Former Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss appears to support The Hills alum Spencer Pratt as the next mayor of L.A.
Buss, 64, donated the maximum amount, $1,800, to Pratt’s mayoral campaign, according to a contribution report viewed by Us Weekly on Thursday, April 30. Us has reached out to Buss for comment.
The donation first came to light because of a user on X who goes by @UnrigLA. They showed a screenshot of the report in which Buss’ name and occupation (Executive, Los Angeles Lakers) are listed next to her donation amount.
Pratt, 42, is a Republican, and trails the incumbent Democrat Karen Bass by double digits according to an April 2026 poll. More than 40 percent of voters remain undecided, however, with just over a month to go before primary day.
@UnrigLA also pointed out that Johnny Buss, Jeanie’s brother, donated the maximum to Bass, 72.
“The divisions among the Buss family continue to hold, Johnny Buss has maxed out to the re-election of Karen Bass,” @UnrigLA claimed.
In-fighting between members of the Buss family is nothing new, coming to light in 2013 after the passing of family patriarch and Lakers majority owner Jerry Buss. Ownership passed into a trust shared by his six children, who were seemingly never able to agree on the direction of the franchise. After years of lawsuits, hirings and firings, the family sold its majority stake in the Lakers to businessman Mark Walter in October 2025.
“My siblings all wanting different things, making it very difficult to run the operation the way it needed to be and to compete,” Jeanie explained on the Wednesday, April 29 episode of Maria Sharapova’s “Pretty Tough” podcast.
Pratt announced he would seek the mayorship in January on the first anniversary of the Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and burned more than 6,800 homes near Pacific Palisades, California. He and his wife, Heidi Montag, lost their home in the fire and have become advocates for other victims.
“The system in Los Angeles isn’t struggling; it’s fundamentally broken,” Pratt said at the “They Let Us Burn” public demonstration where he announced his candidacy. “It is a machine designed to protect the people at the top and the friends they exchange favors with, while the rest of us drown in toxic smoke and ash. Business as usual is a death sentence for Los Angeles, and I’m done waiting for someone to take real action.”
He continued, “This just isn’t a campaign, this is a mission, and we’re gonna expose the system.”
While Pratt has the support of Jeanie, who remains governor of the Lakers, the same can’t be said for his own sister, Stephanie.
“Spencer has done great work for the Palisades. But LA does not need another unqualified and inexperienced mayor,” she wrote via X in February. “A vote for him is a vote for stupidity. He’s just trying to stay famous and sell his memoir don’t be fooled. In an ideal world, the Palisades would have their own mayor and police department. I would love [for] him to be mayor of [the] Palisades but not LA with 4 million people. I’d be impressed if a republican could turn LA democrats thb.”
