Jon Vein, brother of the late Pacific Palisades wildfire recovery advocate Larry Vein, wrote a scathing letter warning Angelenos against voting for Spencer Pratt that has been shared around Hollywood since he posted it on Facebook.
Pratt was accused of cyber-bullying Larry Vein before his death by suicide in April at age 61. Vein had become one of the most visible community leaders in the aftermath of the fire, helping organize aid efforts and co-founding the Pali Strong initiative for displaced residents.
“To my Los Angeles friends: I implore you not to vote for Spencer Pratt,” Jon Vein wrote in the letter. “I say this both for personal reasons and for substantive concerns about his candidacy. On a personal level, Spencer Pratt publicly brutalized my brother Larry on social media.”
Larry Vein, a real estate broker whose home was damaged in the Palisades Fire, spent several months in the aftermath vigorously advocating for his community, becoming something of a folk hero to residents for his rapid resource-gathering and out-of-pocket support that led to the establishment of Pali Strong.
But in the months before his death, Vein had become embroiled in controversy surrounding FireAid funds distributed to Pali Strong, which received a $500,000 grant intended to support services for survivors. Questions about its distribution – to services instead of directly to victims – sparked scrutiny, and friends and associates said the controversy weighed heavily on Vein.
Pratt publicly questioned Vein’s role in recovery efforts, criticized aspects of the FireAid funding process and made unfounded allegations that Vein was a scammer – disputes that are well documented, despite Pratt’s deleting the attacks from his social media accounts. No direct connection between Pratt’s criticism and Vein’s suicide has been made.
Read the entire letter below:
“To my Los Angeles friends: I implore you not to vote for Spencer Pratt. I say this both for personal reasons and for substantive concerns about his candidacy.
On a personal level, Spencer Pratt publicly brutalized my brother Larry on social media. He spread falsehoods about him and targeted him purely to elevate himself online. He is a bully, and our family is considering possible actions to hold him accountable. As many of you know, Larry took his life a couple weeks ago.
From a substantive standpoint, I believe he is wholly unqualified to run a city the size of Los Angeles or oversee a $13 billion budget. This is someone who has publicly struggled with financial issues, traffics in conspiracy theories and hate, and has built a career around attention-seeking and controversy. His fame was built largely on provoking conflict, humiliating people, and creating outrage for entertainment and personal gain. That may work in reality television and social media culture, but it is not leadership, and it is certainly not qualification to run one of the largest and most complex cities in America.
He has promoted Alex Jones, whose conspiracies include claims that 9/11 was an inside job and that Sandy Hook was staged. He was arrested on gun charges in Costa Rica and, by his own admission, is not allowed to return. His sister has publicly alleged that he physically assaulted her badly enough to require hospitalization and that he introduced her to hard drugs. Whether every allegation is true or not, the overall pattern surrounding him is deeply troubling.
He and his wife have repeatedly turned their personal lives into public spectacle for attention and monetization. They have publicly admitted that they faked their divorce — their own words were that they never broke up “for one minute” — and did it purely for money and press attention. He also spread a false sexual rumor about his former co-star Lauren Conrad that had no basis in fact and that destroyed her friendship with Heidi. When confronted about it on camera, he admitted it. He then told a separate interviewer that he had only admitted it as a lie — to manipulate Lauren into attending his wedding. So he either deliberately spread a false sexual rumor about a woman, or he fabricated a confession to that rumor in order to manipulate her. There is no version of that story that reflects well on him. He sells crystals online, constantly reinvents himself through new grifts, and now appears to be using a mayoral campaign as the latest vehicle for relevance. Reports emerged that he signed a deal with a production company to film his campaign — and keep filming if he won. He denied it. Everything becomes content, monetization, performance, outrage, or self-promotion. That is not the mindset of a serious public servant.
There are also real questions about whether he is even eligible to be on the ballot. Candidates were required to be Los Angeles residents as of January 3, 2026. He has acknowledged his family has been living at his father’s house in Santa Barbara since the fire, and records show he listed that address as his mailing address. A law professor at Loyola Marymount raised the question publicly. The city clerk has not yet made a determination.
He also ran a campaign ad standing in front of a trailer at his burned Palisades lot, saying “This is where I live.” At the time, he had reportedly been staying at the Hotel Bel-Air for over a month. When that was reported, he said “I don’t live anywhere.” Make of that what you will.
During the Pacific Palisades fires, instead of constructively channeling legitimate public frustration, he lashed out indiscriminately at people across social media in ways that spread hostility and outrage. My brother was one of the targets of that behavior. Los Angeles is already a deeply stressed and divided city. The last thing we need is someone whose entire public identity revolves around amplifying anger, feeding division, and monetizing outrage rather than solving problems.
I’ve also spoken with people who knew him growing up, and the consistent description has been the same: a bully with very little substance behind the performance.
Los Angeles deserves serious leadership, real executive competence, emotional maturity, and people with actual governing experience. Running a major city during a housing crisis, public safety crisis, infrastructure challenges, budgetary pressures, and natural disasters is not performance art. It is not a reality show. It requires discipline, judgment, stability, temperament, and the ability to unify people rather than inflame them.
If voters are unhappy with the status quo, there are 13 other candidates running. I just hope people don’t channel understandable frustration into elevating someone so lacking in judgment, temperament, and qualifications just to tear the system down.
We have already seen what happens when a C-level reality personality, who cannot manage their finances, who has been arrested, and who uses hate and grievance to elevate himself, is elected to high office. It has not worked out nationally, and it will not work out locally.”
