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<\/p>\nSpencer Pratt, a reality television star who lost his home in the Palisades fire and then emerged as a sharp critic of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom, announced Wednesday that he will run for mayor. <\/p>\n
The former star of \u201cThe Hills\u201d has spent much of the last year firing off social media posts blaming the mayor and governor for the Palisades fire, which killed 12 people and burned more than 6,800 homes.<\/p>\n
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Pratt, who has never run for office before, made his announcement at the \u201cThey Let Us Burn\u201d event in Pacific Palisades on the one-year anniversary of the fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to expose the system. We\u2019re going into every dark corner of L.A. politics and disinfecting the city with our light,\u201d he said to a crowd of hundreds, many of whom cheered. <\/p>\n
Former L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner, who is running against Bass, has also attacked the mayor\u2019s performance on the fire, saying she has not accepted responsibility for the city\u2019s failures. <\/p>\n
Community organizer Rae Huang, who is running from Bass\u2019 left, has offered her own critique, saying the mayor has engaged in too much finger-pointing.<\/p>\n
Still unclear is whether real estate developer Rick Caruso \u2014 another outspoken critic of Bass on the fire \u2014 will launch a second mayoral bid. Bass defeated him in 2022 by a comfortable margin.<\/p>\n
L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who represents the areas that burned in the Palisades fire, said she is still considering her own run for L.A. mayor.<\/p>\n
Speaking with CNN\u2019s Elex Michaelson on Tuesday, Horvath said she is \u201clistening to a lot of the people who are encouraging me to get into this race, people who are looking for a different kind of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, there are a lot of people who are asking me about running for mayor,\u201d Horvath said. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s because they see that we are setting up in the county a different structure of accountability, and that\u2019s long overdue for the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
On CNN, Horvath criticized the city over its handling of the Los Angeles Fire Department\u2019s after-action report, which was supposed to lay out what went wrong in fighting the Palisades fire and how to prevent the mistakes from happening again. The Times reported last month that the report was edited<\/a> over multiple drafts to downplay the department\u2019s failures<\/a>. <\/p>\n On Tuesday, Fire Chief Jaime Moore acknowledged<\/a> that the report had been watered down to soften criticism of the LAFD leadership and promised that it wouldn\u2019t happen again. <\/p>\n Horvath said the county invited L.A. officials to participate in its own after-action report, only to be rebuffed.<\/p>\n \u201cThey declined participating and now we know why \u2014 because they wanted to cover up and tell their own story however they wanted to tell it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Palisades fire has become a serious political liability for Bass as the mayoral race gains momentum. She was out of the country<\/a> on a diplomatic mission to Ghana when the fire ignited.<\/p>\n Since then, she has faced criticism over a series of issues surrounding the city\u2019s emergency response, including LAFD deployment, the fact that the Santa Ynez reservoir was empty, and the Fire Department\u2019s failure to put out a New Year\u2019s Day fire that eventually rekindled into the Palisades fire.<\/p>\n Bass, for her part, said Tuesday that she is using the full extent of her mayoral powers to \u201crestore the Palisades community and return families home as quickly and safely as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n She has been highlighting her work in cutting red tape at the Department of Building and Safety, which is reviewing and signing off on rebuilding plans. By Wednesday, permits had been issued for nearly 700 addresses in the Palisades, with more than 400 under construction, according to city officials.<\/p>\n Her campaign team slammed Pratt\u2019s entry into the race.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s no shock that in advance of his imminent book release, a reality TV \u2018villain\u2019 who once staged a fake divorce to boost ratings and spent the last summer spewing post-fire misinformation and disinformation to pump up his social media following, would now announce he\u2019s running for Mayor,\u201d Bass campaign spokesperson Douglas Herman said in a statement.<\/p>\n Pratt and his wife, reality television personality Heidi Montag, sued the city<\/a> in January after their Palisades house burned down, arguing that the Santa Ynez reservoir should not have been offline and empty when the fire erupted. <\/p>\n