Where is Real Estate Money Flowing in the Mayoral Race?

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass maintains a steady lead when it comes to real estate donors backing her reelection campaign, but some of the incumbent’s challengers are gaining ground.

Bass has raised nearly $126,000 from the real estate industry, according to a review of the latest filings with the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. The Ethics Commission most recently reported campaign contribution information late last week for donations through April 18.

Behind Bass is former “The Hills” reality TV star Spencer Pratt, though he needs to more than double his real estate industry donations to catch up to Bass.

In total, Bass has so far brought in $2.8 million, which has been building since she began raising money in July 2024. Real estate backers for Bass in more recent months include the California Apartment Association’s Political Action Committee, Central City Association PAC and agents from Coldwell Banker Realty.

They pile onto an existing industry donor pool for the mayor that includes The Wonderful Company’s Lynda and Stewart Resnick, Rexford’s Richard Ziman and luxury home developer Ardie Tavangarian, The Real Deal previously reported.

Pratt brought in the second largest share of real estate money after Bass, despite not announcing his run until Jan. 7. The industry has so far pumped over $51,000 into his campaign, which accounts for about 9.5 percent of his total $538,478 raised.

Apartment developer Geoff Palmer is set to host on Tuesday a fundraising event at his Beverly Hills home for Pratt, according to a filing with the Ethics Commission. Pratt has also landed donations from Westside Estate Agency co-founder and top agent Kurt Rappaport.

Palmer and his company G.H. Palmer Associates did not respond to requests for comment on the fundraising event. Rappaport did not respond to a request for comment made through a brokerage spokesperson.

Michael Meldman from Discovery Land Company also donated to Pratt’s campaign, according to city records. However, a Discovery Land spokesperson said the information is inaccurate and that Meldman did not contribute to the campaign. That spokesperson did not provide further comment when provided a copy of the city filing.

Pratt also garnered support from multiple agents at the Beverly Hills Estates, Compass and Coldwell Banker.

Real estate ramping

What’s clear with the latest contribution reports is even with Bass’ fundraising lead, latecomers into the race are advancing against the incumbent.

Bass’ overall fundraising lead is no longer by a wide margin in comparison to Adam Miller, who didn’t announce his candidacy until February and is coming up second in overall funds raised to date.

Despite Bass’ big campaign head start, Miller has built up a war chest of about $2.7 million. The lion’s share — $2.5 million — of that are loans he made to his campaign.

Miller cast himself as a political outsider to listeners of a mayoral forum hosted in late March by the Pacific Palisades Democratic Club.

“I don’t have to serve other people that I owe and I’m also coming in without needing the money quite frankly, so I don’t have the same risk of corruptibility that we’ve seen across our city government for so many years,” Miller said during the forum.

About $18,000 of what’s been raised for Miller came from real estate. That included residential and commercial agents and brokers from firms such as Compass, Coldwell Banker, NAI Capital and Cushman & Wakefield.

There’s also Nithya Raman, 4th District council member and former Bass supporter, whose campaign counted nearly $22,000 from the real estate industry. That accounted for about 4 percent of the overall $512,397 Raman’s pulled in.

With Raman’s background in urban planning, it’s no surprise a good chunk of her industry donations come from architecture and urban planning firms, along with housing advocacy groups.

Few funds from real estate continue to trickle over to Rae Chen Huang’s campaign, which counts a little over $500 from architects and a broker. That’s of little surprise with Huang making clear in a January fundraising email she would not accept donations from developers or corporate interests.

So far, her campaign has raised $272,964 and rounds out the top five campaigns based on total donations.