#  Mayoral Mind Games: Is Bass Attacking Pratt, Or Is The Opposite?

     Details    Ken Alpern   ![logo](https://mail.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         May 18 2026      [  ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/May-2026/039p.jpg#joomlaImage://local-images/stories/May-2026/039p.jpg?width=686&height=386)    ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/election-2024/32740-mayoral-mind-games-is-bass-attacking-pratt-or-is-the-opposite)

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 ALPERN AT LARGE - Wow—what a mind game, and what a soap opera, and what a head turner this mayoral race has become…fitting for Hollywood and Los Angeles—a pre-Olympic festivity, so to speak!

A Bass attack ad purportedly against Pratt that decries his desire for more police officers instead of social workers, proclaiming the homeless need to get help or get out, and employee unons should have less power, is being questioned as what the ad’s goal truly is!

Is it to attack Pratt, or to get Pratt to the runoff in November (because Mayor Bass would rather have a runoff against Pratt than Nithya Raman) so that it’s indirectly pushing against Raman?

The ad is funded by “LA Unions Opposed to Spencer Pratt for Mayor 2026”, which is sponsored by the AFL-CIO, but who knows if the L.A. public sector unions are being sneaky, using dark money, or are just…plain…tone-deaf (and a bit clueless, to boot!).

Because the reaction online is favoring Pratt, not hurting him…as in “this is a freakin’ attack ad or supportive for Pratt?”

As in, “This attack ad could well elect Pratt” to quote one Republican Senator Ted Cruz from Texas.

Simultaneously, and really making us all wonder WHAT is going on here, Pratt came up with a fake Bass attack ad against himself

This fake attack ad proclaims that Angelenos WANT exercise by being chased by drug addicts (a mother jogging with her baby asks, “Does he \[Pratt\] me to get fat?”, and that a father and daughter become surrounded by flames and proclaim we should “stay the course with Karen Bass” with the father telling his daughter, “Smile, damn it!”.

Joe Rogan, who’s uber-popular with young male (and a few female) voters proclaims he supports Pratt, and would vote for Pratt if Rogan didn’t live in Texas.

Mind you, Rogan is but one of many who left California for Texas, and his sentiment and chip-on-the-shoulder attitude is almost certainly mirrored, or even closely held, by many other ex-Californians who really didn’t want to leave…but felt forced to for economic and psychological survival.

Pratt is directly stating he’s NOT a MAGA candidate when Raman declared him as such (which is as much a non-argument as it gets, and shows Raman is choosing to throw out epithets instead of debating policy), and Pratt even mocked her with a sarcastic “shocked” facial gesture during a recent mayoral debate.

He doesn’t care—and it’s coming across to many that Pratt is promoting common sense over partisan politics (with Raman and Bass being the partisans in what SHOULD be a NON-partisan mayoral race):

\--Get rid of the homeless—get help or get lost.

\--Illegal aliens wanted for federal crimes? Give them to the feds/ICE and demand ICE leave those here illegally working at car washes and other jobs alone.

\--Junkies have no right to be on our streets, on our paid-for mass transit venues, and criminals should be made to follow the law (or pay the lawful price).

These three ideas are not exactly partisan politics so much as it is COMMON SENSE.

And with a City of the Angels that’s blazingly one-party and partisan in a Democratic fashion (or between old-school Democrats and Democratic Socialists, but NO Republican Councilmembers or others holding high office), the obvious “partisans” are clearly not Pratt.

The “partisans” are obviously the “we love one-party rule, and we’ll call it democracy”, instead of the other myriad voters who are SICK of the same ‘ol, same ‘ol.

Hence this race is really just a sort of last stand for those who want to declare that “the emperor has no clothes”, and that “the crazy” should stop being “the norm”.

And to be honest, the mind games from City Hall have plagued us a long time before we even knew who the heck Spencer Pratt ever was…

*(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at <Ken.Alpern@MarVista.org>. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)*

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