Good morning, it’s Thursday, May 14. Expect plenty of May Gray, today and into next week, until morale improves.
This L.A. mayoral election is not being televised.
Forget the kids of Stranger Things or the special agents of NCIS. If you owned a TV four years ago, a single character almost certainly dominated your screen in late spring 2022: Developer and mayoral candidate Rick Caruso's patrician face was ubiquitous, looming through every commercial break. In the midst of a heated primary, Caruso was dropping at least a half-million dollars a week on broadcast and cable television ads. By the time the June election rolled around, he had spent a cool $23 million on TV ads.
There were also a smattering of TV ads in support of then-Rep. Karen Bass — who would ultimately defeat Caruso in the November general election — but her supporters were spending far less.
As Bass runs for re-election this year, TV ad spending is so minimal that L.A. voters could be forgiven for barely noticing there’s a mayoral race going on, at least until the past week or so.
Facing voters who are nursing deep frustration about the state of the city, Bass has been raising money at a slower clip than during her 2022 campaign while her leading rivals, Councilwoman Nithya Raman and former reality star Spencer Pratt are primarily channeling their efforts into social media (and in Raman’s case, digital ads).
Spencer Pratt, from left, Karen Bass and Nithya Raman take part in the Los Angeles Mayoral debate at Skirball Cultural Center on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“It’s night and day,” Sheri Sadler, a veteran Los Angeles strategic media buyer, said of this year’s ad environment compared to 2022. But it’s not just the lack of a self-funding billionaire in the race: Sadler noted that the media landscape is changing dramatically as voters cut the cord and change their TV viewing habits. “Everyone’s trying to get clever to get seen more. The media dollar doesn’t go very far.”
In a new L.A. Material report, contributor Maeve Reston unpacks this year’s TV ad drought and what it says about the race, along with Pratt’s viral video strategy.
Where Spencer Pratt doesn’t live.
In one of his flashy campaign ads, mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt stands in front of an Airstream trailer parked on a burned out lot and declares: “This is where I live.” The ad contrasts that with sun-soaked images of Nithya Raman’s “$3 million mansion” and Mayor Karen Bass’ official city residence, Getty House in Windsor Square.
But TMZ this week reported that Pratt has, for the last month, been living at the Hotel Bel-Air, where the cheapest room starts at $1,500 per night.
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