Sheriff Alex Villanueva Trails Challenger Robert Luna, Poll Shows

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva's bid for a second term will come to a head Tuesday when he 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, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva was behind in the polls, trailing challenger Robert Luna, retired Long Beach Police Department Chief.

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.

Over the past century, only one incumbent sheriff in the county has lost a re-election bid. That was four years ago, when Villanueva achieved a stunning upset of Sheriff Jim McDonnell, riding to an election victory with strong backing from reform-minded community groups and Democrats.

But over the past four years, Villanueva's support among those groups has waned as he repeatedly clashed with the Democrat-dominated Board of Supervisors over funding and policy matters, fought back against claims of "deputy gangs" within the agency, defied subpoenas to appear before the Civilian Oversight Commission and refused to enforce the county's COVID-19 vaccination mandate among his deputies and department employees.

He has openly criticized "progressive" policies and politicians, most notably District Attorney George Gascón, and assailed movements to "defund" law enforcement agencies.

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

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.