Pratt voters could play pivotal role in deciding L.A.s next mayor

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Set us as preferred More than 300,000 Los Angeles voters who cast ballots for losing candidates in the mayoral primary are up for grabs in the Nov.3 runoff between Karen Bass and Nithya Raman, and their decisions could determine who will lead the city for the next four years.The biggest prize within that group is the nearly 218,000 Angelenos who voted for Spencer Pratt, a Republican who fared best in his home base of Pacific Palisades and the city’s more conservative neighborhoods — and who has continued to hurl jabs at both Bass and Raman from the sidelines.“The Pratt vote is of critical importance,” said Dan Schnur, a former Republican political consultant who now is a professor of political communications at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine.

“It might not have been enough votes for him to make it to the runoff, but in a close election his supporters could be determinative.”Bass and Raman — both Democrats — must make inroads with Pratt voters without putting off their base of liberals and progressives who are expected to be out in force for the midterm elections, Schnur and other analysts say.“You don’t want to have a message to Pratt voters where you might gain one vote and lose one, two or more votes from your base,” said Fernando Guerra, a professor of political science and Chicana/o Latina/o studies at Loyola Marymount University.To avoid alienating their core supporters, both the Bass and Raman campaigns could rely on outside spending groups and campaign surrogates — political allies who lean to the right of the candidates and thus can reach out to Pratt voters without setting off alarms.From Bass’ side, Pratt voters will be targeted by her most credible messenger to moderate and more conservative voters: the Police Protective League, the union representing rank-and-file Los Angeles Police Depa...