Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva is back in the political arena, this time as a candidate against two-term L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn.
The combative ex-sheriff, who lost his bid for reelection in November to former Long Beach Police Department Chief Robert Luna 61.3% to 38.7%, announced his campaign on Wednesday, Sept. 13, taking shots at Hahn and other political targets during a press conference in Whittier.
Villanueva also called for the defeat or removal of other elected county officials, including Sheriff Luna, District Attorney George Gascon and other county supervisors running for reelection.
“We are going to take control of county government and make it work for you. It is as simple as that,” Villanueva said, standing in front of a backdrop that read “Save LA 2024.”
According to some political campaign experts in L.A. County, it will not be easy for Villanueva to overtake Hahn, a legacy candidate whose father was a county supervisor from 1952 to 1992 and who the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration is named after.
The first test comes at the primary election on March 5, 2024.
Villanueva supporter Gil Carrillo, who retired from the Sheriff’s Department after serving 38 years, stood alongside Villanueva at a Whittier-area restaurant and said, “The county is broken and we need some help. It’s time for new energy inside the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.”
Hahn’s campaign consultant, David Jacobson, called Villanueva “the Donald Trump of Los Angeles County,” and said county voters, including those in Hahn’s Fourth District, “resoundingly rejected” his attempt to stay on as sheriff due to his “incompetence and corruption.”
Villanueva focused the majority of his hour-long press conference on crime, saying smash-and-grab robberies have become the norm. He criticized the Sheriff’s Department’s response to a robbery last month at a Nike store in East Los Angeles. He said Gascon is to…
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