LA County sheriff candidates ride ‘anyone but Villanueva’ wave, but lack name recognition

LOS ANGELES — In some ways, the race for Los Angeles County sheriff is shaping up as a test of how many controversies voters will tolerate from incumbent Alex Villanueva.

His relationship with county leaders has hit new lows. The jails are in disarray. Allegations of a cover-up and retaliation hang over an incident in which a deputy knelt on the head of a handcuffed inmate.

Those recent missteps have created an opening for a crowded field trying to unseat the sheriff. If only the public knew who the other eight candidates are.

The controversies have kept Villanueva’s name in the news, and the polarizing sheriff has dominated social media sites such as Twitter. The terms “Villanueva” and “sheriff” were mentioned in more than 11,000 tweets over a seven-day period last week, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis. No other candidate was mentioned more than 200 times.

“It’s just unclear to us who the strongest candidate is, but it is very clear to us that the tone that the current sheriff takes and his conduct is not OK,” said April Verrett, president of SEIU Local 2015, which represents long-term care workers and has recently been more vocal on criminal justice issues.

With less than three weeks before the primary election, Villanueva’s opponents have