Incumbent LA Mayor Karen Bass has started rolling out celebrity endorsements as she fights for her political survival.
Mayor Bass posted to her X account that actress Jane Fonda, 88, had endorsed her for reelection in what has become a contested field.
Bass is going up against Hills star Spencer Pratt and councilwoman Nithya Raman, with Pratt gaining traction amongst disaffected Angelenos with his rogue campaign.
She said: ‘Angelenos need leaders willing to stand up and speak out. Jane has never been afraid to do either.’
While celebrity endorsements might have once been an essential part of any political campaign, political commentators believe that they are now a thing of the past.
Kamala Harris was backed by Taylor Swift and Beyonce as she went up against Donald Trump but went on to lose every swing state, while Trump made gains in Democratic blue states.
After her defeat, one Democratic strategist told The Hill: ‘Somehow we think if Beyoncé is on stage, that will solve all our problems.
‘What people don’t realize is that it actually makes it worse. It reinforces this perception that we are the party of elites, that we don’t understand what working class folks are going through.’
Despite the warnings from insiders, commentators and pollsters – Bass and her team looked to have leaned in on using a celeb to try and gain ground in the election.
Bass, seen here on Thursday, is going up against Hills star Spencer Pratt and councilwoman Nithya Raman
Fonda is seen here earlier this month at a dinner in Cannes, France
According to the latest polling from The LA Times, Bass is ahead with 26 percent of the vote to Raman’s 25 percent and Pratt’s 22 percent.
Raman and Pratt have both surged eight points since March while polling for Bass has stagnated, the outlet found.
Pollsters for the outlet have called the small gain that Bass has over the two ‘statistically insignificant’ ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
Their polling also showed that in a runoff between Bass and Raman, the councilmember would lead four percent with 32 percent to 28 percent.
Only ten percent of voters in the city were undecided, the newest poll found, which was a fall from 26 percent in the March poll.
Pratt launched his campaign after becoming a vocal critic of Bass’s tenure as mayor and her response to issues such as the Palisades Fire, while also attacking her after he lost his home in the blaze.
The star accused Bass of mismanaging the response to the inferno, which went on to burn down more than 11,000 other structures and cause billions of dollars in damage.
He has also made fixing Los Angeles‘ issues with homelessness and drug use central to his candidacy.
Reality TV villain Spencer Pratt is seen here during a campaign block party in Los Angeles earlier this month
Los Angeles has the second-largest homeless population among cities in the US. The problem is particularly visible because around two-thirds of the unhoused live on the streets
Nithya Raman waves after a news conference on Thursday in Los Angeles
Raman meanwhile has campaigned on new housing and cutting red tape for developers, but has so far failed to garner any endorsements from her City Council colleagues.
There has only been one debate which featured all three for which Pratt was declared the winner over Bass and Raman by 79 percent of viewers polled by NBC, as his brash style won praise from many.
Pratt especially dominated Raman, reducing her to a ‘random city council member’ in a jibe at Raman that went viral on social media.
Despite that performance he looks to trail the other two according to the latest polls, with a November runoff appearing likely with 14 names on the ballot.
Bass was elected in 2022 promising to end the unchecked homeless crisis and deal with increasing crime as smash-and-grab robberies became national news.
She has lined up most of the Democratic establishment behind her, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with the city’s powerful labor unions.
‘We are not going to have this level of failure in our city for four more years,’ Pratt told CNBC on Thursday.
The city ‘is not safe. It’s disgusting. We pay with our money to give needles to drug addicts to overdose in front of kids.’
After dropping off her own ballot Bass brushed off the competition, telling reporters: ‘We’re almost to the finish line. I’m feeling good.’
