{"id":261843,"date":"2026-04-10T23:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/261843\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T23:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:38:08","slug":"spencer-pratts-time-in-santa-barbara-county-likely-wont-affect-his-bid-for-l-a-mayor-analysts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/261843\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer Pratt’s time in Santa Barbara County likely won’t affect his bid for L.A. mayor, analysts say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Living outside the community they want to represent can be a handicap for political candidates, but it\u2019s not likely to be a problem for Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Spencer Pratt, who until recently was living in Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County<\/a>, analysts say. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s because Pratt\u2019s home burned in the January 2025 Palisades fire, making him a sympathetic figure among many voters \u2014 especially those living in his Westside base, they say. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this is going to be electorally consequential,\u201d said Zev Yaroslavsky, a former Los Angeles County supervisor and L.A. City Council member who now runs the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. \u201cHe\u2019s a victim of the Palisades fire that doesn\u2019t have a home to live in because it burned down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pratt filed to run for mayor in February and was in second place behind Mayor Karen Bass in a recent poll<\/a> by the Luskin school. He was certified by the Los Angeles city clerk on March 2 as one of 14 candidates in the June 2 primary election. <\/p>\n

While some observers have raised questions about his eligibility, a state memorandum<\/a> following the fires said that voters who were temporarily displaced from their homes can use their prior address as their permanent residence as long as they \u201cintend to return\u201d in the future.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt currently resides in a private community in Carpinteria, Calif.<\/p>\n

(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Michael Sanchez, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder\/County Clerk, said this also applies to candidates. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn situations where a candidate has been temporarily displaced (such as the 2025 wildfires), their eligibility to run for office is not impacted, provided they maintain domicile in their district,\u201d Sanchez said in a statement. <\/p>\n

He explained that domicile is determined by a person\u2019s primary residence and their intent to return to that residence. \u201cTemporary relocation during rebuilding or recovery does not, by itself, change a person\u2019s domicile.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times asked the L.A. city clerk\u2019s office last week about Pratt\u2019s residency and eligibility. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot comment on the specifics of a candidate\u2019s address due to confidentiality. Any matter concerning a candidate\u2019s eligibility or residency, such as this situation, can be formally challenged through the court,\u201d said Josue Marcus, a spokesperson for the city clerk\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Any potential challenge to Pratt\u2019s eligibility based on residency would turn on the question of whether he had intent to return, said Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Marymount University law professor. \u201cThose are tricky inquiries because it depends on someone\u2019s state of mind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Pratt and his campaign aides didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment. Pratt released a video Monday, following inquiries from The Times, defending his decision to move to Carpinteria but saying he now intends to live in a trailer placed on his burned-out lot in Pacific Palisades. <\/p>\n

The city of Los Angeles sprawls across roughly 500 square miles, creating logistical hurdles if nothing else for a candidate seeking citywide office from a remote location, noted Democratic political consultant Mike Trujillo. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone that has done the drive from San Pedro to Sylmar knows that L.A. is a big place,\u201d said Trujillo, who isn\u2019t affiliated with any of the candidates in the June 2 mayoral primary. \u201cTo add another hour and a half to the drive is not advantageous if you\u2019re trying to campaign in every corner of the city.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pratt, a former reality TV star, has millions of followers on social media, but Trujillo said that Pratt will need to show a strong presence in the community to wage a successful campaign.<\/p>\n

Pratt is a Republican running in a Democrat-majority city. Developer Geoffrey H. Palmer, a major campaign donor <\/a>to President Trump, plans to host a reception for Pratt at his Beverly Hills home April 28, according to a document<\/a> the Pratt campaign filed with the city Ethics Commission.<\/p>\n

The event is being organized by Trey Kozacik, who also organized a Trump fundraiser<\/a> in Los Angeles in 2019.<\/p>\n

The UCLA Luskin poll released this month showed Pratt with the support of 11% of likely voters, behind Bass with 25% and ahead of City Council member Nithya Raman with 9%. <\/p>\n

Mayoral candidate Adam Miller, who polled at 3% in the survey, said Pratt\u2019s party affiliation is his biggest hurdle to winning the mayoral race. <\/p>\n

\u201cI sympathize with Spencer for losing his home and feeling outrage toward the city, but he is not a viable candidate. It doesn\u2019t matter where he lives, a Republican hasn\u2019t been elected mayor in 30 years in this city, and he isn\u2019t going to change that now,\u201d said Miller, a tech executive.<\/p>\n

Others say party affiliation is less of an issue. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a nonpartisan race,\u201d said Roxanne Hoge, the chair of the Los Angeles County Republican Party. \u201cThere\u2019s no letter accompanying anyone\u2019s name. … I personally support him because he\u2019s an intelligent alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some think Pratt will also hold appeal for some Democratic voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people I speak to who I know to be Democrats who really, really like him,\u201d said Maryam Zar, who heads the Palisades Recovery Coalition. \u201cTo the extent that people are disappointed in this recovery, they pin their hopes on Spencer. That\u2019s not a bad place for him to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Living outside the community they want to represent can be a handicap for political candidates, but it\u2019s not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7034,100462,115080,1319,1073,2624,64873,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,1839,115081,112339,36877,115082,6050,43125],"class_list":{"0":"post-261843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-analyst","9":"tag-city-clerk","10":"tag-domicile","11":"tag-eligibility","12":"tag-home","13":"tag-june","14":"tag-l-a-mayor","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-headlines","17":"tag-la-news","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","20":"tag-los-angeles-news","21":"tag-los-angeles-times","22":"tag-palisades-fire","23":"tag-party-affiliation","24":"tag-political-candidate","25":"tag-pratt","26":"tag-primary-residence","27":"tag-residency","28":"tag-spencer-pratt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}