Sheriff Alex Villanueva On The Ropes As Robert Luna Takes Wide Lead

LOS ANGELES, CA — Challenger Robert Luna jumped out to an early lead ahead of the incumbent, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva Tuesday night.

In early returns, Luna garnered 58.51 percent of the vote compared to Villanueva's 41.49 percent shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday.

The sheriff expressed confidence, however, that he would make up the deficit from early balloting as vote counting continued over the coming week.

"Let's see what the vote says," he told KCAL9 at his Monterey Park election night party. "... I think people just want to see the things that matter to them addressed — homelessness and violent crime."

Luna, speaking to his supporters in Long Beach Tuesday night, noted that the vote-counting will take a long time, but said he feels good about the direction of the numbers.

"As I have met so many people throughout this great county, there was one thing that was very obvious to me ... people were talking about the need for change," Luna said.

He said that as sheriff, he will be "accountable at the end of the day," and will work to ensure "integrity" in the department.

Villanueva was the underdog in the race to helm the nation's largest sheriff's department for the next four years. He could still close the gap despite Luna's early lead, and the outcome of the race may not be known for days.

Tally updates will then continue throughout the night.

Villanueva could become the county’s first Sheriff’s candidate to unseat an incumbent only to be unseated by a challenger four years later.

With less than a week left in the race, Villanueva was behind in the polls, trailing challenger Robert Luna, retired Long Beach Police Department Chief.

The pair ran a spirited campaign, with Luna attacking the incumbent over his torrid relationship with the county Board of Supervisors and accusing him of ignoring the issue of deputy gangs within the department. Villanueva has deflected such criticism, saying his battles with the board show he is a fierce defender of the department and its deputies, and insisting that he has gone to great lengths to attack and ban alleged deputy cliques in the agency.

According to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll released Friday and sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, 40 percent of likely voters said they had already voted for Luna compared to 32 percent who said they favored Villanueva.

In the June primary, Villanueva and Luna topped the nine-person field of candidates, leading to Tuesday’s runoff.

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Those stances, however, have helped solidify his support among many of those working for him, exemplified by his endorsement by the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs.

"Mr. Luna, the Civilian Oversight Commission, the Board of Supervisors, they cannot wrap their minds around the idea that (on) my very first day in office, I removed the East L.A. station captain from his command because I had doubts about his ability to lead," Villanueva said last week, responding to Luna's latest allegation of inaction on the deputy gang issue.

The sheriff said four deputies were also fired from the East L.A. station over their actions at a much-publicized fight during a deputy gathering at Kennedy Hall. He also said he implemented the department's first-ever policy barring "outlaw groups," codified it in training materials and sponsored legislation to extend the policy statewide.

"There is nothing legally we can do left," Villanueva said. "We can't line up people, strip them down and fire people with tattoos, as some people have literally suggested. So when my opponent falsely asserts that nothing has been done, he's just repeating the narrative politically driven by the Oversight Commission that works for the board."

Luna insisted last week that deputy gangs remain an issue, citing "men and women from the sheriff's department who have come forward, good men and women who want this rooted out."
"So how do employees feel about coming forward and reporting misconduct when they know you have a sheriff that's going to look the other way?" he asked. "That's been proven time and time again."

"I still have family who live here in East Los Angeles and just a couple of weeks ago, being in the East Los Angeles parade, how many people were stopping me and saying, `Chief, we need change here. There are gangs that are running this station. We need them out.'

"These are community members, and not just one or two, many of them. It's a problem. It needs to be fixed. We need change."

In a campaign statement, Villanueva's campaign insists he has worked to restore public trust in the sheriff's department, pointing to the rollout of body-worn cameras and boosting minimum requirements for new deputies. The campaign also boasts the agency is "the most diverse in the nation."

"In his next term, Sheriff Villanueva will work to reduce violent crime, compassionately clean up homeless encampments and hold public officials accountable for their actions," according to his campaign.

Speaking to his supporters on the primary election night, Villanueva said he is "focusing on what matters to people -- homelessness and violent crime."

He hasn’t been shy about casting the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors as corrupt.

"We're going to keep doing what we're doing, because it's the right thing to do," Villanueva said. "... My job is to keep the community safe. If that means I have to battle the Board of Supervisors, so be it."

Luna argued during the campaign that the sheriff's department is being "mismanaged" by Villanueva and said he will work to restore trust in the agency. He also touted his position as an outsider with no connections to the sheriff's department.

"Growing up in East Los Angeles, patrolled by the sheriff's department, opened my eyes to examples of both good and bad policing, and inspired my 36-year career in law enforcement," Luna said in a candidate statement.

He said he will work to "modernize" the sheriff's department and its jail system and improve the mental well-being of deputies and employees.

City News Service contributed to this report.