Spencer Pratt Lost the Election. City Hall May Have a Bigger Problem Now

Spencer Pratt lost Los Angeles' mayoral race, but he may have found a bigger target.

In an exclusive interview published Sunday by the New York Post, Pratt made clear that his campaign is over, but his fight with Los Angeles' political machine is just getting started. The reality television star-turned mayoral candidate said he feels "energized" after the election and intends to keep up the pressure on City Hall as questions surrounding the race continue to pile up.

Pratt narrowly missed advancing to the November runoff after District 4 Councilwoman Nithya Raman

 

surged past him on late-arriving mail ballots. For many of Pratt's supporters, the controversy did not end on election night.

It lit the fuse.

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Read More: It's About to Go Down: FBI Descends on LA Skid Row Over Potential Voter Fraud/Bribery of Homeless

'It's War': Spencer Pratt Says Campaign Is Over, but LA's Corrupt Machine Is Now in His Crosshairs

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Questions about ballot collection, voter registrations tied to homeless shelters, and voting activity connected to Los Angeles' Skid Row have kept the pressure on Los Angeles officials in the weeks since the election. 

Last week, the story reached the feds.

Federal agents were seen interviewing people on Skid Row after allegations surfaced that homeless residents had been paid to sign voter registration forms and provide voter information. The Department of Justice confirmed federal agents were investigating a criminal matter but declined further comment. No charges connected to the mayoral race have been announced, and the allegations remain unproven. 

If the allegations are substantiated, this is no longer just a Spencer Pratt story. It becomes a story about whether Los Angeles' election system can survive serious scrutiny.

Pratt told the Post that California's election system has become a major reason voters are losing confidence in the process.

"I feel energized. The California voting system is absurd, and it's making voters check out, because, right or wrong, they don't trust the system," Pratt said. "There is a lot of evidence of fraud that needs to be investigated, but evidence is not the same thing as proof, so we must avoid drawing conclusions until we have proof of malfeasance."

Pratt is not treating the election loss as an ending. He has spent the weeks since the election leaving campaign mode behind and turning himself into a full-time thorn in City Hall's side.

Earlier this month, he released a video declaring that he was moving on from the campaign phase of his effort to "save Los Angeles" and into what he described as a more interesting phase.  

Losing the race did not take Pratt off the board. It may have made him more dangerous to the people he was running against.

In the clip, Pratt explains why he believes losing the election may have removed some of the constraints that came with being a candidate.

"Hey morons. I didn't get in this for political power. I got in this to expose this corrupt machine. Nothing's changed. You enjoy your worthless meetings in City Hall. I've been lighting you up every single day and now I don't have to worry about offending CNN viewers. I don't have campaign laws hamstringing me now. It's war."

Pratt also suggested that information uncovered during the campaign could create serious problems for people currently operating inside Los Angeles politics.

"My goal hasn't changed. I've been laser-focused on stopping these commie animals, and I will stop them. If you think we uncovered a lot of fraud and evil in the campaign, just wait. We have some recordings of one of your exalted candidates doing and saying something that would make her resign in shame."

Whether anything ultimately comes from those claims remains to be seen, but it is not hard to understand why that kind of warning would make Los Angeles insiders nervous.

Pratt is not talking like someone who plans to disappear after an electoral defeat.

The Post asked him directly what comes next.

"I'll rest when I'm dead. We are at war with socialism and I will keep hammering these corrupt politicians and force them to meet the needs of us Angelenos. I'm not going anywhere."

That does not sound like a candidate preparing to fade quietly into the background.

For months, much of Los Angeles' political class treated Pratt as a novelty candidate. Then he pulled more than 200,000 votes, nearly forced his way into a runoff, and built a following that remains intensely engaged even after the election.

They mocked him. They underestimated him. Now they may have to deal with him without the limits of a campaign.

The election is over, but the questions surrounding it are not.

Neither, apparently, is Spencer Pratt.