It was the kind of political exchange that could only happen in Los Angeles in 2025: a sitting mayor swatting away a complaint filed by a man most people still picture scheming on a Malibu deck in the mid-2000s.
Mayor Karen Bass responded publicly this week after Spencer Pratt — former reality-television fixture and current longshot mayoral challenger — filed a complaint alleging her campaign had violated city election laws. Bass kept it brief. “We follow the rules,” she said, before landing the sharper line: Pratt's supporters, she suggested, are “AI cartoons,” while hers are real Angelenos.
Pratt, who first became a household name on MTV's The Hills before cycling through various tabloid chapters, has leaned heavily into social media and online communities during his campaign. The AI-cartoon line was a direct shot at the texture of that support — the kind of jab that plays well in a city where influencer culture and institutional politics have spent years trying to figure out what they owe each other.
Bass, whose tenure has been dominated by the aftermath of the January wildfires and ongoing homelessness and public-safety debates, did not itemize the specific allegations in her public remarks. Her campaign declined to elaborate further, according to reporting by The Hill.
Pratt has not publicly responded to the mayor's comments as of this filing. The complaint itself remains active, and the city's election authorities will determine whether it advances to a formal review.