$24 Billion Question Haunts Newsom, Bass

California governor speaking at a public event with supporters

A reality TV star turned Los Angeles mayoral candidate is demanding that California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass be thrown in jail — and his surging campaign suggests a lot of Angelenos agree with him.

Story Snapshot

Spencer Pratt, running for Los Angeles mayor, publicly called for Newsom and Bass to be jailed over homelessness spending failures and wildfire deaths.
Pratt alleges $24 billion in California homelessness funding not only failed to reduce the crisis but actively made it worse.
Democrats are now attempting to hit Pratt with criminal charges over alleged election law violations, which his supporters call politically motivated retaliation.
Pratt has also filed a formal complaint accusing Bass of violating election law, escalating the legal war between the campaigns.

Pratt Pulls No Punches on Newsom and Bass

Spencer Pratt sat down with Fox News and delivered a scorching indictment of California’s Democratic leadership. Pratt accused Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass of coordinated negligence, saying: “Not only did they work together in their negligence in burning down 7,000 houses and 12 people alive, but they’re both complicit in laundering — what? — $24 billion to actually increase homelessness. They both should be in jail together.” ^[1] Those are serious allegations, and Pratt made them without flinching.

Pratt’s campaign has tapped into genuine, widespread anger over Los Angeles’s homelessness disaster. California has poured tens of billions of taxpayer dollars into the problem over the past decade, and the results on the streets have been visible to anyone with eyes. Pratt argues the money didn’t fail by accident — it failed because of corrupt systems, fraudulent nonprofits, and leaders more interested in managing the optics than solving the problem. ^[8] His willingness to say what many residents have long believed is a major driver of his surge in the polls.

The Democrats Strike Back — Against Pratt

Rather than defend their homelessness record on the merits, California Democrats appear to be taking a different approach: trying to criminally prosecute Pratt. As Pratt’s poll numbers climbed, Democratic operatives pushed for charges against him over alleged campaign finance violations. ^[3] Pratt and his supporters have dismissed these as politically motivated attacks designed to silence a candidate who is exposing the failures of the Democratic machine that has run Los Angeles into the ground.

Pratt didn’t sit back quietly. He filed a formal complaint of his own, accusing Mayor Bass of violating election law. ^[2] Whether or not either set of charges goes anywhere, the back-and-forth signals that the Los Angeles establishment is rattled. A candidate who was widely dismissed as a celebrity stunt is now threatening to upend a race that Democrats assumed was theirs to control.

The $24 Billion Question Nobody Can Answer

At the heart of Pratt’s campaign is a question that Bass and Newsom have struggled to answer convincingly: where did the money go? California and Los Angeles have spent staggering sums on homelessness — figures reaching into the tens of billions — and the visible homeless population remained one of the worst in the nation. Bass has pointed to a claimed 17.5% reduction in street homelessness under her watch and touted her “Inside Safe” initiative as proof of progress. But those statistics have done little to quiet the fury of residents who still see encampments on every block.

🚨 Spencer Pratt shakes LA mayoral race, saying the city needs “truth-telling leadership” and mandatory treatment for addiction crisis.
His claims about homelessness & drug policy spark heated debate across the U.S.#LosAngeles #BreakingNews #nnntimes pic.twitter.com/tf66HmIE4Q

— Sophie (@NNNTimes) May 28, 2026

Pratt has gone further than most politicians dare, claiming that the problem isn’t just incompetence but deliberate fraud — that scam rehab facilities and corrupt nonprofit organizations have been feeding off taxpayer money while keeping people on the streets. ^[4] He says as mayor he would cut funding to those organizations immediately. It’s a direct, aggressive policy position that resonates with residents who feel the current system rewards failure and punishes accountability.

A Race That Could Redefine California Politics

The Los Angeles mayor’s race has become something bigger than a local election. Newsom has thrown his support behind Bass, making his own political reputation partly dependent on her survival. ^[7] If Pratt — a man the media initially laughed off — defeats a Newsom-backed incumbent in America’s second-largest city, it would send shockwaves through California’s Democratic establishment and signal that voters are done accepting excuses for decades of mismanagement. For conservatives watching from across the country, this race is a referendum on whether leftist governance in major American cities can finally be held accountable at the ballot box.