Spencer Pratt, a surprising winner from NBCLA's double-debate night

[0:00] And so we begin at 6 tonight with our debate doubleheader, and now the countdown to the June 2nd primary. [0:07] Good evening once again, everyone. I'm Colleen Williams. [0:09] And I'm Carolyn Johnson, in for Michael Brownlee. [0:12] Early voting is already underway, and the primary is now just over three weeks away. [0:17] Tonight we're breaking down the biggest takeaways from the mayoral and gubernatorial debates as the top candidates took the stage. [0:23] NBC4's Conan Nolan is here with us. It was quite a night out there last night. [0:28] It was a long night. [0:29] It was definitely that. [0:31] Very rarely do we see doubleheader debates, but we had one. [0:34] You pulled it off. [0:34] Yeah, to a certain degree. [0:36] So, listen, it's not just June 2nd. [0:39] The fact is, it's an election month. [0:41] People are casting their ballots right now, and that is one of the reasons why, certainly in the gubernatorial debate, they're running out of time. [0:48] It's like the clock is ticking down. You don't have much time left. [0:51] So it's like a Doug Flutie pass in the Boston College Miami game, if you can make that reference. [0:56] And so that's what we saw with some of the candidates in the race for governor. [1:01] We'll go to that first. [1:03] In the race for governor, you had among the issues where we saw some separation from the Democrats, not so much from the Republicans, was on the issue of housing. [1:13] We'll have that in a second. It was Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, who was talking about the economy and business development. [1:19] A big dust-up between Katie Porter and Sheriff Bianco from Riverside County over the immigration and the sanctuary state policy. [1:30] And then the attack by the former mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Viragosa, against Javier Becerra, the former secretary of Health and Human Services. [1:37] And that is what I will get back to as governor, to restore that California dream of home ownership. [1:45] I believe in zoning densely near public transportation. [1:49] And I believe that the way to drive down costs per square foot by at least a third. [1:53] We've got to actually fix our underlying regulations and make it easier to invest and start companies. [2:00] I think we ought to enforce the existing sanctuary laws everywhere, so we don't have crazy cowboys taking the law into their own hands. [2:09] Tell that to a crazy mother who lost her child. [2:12] Sir, I don't need any lectures from you about being a mother. [2:15] Of course, you might. [2:18] Mr. Becerra, are you proud that you pushed out 85,000 migrant children? [2:23] They were, according to the New York Times, they were maimed. [2:26] They were exploited. [2:28] They were, some were even killed. [2:30] Donald Trump was separating children from their parents. [2:33] We stopped that. [2:34] We took care of them. [2:36] We protected those kids. [2:37] We didn't do what Trump did. [2:40] Now, there you saw Javier Becerra, because he is the leading Democrat in this race. [2:44] He jumped up to double digits. [2:46] He was the target last night for the others on the panel. [2:49] Did it, you know, did it move the needle? [2:51] Hard to imagine that it did. [2:53] But it was one of the last attempts that these candidates have had to try to bring his numbers down so they can have a shot on June 2nd. [3:01] You know, Conor, we're not going to let you go anywhere. [3:04] We're going to come back to you in just a minute to talk more about the governor's race and, of course, about the mayor's race as well. [3:10] A lot of people watched last night. [3:12] The mayoral debate said they were impressed with Spencer Pratt. [3:16] Yeah, in our online unscientific survey, viewers said Pratt had the best night of the three candidates, Kenan Willard and the Hollywood Hills now. [3:24] And, Kenan, some said they didn't necessarily expect this from him. [3:29] Yeah, Carolyn, we heard from political experts, some voters. [3:32] They said that Pratt's performance on the debate stage was impressive, maybe more impressive, [3:36] and potentially making him more serious of a candidate in appearance than maybe some voters would have expected three months ago when he filed to join this race. [3:45] Now, he's been making waves on social media. [3:47] He's been doing well in his base area in the Pacific Palisades. [3:50] But we've heard from some political experts that say if you want to run the second largest city in the country, [3:54] he also has to make inroads in other communities. [3:57] There's a lot of change from last night, and I'm very excited about it. [4:01] After a debate night where he railed against the city's fire response and homelessness, [4:05] some viewers said they felt like Spencer Pratt made his case to be L.A.'s next mayor. [4:10] And they're politicians, and I'm an outsider coming in here because we've had enough politicians. [4:16] Pratt entered the race for mayor after losing his home in last year's Palisades fire. [4:21] We were there when he officially entered the race in February, the former reality TV star's outfit, [4:26] and strong criticism of city government raising some eyebrows among voters at the time. [4:30] Three months later, Pratt is being backed by donors like Lakers owner Jeannie Buss, [4:34] and some experts say Pratt's debate performance has positioned him as a more serious candidate than some might have expected. [4:39] I think as a winner to some extent, Spencer Pratt did present himself. [4:44] He came across very early as authentic. [4:48] Our online unscientific survey showed viewers named Pratt the winner after the mayoral debate. [4:52] His supporters in Pacific Palisades saying he's the best candidate to take on issues like homelessness and public safety. [4:58] Something's had to change, and that does not mean that's a Democrat or Republican issue. [5:03] It is a human issue, and I think that's what Spencer's really driving home. [5:06] But some experts say to take City Hall, Pratt will have to win over voters outside his base on the west side. [5:12] He certainly didn't speak to the east side of the city, the south side of the city, [5:16] and I would even say the majority of the valley, from my perspective. [5:19] Today, NBC4 went to Boyle Heights, asking voters how they feel about Pratt as a candidate. [5:24] Do you know anything about him? [5:25] No, I don't. I really, I don't. [5:27] I really, I haven't really heard much about him. [5:30] The reality star. [5:31] That's about it? [5:32] That's about it. [5:33] Long way to go until election day. [5:37] Now, we reached out to the Pratt campaign today to ask, as mayor, [5:40] what would be his plan to support communities in east L.A. and in south L.A.? [5:44] We are waiting to hear back. [5:45] From the Hollywood Hills, Kenan Willard, NBC4 News. [5:49] All right, Conan didn't go anywhere. [5:51] He's still here with us. [5:52] The fact that he's not known outside the Palisades, [5:55] could the same be said, other than Mayor Bass, for Nithya Raman? [5:59] You could. [6:02] I mean, Nithya Raman is engaged a little bit more [6:04] because she's in a second term as a member of the city council. [6:08] But, yeah, keep in mind that anybody who wins the job of mayor of Los Angeles has to build a coalition. [6:17] You have to go to, and Kenan kind of pointed to it, various parts of the city. [6:21] There are different constituencies who have different problems, and they have different expectations. [6:27] And Karen Bass has been very good at that. [6:30] She certainly was in the first campaign against Rick Caruso. [6:33] And she has been able to navigate that. [6:35] I mean, she had a legislative district in south Los Angeles and an assembly district there as well. [6:41] But she's somebody who knows all these players and knows the labor unions and knows some of the environmental groups [6:48] and some of the advocacy groups that play a sizable role in city politics. [6:54] And so that's why having experience is so important in winning a race for this job. [6:59] Now, Spencer Pratt, he came across very articulate. [7:04] He has a passionate support base. [7:07] And there is a grievance element to all this. [7:11] And justifiably, you know, he lost his home. [7:13] He saw 7,000 homes destroyed. [7:15] And on top of that, people like Jeannie Buss have been talking, the owner of the Lakers, [7:20] been talking about how they see a degradation of the city, the graffiti, the homelessness, the closing of businesses. [7:27] Specifically the downtown area. [7:28] Specifically downtown, right next to Staples. [7:31] I mean, you can see, I think, the graffiti tower from where the Lakers play their home game. [7:34] So that has built on top of this. [7:38] Whether or not, though, he can speak to those other groups or his campaign has reached out to them, [7:43] yeah, he's got a heavy social media presence. [7:46] But that doesn't reach everybody in this city, not by a long shot. [7:50] And so, remember, running for office is easier than governing. [7:54] And so he has to prove that he's at least capable of reaching out to neighborhoods [8:00] that normally somebody from the west side, you know, has a difficult time talking to. [8:04] When we look at the governor's race, going back to that one or that debate, [8:08] which candidates stood out the most to you of really perhaps making a difference last year? [8:12] Well, you know, so we knew that Antonio Viragosa was going to throw the long pass [8:17] because he's in single digits. [8:18] This is, you know, he's running out of time. [8:20] They all are, frankly. [8:21] I thought Matt Mahan tried to be the adult in the room, the mayor of San Jose, [8:28] the only one really who is in office right now. [8:32] Everybody else is a former or never been. [8:34] And I think Steve Hilton, as the lead Republican, all he has to do is show up. [8:41] He's probably going to win one of the slots because there's certainly enough Republicans [8:44] are going to rally around him. [8:46] Chad Bianco, the Riverside County Sheriff, is trying to eat into that support, [8:49] but I'm not quite sure he's going to make it. [8:51] So everybody on that dais that's a Democrat, they're looking for the number two slot [8:56] because in California, with the voting registration favorability that the Democrats have, [9:04] it's highly unlikely a Republican is going to get elected. [9:07] So if you get that number two slot in June, you're pretty much guaranteed the election in November. [9:12] How many are still undecided? [9:14] Because as you point out, the ballots are already out there. [9:17] Some people have already filled out their mail-in ballots and sent them off. [9:20] Right. A lot of people, when they get this late in the race and they're undecided, [9:24] they just won't vote. They just won't get to it. [9:27] But some of the polling that we've seen indicates the undecideds have dropped considerably. [9:33] And so, you know, for someone like Mayor Villaraigosa, for him to really enter the race, [9:38] he would like 80% of the undecideds. Unlikely that's going to happen. [9:43] But I think right now, the odds on favorite, the establishment candidate is Javier Becerra, [9:49] the guy with the experience. I don't know how well he, he didn't, he didn't blow anybody away in [9:54] that debate, but you didn't have to. You just had to survive. [9:57] And he has the union backing as well. [9:58] He has the union backing. He has the backing of the establishment party. [10:01] I have to remember, when Eric Swalwell left, the party needed to find, the establishment party, [10:06] certain labor unions, the Democratic establishment, they needed to find somebody, [10:10] and they found him. [10:12] All right, Conan, thank you. [10:13] My pleasure. [10:14] And if you missed the debates last night, you'll find both of them posted on the NBCLA YouTube page.