Brother of Fire Activist Larry Vein Urges Los Angeles Not to Vote for Spencer Pratt

Jon Vein published an open letter on Facebook this week warning Los Angeles residents not to vote for Spencer Pratt, and the letter has circulated widely in Hollywood circles since its posting.

Jon Vein is the brother of Larry Vein, a Pacific Palisades wildfire recovery advocate who died by suicide in April at age 61. Larry Vein had become one of the most recognized community leaders in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire, helping organize aid efforts and co-founding the Pali Strong initiative for displaced residents. He was a real estate broker whose own home was damaged in the fire.

According to The Wrap, Pratt had publicly questioned Larry Vein's role in recovery efforts, made allegations that Vein was a scammer, and criticized aspects of the FireAid funding process. Pratt later deleted those posts from his social media accounts. No direct connection between Pratt's criticism and Larry Vein's suicide has been established.

"To my Los Angeles friends: I implore you not to vote for Spencer Pratt," Jon Vein wrote. "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."

The controversy around Larry Vein stemmed in part from a $500,000 FireAid grant that Pali Strong received. Questions arose about whether the money went to services rather than directly to victims. Friends and associates told The Wrap the scrutiny weighed heavily on Vein, who never personally received any of the funds.

In his letter, Jon Vein also addressed Pratt's qualifications as a candidate. "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" the country, the letter continued.

The letter did not specify what legal or other actions the family is considering.