So Karen and Nithya, ask yourself, is it possible that one of your employees may have a recording of you doing or saying something that would force you to resign in disgrace? I hope you sleep well over the next five months.&#8221;
Pratt painted a bleak picture of L.A. through images of rampant graffiti, garbage-strewn streets, drug activity, public defecation, burned-out structures, and shuttered businesses.
&#8220;Angelenos are now stuck with two morons responsible for all of their problems, and they have to choose between dumb and dumber,&#8221; Pratt said. &#8220;That&#8217;s not a choice. That&#8217;s the machine protecting the machine.&#8221;
&#8220;And now every problem that plagues Los Angeles because of these two corrupt communists is going to accelerate, and the city will tumble headlong into the abyss,&#8221; he added.
With roughly 98% of the vote counted, Bass finished first in the primary with 34.3% of the vote, while Raman overtook Pratt earlier this week to finish second with 28.9%. Pratt received 25.5%. The top two finishers advance to the general election unless one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.
Pratt, a Republican, vowed to continue attacking both Democrats through the runoff campaign.
&#8220;I&#8217;m going to be lighting you up every single day,&#8221; Pratt promised.
&#8220;My goal hasn&#8217;t changed. I&#8217;ve been laser-focused on stopping these commie animals, and I will stop them.&#8221;

Spencer Pratt

WATCH: Spencer Pratt Goes Scorched Earth On ‘Two Corrupt Communists,’ Declares ‘War’

Elections

Los Angeles mayor

Many people believe the Los Angeles mayoral election is being stolen.
They&#8217;re wrong.
It was stolen months ago; perhaps years ago.
There was a mayoral election in L.A. on June 2. The initial results showed that the top two finishers were going to be Karen Bass, the current mayor of L.A., who literally trained in Cuba as a revolutionary — and she was the moderate Democrat in that particular race — and Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star who ran as an independent Republican and had been running an extremely viral online campaign. The third person was Nithya Raman, who&#8217;s on the L.A. City Council and is a complete psychotic leftist.
When the initial results came in on June 2, it looked as though Spencer Pratt and Karen Bass were going to be the people to win; the very early results on election night showed that Pratt was up some 25,000 votes on Raman, and Bass was up another 30,000 votes on Pratt.
And then, as the election results came in by June 4-5, Spencer Pratt&#8217;s votes had flatlined, and there was a fairly significant increase in votes for Nithya Raman. By June 6, the mayoral counts started to shift radically in favor of Nithya Rama.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-ep-2440?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
One of the things that&#8217;s fascinating here is that you can see that the lines for Karen Bass and Nithya Raman started elevating at the same rate between June 4-6 and they flatlined completely for Spencer Pratt, which means virtually all of the early votes that were cast on the Raman v. Pratt side were cast in favor of Pratt — or at least heavily biased for Pratt — and all the late-breaking votes, meaning the mail-in ballots, were heavily biased toward Nithya Raman.
This was not a glitch. It is the blueprint.
I know a lot of people right now are very upset that the initial results looked more Republican and conservative, and then, as more results came in, the graphs shifted toward Democrats. We saw this in 2020, most obviously, when the early results seemed to show President Donald Trump in the lead, and everybody had been talking about the fact that mail-in ballots, which in many cases were counted after the actual day of the election, would shift toward blue because Democrats were voting significantly by mail.
When I say the election was stolen months ago, I mean that state regulations benefit ballot harvesting. I think the way people generally think of stolen elections is wrong. I don&#8217;t think you have a bunch of people sitting there falsifying ballots, or a ballot tabulator picking up an empty ballot, filling in a fake name or ID number, and then writing in the ballot.
I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s what&#8217;s actually happening here.
What&#8217;s actually happening is widespread voter registration and then ballot harvesting. According to California state regulations, first-time voters can vote using — I&#8217;m not making this up — a commercial credit card or a health club ID. So that LA Fitness ID that somebody got five years ago, never used, can be used to register to vote. The law in California explicitly says that any doubt must be liberally construed to allow a person to cast a regular ballot, with zero real verification.
When you combine legal ballot harvesting with the total collapse of voter ID, you end up with some pretty shady election practices. And this is why I think people were shocked.
Nithya Raman gave a speech on the night of the election, crying. It looked as though she had basically conceded the race. And now it turns out she will probably be in the runoff against Karen Bass.
Spencer Pratt reacted to this by writing, “A net swing of more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday &#8230;  43,000. Where have I seen that number before? Probably nothing.”
That 43,000 is a reference to the fact that the city of L.A. currently has approximately 43,695 homeless people, including people in temporary shelters.
That means ballot harvesters will go to homeless shelters and ask people if they wish to vote, and then, in some cases, they&#8217;ll help them mark the ballot, or they&#8217;ll stand over them while they mark it. And then they will take those ballots to a drop box and drop them off.
According to California&#8217;s Vote 411, you can cast a valid vote by mail as long as your ballot is postmarked or dropped off in a drop box on Election Day. In 2021, California law mandated that every active voter in the state receive a mail-in ballot.
What you&#8217;ve seen since 2016 is not only a radical increase in voter turnout in California, but also a radical increase in mail-in balloting. In the 2024 election cycle, 80% of all Californians voted by mail. Seventy-two percent of L.A. County voted by mail. Voter turnout in 2024 was 62.1%. That is the second-highest turnout in California state history. That is more raw votes cast than in 2008, when Barack Obama was on the ballot, and you got this sort of historic voter turnout.
In 2020, which, of course, is a wild outlier election because of Covid, 87% of all Californians voted by mail. Seventy-eight percent of L.A. County voted by mail. Voter turnout was almost 70%, the highest in California&#8217;s modern history.
If you wonder, one reason President Trump has talked so much about the stolen 2020 election — although I think the evidence is scanty that there was voter fraud sufficient to overcome the burden of proof — is that 24 states and Washington, D.C., allowed a voter to designate any person to drop off their completed ballot.
Ballot harvesters go to the houses of the people whom they know are registered Democrats. They knock on the door and say, “Give me your ballot. I want to make sure that it gets in on time.”
Some states, such as California, allow designated persons to return an unlimited number of ballots. Other states cap the quantity to prevent large-scale operations.
Colorado, for example, caps at 10 ballots per person. But in California, you can go pick up 100 ballots. You&#8217;re a Democratic state representative, a party worker. You go out, and you pick up 500 ballots from addresses that you know are registered Democrats, boosting your voter turnout.
That&#8217;s why President Trump is skeptical about the 2020 election: the combination of mail-in voting and ballot harvesting meant that two-thirds of Americans turned out to vote.
If you&#8217;re wondering why people are suspicious of our elections, this is the reason.

Sherlock_Spencer_LAbackground

You’re Looking For The Crime Scene In The Wrong Place

Ben Shapiro

California Elections

Election Fraud

opinion

Leftist Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman will advance to the November mayoral election after nearly a week of counting late-arriving ballots, locking Republican Spencer Pratt out of the race.
Sunday’s vote drop surged Raman past Pratt for the first time, a stunning turnaround for the leftist who trailed Pratt by more than nine points on election night.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/us/elections/results-california-mayor-los-angeles.html">With 83% of the vote counted,</a> incumbent Mayor Karen Bass holds 34.7%, Raman in second at 27.1% and Pratt placing third with 26.7%. <a href="https://x.com/DecisionDeskHQ/status/2063772730437075457?s=20">Decision Desk HQ</a> projected the race at 7:57 p.m. EDT.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Decision Desk HQ projects Nithya Raman wins the second of two spots in the CA Los Angeles Mayor Nonpartisan Primary<a href="https://x.com/hashtag/DecisionMade?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DecisionMade</a>: 7:57 PM EDT <a href="https://t.co/PIwkJ5xxGO">pic.twitter.com/PIwkJ5xxGO</a>
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) <a href="https://x.com/DecisionDeskHQ/status/2063772730437075457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2026</a></blockquote>
Pratt and Raman have been watching the returns closely since the primary election was held on June 2 to determine which of them will face off in November against Democrat incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. Pratt held a lead of nearly ten points on Election Day, but every subsequent ballot dump has favored Raman by a large margin.
The projection effectively ends Pratt’s campaign, which tapped into the reality TV star’s savvy social media background to push a message of change in a city plagued by chronic challenges, including homelessness, crime and an affordability crisis.
Under California’s system, the top two votegetters in the mayoral primary, regardless of party, secure a place in the November election if neither receives more than 50% of the vote. Bass already secured a spot in the runoff, according to projections.
On Sunday, Pratt joined many Republicans nationwide in questioning California’s painstakingly slow vote-counting process. He responded to a social media post stating that late-arriving mail ballots had shifted the race by more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday, comparing that figure to the number of people living on the streets.
&#8220;A net swing of more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday. &#8230; 43,000, huh? Where have I seen that number before? Probably nothing,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/spencerpratt/status/2063784193688056310?s=20">Pratt said on X.</a>
He is not alone. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-walks-out-on-nbcs-welker-youre-either-crooked-or-youre-stupid?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=4&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Trump+Walks+Out+On+NBC%E2%80%99s+Welker%3A+%E2%80%98You%E2%80%99re+Either+Crooked+Or+You%E2%80%99re+Stupid%E2%80%99">President Donald Trump stormed out</a> of a ‘Meet the Press’ interview that aired Sunday over election integrity issues in California, ramping up his criticism he first expressed last week.
Trump took to Truth Social late Wednesday night and again on Thursday to accuse Democrats of election fraud, asking, “Why the vote counting DELAY???”
“Look what’s happening in California, the Dumocrats, right before our very eyes, are stealing the vote,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116693025089379568">posted</a> on Thursday.
Democrats deny accusations of fraud, pointing to California’s extensive vote-by-mail system and grace period for arriving ballots for the delay in results.
Pratt, a victim of the devastating January 2025 wildfires, captured national attention with a stronger-than-expected debate performance and viral advertisements railing against the city’s quality of life. He attempted to reach across party lines in a deep blue city where Republicans only make up <a href="https://tracker.politicaldata.com/?type=City&amp;value=CA+-+City+Of+Los+Angeles&amp;tab=1">15% of registered voters</a>.
An analysis by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/06/05/us/elections/los-angeles-mayor-primary-results-precinct-map.html">The New York Times</a> found that Bass dominated South Los Angeles, while Pratt performed strongest in the Palisades and West Los Angeles. Raman, meanwhile, carried Silver Lake and much of the city’s Eastside.
Raman, who is aligned with the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-far-left-l-a-mayoral-candidate-breaks-down-in-tears">Democratic Socialists of America</a>, launched a last-minute challenge to Bass and campaigned to peel away support from the mayor’s Left flank. On Tuesday night, she fought back tears as she addressed supporters in downtown Los Angeles.
“I hope you know that everything every person in this room is fighting for in this campaign has been about building a city that’s worthy of you and every child in this city,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Fiw800JNM">Raman said.</a>

Spencer Pratt’s Runoff Hopes Take A Hit As Socialist Rival Surges

As California continues counting votes from this week&#8217;s primary elections, the Department of Justice has launched multiple investigations into potential election fraud and plans to audit the state&#8217;s voter rolls.  
Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, announced the investigations Friday, saying his office is working with the FBI. 
“We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent,” Essayli posted on X.
Essayli also said the Justice Department intends to audit California&#8217;s voter rolls. 
“The state has stonewalled every effort to verify that only eligible U.S. citizens are registered to vote,” he wrote. “This case is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Protecting the integrity of California’s elections is a top priority for my office.
California’s election system has serious structural vulnerabilities. Universal vote-by-mail with no voter ID requirements creates conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding…
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) <a href="https://x.com/USAttyEssayli/status/2062889608787161176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A federal prosecutor also visited the Los Angeles County ballot processing center on Friday, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/doj-office-investigations-california-elections-trump-claims-cheating-rcna348746">according</a> to NBC News. A county spokesperson told the outlet the prosecutor participated in a walkthrough of ballot-processing operations, which are open to public observation.
The developments come as California election officials continue tabulating millions of outstanding ballots.
President Donald Trump accused California Democrats of attempting to “steal” elections multiple times this week, citing the state&#8217;s lengthy vote-counting process. Two big races remain unresolved: the gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral elections. 
“Look what’s happening in California, the Dumocrats, right before our very eyes, are stealing the Vote,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116693025089379568">wrote</a> on Truth Social Thursday.
With 68% of the gubernatorial vote <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/california-governor-results">reported</a> as of Saturday morning, Democrat Xavier Becerra has advanced to the November runoff in the general election with 26.78% of the vote. His opponent is still unknown, but Republican Steve Hilton narrowly trails Becerra with 26.35% support. Both were ahead of Democrat billionaire Tom Steyer, who is at 21.05%. Under California&#8217;s top-two primary system, candidates from the same party can advance to the runoff if they finish in first and second in the primary.
In the Los Angeles mayoral election, incumbent Democrat Mayor Karen Bass has been projected to advance to a runoff in the general election. As of Saturday morning, Bass has received 35.0% of the vote, with 71% of the vote <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/los-angeles-mayor-results">counted</a>.
Republican challenger Spencer Pratt is still in second with 28.2%, ahead of far-left Democrat Nithya Raman, who has been <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/la-mayor-election-spencer-pratt-nithya-raman/3900642/">closing in</a> on Pratt in recent days. She currently has 24.9% support.
In the L.A. mayoral race, two members of the same party can advance to the general election if neither receives more than 50% of the vote. Around three million votes have yet to be counted, and the state has 35 days for counties to process ballots, verify signatures, and let voters cure defective ballots.

U.S. DOJ Sends Observer To Watch California Primary Ballot Processing

DOJ Investigates California Election As Trump Warns Democrats Are Trying To ‘Steal’ It

steve hilton

tom steyer

Vote Fraud

Xavier Becerra

The political climate in California is changing. The Golden State is seemingly on the cusp of a red wave in the Los Angeles mayoral and statewide gubernatorial races. Californians’ deep <a href="https://www.ppic.org/blog/wildfires-are-a-top-concern-for-californians/">concern about the prevalence</a> of high-intensity wildfires plaguing their state is a major reason why.
I previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/america-is-next-for-newsoms-failing-policy-experiments">argued</a> that Governor Gavin Newsom treated California as a policy laboratory for all kinds of radical regulatory experimentation and that the results were overwhelmingly negative. Now there are signs of a state-wide reckoning.
Polling indicates that California residents could put an end to the toxic mix of harmful policies crafted or enforced by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Newsom.
The L.A. mayoral race has put this dynamic on full display. Former reality TV star and political outsider Spencer Pratt has made the Palisades Fire, which occurred under Bass’s watch, a central issue in the race. That fire, started by a deranged arsonist, caused damages <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/01/22/3013659/0/en/Verisk-Estimates-Industry-Insured-Losses-for-the-Palisades-and-Eaton-Fires-Will-Fall-Between-USD-28-Billion-and-USD-35-Billion.html">estimated</a> at over $28 billion and killed dozens of people. Bass’s team oversaw a response that policy experts have <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/could-palisades-fire-have-been-prevented-perhaps-cost-nearly-zero">criticized</a> as inadequate. At the time, the Washington Post editorial board argued that Bass’s city government “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/02/06/los-angeles-fires-karen-bass-lafd/">badly mishandled</a>” the response, and, perhaps worse, that Bass tried to sweep evidence of her bungled response under the rug.
Though it happened over a year ago, Spencer Pratt is not letting Bass off the hook for her role in the fire, which affected him personally. “If they didn’t burn my house down, I wouldn’t be running for mayor,” Pratt has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=3doY2QVesH0YvxAa&amp;v=6DUhu_naEFY&amp;feature=youtu.be">said</a>. That strategy is working for Pratt. While still slightly trailing Bass in recent <a href="https://emersoncollegepolling.com/california-2026-poll-becerra-continues-to-surge-steyer-and-hilton-compete-for-second-spot/">polls</a>, Pratt is slated to face Bass in a runoff election in November.
Bass blamed climate change for the fires, which is no excuse for negligence. In fact, if Bass believes climate change is exacerbating wildfire risk, that arguably casts her in a worse light. If she believed that fires are now more likely to occur, due to climate change or any other reason, her decision to <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/01/08/us-news/la-mayor-karen-bass-cut-fire-department-funding-by-17-6m/">drastically reduce</a> the L.A. Fire Department budget by $17 million before the fire was especially inexcusable.
Bass not only refused to accept accountability but also attempted a cover-up. Bass reportedly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/02/06/los-angeles-fires-karen-bass-lafd/">altered</a> an after-action report to downplay the role of poor political decisions in the fire’s impact. The original report, much of which Bass reportedly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/02/06/los-angeles-fires-karen-bass-lafd/">quashed</a>, may have discussed the reservoir <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-10/as-flames-raged-in-palisades-a-key-reservoir-nearby-was-offline">drained ahead of the fire</a> that could have supplied 117 million gallons of water, and the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-21/lafds-failure-to-pre-deploy-before-palisades-fire-a-times-investigation?utm_source=chatgpt.com">insufficient availability</a> of firefighters.
Solely focusing on Bass, though, misses the larger point: In California, ideologically driven leftist policies have prioritized environmental regulations over brush-clearing measures. Faster vegetation growth translates to higher fire risk.
Californians know this, but they have long faced an uphill battle in clearing brush from public land. As a general rule, California <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/how-l-a-bureaucracy-made-it-harder-to-clear-flammable-brush-683f953e?mod=djem10point&amp;ref=pitchstonewaters.com">doesn’t clear brush</a> from public lands for environmental reasons, and residents must apply for a permit to do so — a lengthy and cumbersome process.
This is what happened in the Palisades Fire. Having not been cleared from public lands abutting residential areas, brush plants, which are evolutionarily engineered to burn, <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/how-policy-decisions-exacerbated-the-devastating-los-angeles-wildfires/">contributed</a> to the fire’s rapid spread.
Californians know that politicians are at least partly to blame for mismanagement and poor policymaking that <a href="https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/la-county-fires-wildland-urban-interface/#:~:text=The%20fire%20damaged%20or%20destroyed,a%20wildfire%20engulfs%20the%20neighborhood.">cost</a> over 20,000 of them their homes in the most recent major bout of wildfires in early 2025.
That is why Democrats are at risk of losing their grip on power in California at the gubernatorial level, too. Republican candidate Steve Hilton is surging in polls among Californians and could be the first Republican elected governor of California in two decades.
Hilton is not tiptoeing around challenging fire prevention issues. To the contrary, he is leaning in with ambitious <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/26/us-news/steve-hiltons-plan-for-first-100-days-if-elected-california-governor-is-wild/">proposals</a> to use remote sensing technology and drones to detect and stop fires before they spread out of control.
At the same time, Hilton has condemned California officials for putting ideology before people. Hilton has <a href="https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/117864/witnesses/HHRG-119-JU05-Wstate-HiltonS-20250206.pdf">noted</a>, “the California Coastal Commission also blocked fire prevention and mitigation measures in the exact hills that just burned, in order to protect a few thousand specimens of the Braunton’s milkvetch shrub.” He also got Californians’ attention, with his <a href="https://www.congress.gov/event/119th-congress/house-event/LC74115/text">claim</a> that the L.A. wildfires were “not a natural disaster” but rather “a man-made disaster.” Thanks to common sense axioms like these, he is currently the <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/mar/30/republicans-get-surprise-opening-california-governors-race/">frontrunner</a> in the race, much to the chagrin and surprise of California’s Democratic establishment.
California is a solid blue state and has been for many years. A red wave there would mean a red wave could be possible anywhere. And apocalyptic scenes of wildfires, the most salient and striking example of policy failure in that state, are getting voters’ attention like never before.
***
Sydney Rodman is a visiting fellow with the Independent Women’s Center for Energy and Conservation.

Palisades fire

Don’t Overlook The Heat Source Behind California’s Red Wave

Wildfires

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