Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) escalated her rhetoric against Republican challenger Spencer Pratt on Tuesday, accusing his campaign of deploying AI-generated advertisements that cross a line into incitement. The ads, which Bass described as taking on a “violent trend,” portray the city as a crime-ravaged wasteland and feature the former reality TV star as a Batman-style vigilante.
In the spots, Pratt fights masked agents wearing vests with “DSA” insignia, a nod to the Democratic Socialists of America. Bass appears as a judge in Joker-like makeup, flanked by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and former Vice President Kamala Harris. An AI-generated Secretary of State Marco Rubio acts as a DJ while residents hurl tomatoes—which Bass noted looked like blood—at the trio before the tagline “LA is worth saving” appears.
“The throwing of tomatoes, which looked like blood, or drowning me and the governor in a reservoir—there’s also other violent scenes,” Bass told CNN’s Elex Michaelson. “I’ve noticed that it’s taking on a violent trend, and that is very scary.” The incumbent called the ads “absolutely 150 percent fiction” and expressed concern that Pratt’s social media presence “is now taking on a violent turn.”
“When you do that, and when your messages are so hateful, or when you demonize people, then you do provoke people who are unstable and you can jeopardize people’s safety,” Bass said. The mayor linked Pratt’s approach to a broader moment of voter frustration, saying, “I think that plays into people’s desperation. And I think oftentimes we look for someone superhuman to save us. The reality is—it never happens.”
The ad has already gone viral, as previously reported by The World Signal, and underscores the increasingly bitter tone of the race. Pratt, who lost his home in January’s Palisades fire, has made Bass’s response to the disaster a central attack line, calling her “an incredible liar” during their first debate last week. Bass has faced intense backlash for her absence from the city when the fires erupted, but she maintains she “deserved” a second term to continue recovery efforts.
Despite the drama, polling shows Bass with a lead. An Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics survey puts her at 30 percent, with Pratt at 22 percent and City Council member Nithya Raman (D) at 19 percent. Sixteen percent of voters remain undecided, down sharply from 51 percent in March. When asked if Pratt could be underestimated—paralleling the 2016 Trump-Clinton dynamic—Bass laughed but said, “Absolutely, no, absolutely. I take nothing for granted.”
The race has drawn national attention, with figures like Magic Johnson endorsing Bass for a second term, while Pratt’s celebrity background and aggressive tactics have shaken up the contest. As the campaign heats up, the question remains whether Bass’s warnings about the ads will resonate with voters or if Pratt’s dystopian vision will gain traction in a city still reeling from disaster.
