Spencer Pratt, a reality television star, announced Wednesday he is running for mayor of Los Angeles.
Pratt lost his home in the Palisades Fire exactly a year ago on Jan. 7. Since then, “The Hills” star has blamed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom for negligence in handling the fire, which took 12 lives and burned more than 6,800 homes.
“We’re going to expose the system. We’re going into every dark corner of L.A. politics and disinfecting the city with our light,” Pratt said at the “They Let Us Burn” event in Pacific Palisades, which marked the one-year anniversary of the fires.
“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,” Pratt said.
“But let me be clear, this just isn’t a campaign — this is a mission, and we are going to expose the system. We are going into every dark corner of LA politics and disinfecting the city with our light,” he said.
“LA is going to be camera ready again.”
The former “Big Brother” contestant became a regular on “The Hills” series after he began dating cast member Heidi Montag. The couple has been married for 17 years and shares two children.
Pratt shared videos of his home on the day of the fire.
“I’m watching our house burn down on the security cameras,” Spencer shared in a Snapchat video on Jan. 7.
How are Southern California residents feeling?
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass’s campaign strategist, Douglas Herman, told reporters, “It’s no shock that in advance of his imminent book release, a reality TV ‘villain’ who once staged a fake divorce to boost ratings and spent last summer spewing post-fire misinformation and disinformation to pump up his social media following would now announce he’s running for mayor.”
Bass has faced criticism on several fronts. For starters, she was out of the country on a diplomatic mission to Ghana when the fires erupted.
Her office was blamed for the poor allocation of resources and a lack of emergency preparedness, from the fire department’s failure to put out the initial fire that led to the Palisades fire to the hydrants going dry during the crisis.
In late January 2025, a poll found that 43% of voters in L.A. County said they would consider Republican leadership, “significantly (outperforming) Republican Party registration or predicted electoral turnout.”
The latest report from the Los Angeles Times stated residents from the areas affected by the wildfires are “losing faith” that their neighborhoods will be rebuilt quickly.
Less than one-fifth of homes destroyed in Altadena have received rebuilding permits as the Los Angeles Fire Department faces increased scrutiny.
Investigations and lawsuits since the fires reveal that state officials prioritized environmental conservation over fire suppression, according to recent reports.
California State Parks employees and the Los Angeles Fire Department personnel had a text exchange about the ecological concerns of deploying a bulldozer in Topanga State Park.
The Los Angeles Fire Department ultimately did not use bulldozers after worries of disturbing endangered plants in the area, which is an “avoidance area” under the Wildfire Management Plan.
The LAFD declared it contained a small brush fire on Jan. 1 at the state park. But the fire smoldered underground in the root systems of the dense vegetation and went unmonitored for days. It reignited on Jan. 7 during strong winds and low humidity, leading to the massive and devastating Palisades fire. The second time around, the fire lasted for three weeks.
“I spoke with a fire chief who was told by a Newsom state representative that the LAFD could not bring in a dozer to the Lachman fire site because of protected plants,” Pratt reported on the X platform on Nov. 15, 2025.
Text message evidence later confirmed the allegation. Capt. Richard Diede of the LAFD decided not to use bulldozers in response to the fire, citing training to protect endangered plants.
“Heck no that area is full of endangered plants,” Diede wrote five hours after LAFD first declared the fire contained, as the Los Angeles Times reported. “I would be a real idiot to ever put a dozer in that area,” he added. “I’m so trained.”
As per the Times, the LAFD official displayed concerns about the ecological impact on parkland while the parks department reaffirmed that it did not directly influence the fire department’s decision.
“State Parks never hinders an active firefighting response and firefighting decisions are up to the responding agency. “In this instance, the fire in question was deemed by LAFD to be fully contained a few hours after an arsonist started it.”
These messages came to light through the ongoing class action lawsuit involving 3,000 plaintiffs against the state over its negligence in stopping the fires.
One attorney representing the plaintiffs said California officials “put plants over people.”
The attorneys also argue the state should have inspected the burn scars in the park to make sure the fire was fully extinguished or taken preventive steps against potential reignition, despite the known weather conditions.
This isn’t the first time conservation has received priority amid a disaster.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was fined $1.9 million in 2020 by the California Coastal Commission for unpermitted bulldozing that affected endangered Braunton’s milk-vetch plants in Topanga State Park, as the Orange County Register reported.
The water and power department was conducting fire safety work, reinforcing that California’s regulatory framework heavily safeguards native plant species like the California Endangered Species Act and the Native Plant Protection Act. But the same protections do not extend to human life.