A lot of people want to see Alex Villanueva fail.

Progressive activists, local TV news stations, billionaire heiress Nika Soon-Shiong, some WeHo City Councilmembers, a sizeable portion of L.A. County voters and its entire Board of Supervisors — all of them would love to see the controversial sheriff lose his re-election race in November.

They supported him on his road to becoming the first Democrat and the first Latino in 138 years to hold the position. In 2018, he rode in as a dark horse candidate to unseat Sheriff Jim McDonnell, a former Republican, despite being outspent 8 to 1. 

It was a historic victory, and the establishment was pleased with their new prized pony. But Villanueva slipped his reins. He ended up being more moderate than they thought he would be. More critical. Less obedient. Upon taking office, he re-hired a slew of deputies fired by his predecessor, and gutted the bloated executive ranks of the department. 

When he was rebuked by the Board of Supervisors, he thumbed his nose at them. When they wanted him to enforce a countywide mask mandate during the pandemic, he refused. And so, the coalition that delivered him to the top job turned their guns on him.

Villanueva is L.A.’s last lone ranger, stubborn but unbending, always in the line of fire. He’s diversified the department, reduced costs, cleaned up homeless encampments, kicked ICE out of the county jails and brought a renewed sense of morale to the department — but his curt style and combative nature have turned former allies into enemies.

And now they’ve got a new horse in the race. Enter Robert Luna, a 36-year veteran of law enforcement and former chief of the Long Beach Police Department. The biggest contrast between the two is temperament. Luna is low-key and chummy; Villanueva is stern and no-nonsense. Luna is diplomatic; Villanueva isn’t afraid of confrontation.

While Luna’s qualities might make for an ideal School Board or City Council member, a sheriff’s job isn’t to make friends. In the midst of rising crime and public unease over movements to defund the police, we need a fighter like Villanueva in charge of keeping us safe now more than ever. 

We also need him to keep standing up to the Board of Supervisors, who want voters to give them the unilateral power to remove the sheriff if they deem it necessary.

The board is already too powerful, and the sheriff is one of the few county leaders not beholden to them. If Luna were sheriff, would he dare investigate Supervisor Sheila Kuehl and the allegations of bribery and corruption she’s facing? Not a chance. 

We cannot hand the powers that be a sheriff who will kow-tow, capitulate and grovel before them. The establishment needs a constant reminder that it’s not about what they want — it’s about what we, the voters, want.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva is the hard-ass, tough-talking straight shooter we need in this day and age to keep crime at bay and put power-hungry government and party officials in their place. He has our back. Now, we need to have his.  3 17 votes Article Rating

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Too late, this article won’t influence the outcome. Polls already show a shift to Luna. Villanueva is a terrific politician, excellent on-camera. How has he been as Sheriff? Hmm, that’s hard to fathom amidst all the grandstanding. He actually did something about the homeless in Venice, yea … but that was all for show to poke his finger in the eye of local elected officials there … of course those dirty, crazy, dangerous homeless are back in Venice and where is Villanueva now?

the sheriffs department needs updating They are the worst organization

All it takes to want to support the Sheriff is to work in East Hollywood.

He’s a no nonsense Sheriff. The kind that’s best for LA County. Especially now that we’re getting a glimpse into what political hacks sound like when behind close doors.

During the 2020 Riots, there’s a reason why LA businesses were burned/looted and WeHo business were largely unscathed. Sheriff Villaneuva mandated LASD Deputies to protect residents and businesses from arson and vandalism. (Notably LAPD command took a different approach, and we saw what happened on Melrose and Fairfax.)

West Hollywood was targeted by BLM/Antifa groups, and Villaneuva provided resources to make sure we were protected.

Not to take anything away from our local Sheriff’s station, but our former City Manger, Paul Arevelo, made some astute moves to protect the Strip, Boys Town and the Design District, including using massive metal cargo containers to limit access to those areas. There was in fact a very proactive relationship between the Department and the City Manager that protected West Hollywood from potentially destructive actors.

Those Metal Dumpsters that where placed at some of the intersectons in WEHO where a joke. They wouldn’t have limited access to any areas. A slight turn left or right on any side street would have gave rioters access to anywhere in WEHO they wanted to go. How much city money did Paul waste renting them? Astute ?No Just a nother clueless city offical.

That’s nothing special – that’s his job!

“Sheriff Alex Villanueva is the hard-ass, tough-talking straight shooter we need in this day and age to keep crime at bay and put power-hungry government and party officials in their place. He has our back. Now, we need to have his.” WHAT PLANET AM I ON??? I don’t even know where to start. “keep crime at bay”????? Do you know that HE has been sheriff through this entire crime wave? The “I’m not going to enforce the mask mandate and better yet, I’m not even going to enforce it on my deputies. Putting the citizens of West Hollywood’s health at…  Read more »

Villanueva is a total Trump acolyte, no thanks. Voting for Luna ☑️

ESTABLISHMENT: A group or class of people having institutional authority within a society. Especially those who control the civil service, the government, the armed forces & the church, mostly always identified as conservative. (This according to Mr. Webster, who always gets it right) Sheriff Alex Villanueva is definitely part of the establishment.

We’re voting him out. Goodbye and good riddance to another trump wanna be

Right on. The Board of Supervisors are a collection of totally incompetent women. With that old aging former actress dictating how we should live in LA. Thank the sky Gods she’s history, so is Horvath and too bad Sepi Shyne and John Erickson can’t get a job with Gov Nuisance.

That makes as much sense as “Hen For KFC”

Brandon, I agree with everything that you said in this piece. This is NOT the time for groveling & pandering to the power of the Supervisors or the elites that are power hungry for more control! Crime is at it’s all-time highest that I have ever seen here in the 20 years of my residence & yes, we need a hard-ass like a Walker-Texas Ranger to pummel down this crime & these criminals that are running amok! Crime is so insanely high that it makes me want to get locked & loaded just to protect myself!

This man is a disgrace to the whole system of so-called “justice”. He refuses to cooperate with anyone & is very Trump-ish in ego & unwillingness to ever admit he got it wrong. He threatens people who disagree with him, is very vindictive & hypocritical, he tries to hide the crimes of crooked sheriffs & denies that a dangerous group of sheriff gang members fully function within his organization, which everyone knows they do. He lies to other law enforcement people & investigators, then refuses to discuss it anymore. He thinks he’s god & answerable to absolutely no one but…  Read more »