Caught: LA Mayor Uses Fake Poll

In Los Angeles, California, current mayor Karen Bass is running for re-election against activist and LA city councilmember Nitia Raman. As a means to bolster her support, Mayor Bass had touted a specific poll that showed her surging against Raman. In fact, in a now-deleted post, Bass reportedly praised the specious poll, writing, “Doing the work, showing up, and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!”

The problem, it now turns out, is that the poll was completely fake. The company that put it out, Medium Strategies, admitted it was a fabrication. They have since shut down, but they claimed they were doing what they called a “social experiment.”

As Fox News reported:

A polling outfit that admitted surveys it released on the Los Angeles mayor's race and the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Wisconsin were fake is now out of business.

Median Strategies, the company that released polls indicating Democratic Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles and Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong leading their rivals by wide margins, announced this week that the surveys were a hoax and that it has closed its doors.

The fabricated polls by Median Strategies entered the political information ecosystem and were reported on social media, by some local TV newscasts and by online reporting outlets.

"Median Strategies was created as a short-term social experiment to examine how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification," the company posted on its website. "Median Strategies has concluded its polling project and will not publish additional polls."

The Bass campaign has since commented, stating: “Any bad faith attempts to influence elections should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

And if that weren’t enough, Mayor Bass had another publicity stunt turned viral gaffe, trying to produce a video showing her tackling an issue plaguing the city that did not go as planned.

As reported by the New York Post:

Karen Bass’s wannabe viral pothole moment—à la Zohran Mamdani—went bust.

The Los Angeles mayor tried to recreate the viral pothole moment of New York City’s socialist mayor after Emmy-nominated journalist and comedy creator Simone Boyce spotted a pothole at Melrose and Gardner Street and asked Bass to ‘Mamdani’ it.

Bass eagerly took the bait, quipping on X, “Simone Boyce we got you!”

Mamdani became a viral sensation over a similar situation when a resident tagged him in a TikTok about local potholes, prompting NYC crews to make a same-day repair.

The Boyce set-up for Bass was almost too perfect for social media.

Boyce found the pothole, Bass promised to fix it and LA city crews rolled in — eager to fill the nuisance.

Instead, they discovered a parked car sitting squarely on the pothole they came to fix.

“So we couldn’t repair the pothole,” Bass said in a video posted to social media. “So you know what we did? We put up no parking signs so that hopefully there won’t be anybody parked here tomorrow morning.”

But her campaign still released the video as if she’d successfully addressed the problem.

Special Presidential Envoy Ric Grenell joined the broadcast yesterday and laid into the issue of LA's terrible potholes. One of the most basic roles of local government is making sure the roads are paved and safe.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more discussion of the disastrous week for the Karen Bass’ reelection campaign. We also covered Tuesday’s Florida primary and the electoral losses suffered by antisemitic candidates.

Watch the full broadcast below: