Spencer Pratt Falls Short
Plus: the Karmelo Anthony murder conviction and an interview with Scott Greer on the state of the Right
On Election Night, I fairly certain that Spencer Pratt would make it into the runoff in the Los Angeles mayoral race, although I did add the caveat that while it appeared likely, it was not a foregone conclusion. There was always the possibility that the late votes would come in in a way that was unfavorable to Pratt—the only right-of-center candidate in the race. Lo and behold, that is exactly what happened. Pratt has now been knocked out of the race, so incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, a former communist revolutionary organizer, will advance to the general election against the socialist, anti-police city councilwoman Nitya Raman.
Calling the outcome disappointing doesn’t do it justice; many on the Right, myself included, expected Pratt to advance to the general election against Bass and spend the next several months laying out the stark choice facing Angelenos: chaos or order, drug-ridden homeless encampments or law enforcement, strong policing or rampant crime. So, when the result became clear, the narrative on the Right immediately went to election fraud. In particular, there were claims—backed up by some interviews with homeless people—that left-wing activists and nonprofits were harvesting votes from Skid Row.
Seeing all of this in the discourse, this week I sent one of our City Journal reporters out to Skid Row to ask people precisely that question: Have you seen activists come through? Have they offered you money? Have you seen any evidence of vote-buying or vote-harvesting schemes?
