Thirty years serving the people of LA County is a lot of experience. I think Sherriff Elect Villanueva will do a great job.
November 26, 2018
By Maya Lau
...Villanueva, (click here) who served in the Sheriff’s Department for three decades, won despite his lack of experience at the upper levels of law enforcement. His campaign launch, on a grassy slope outside the sheriff’s East Los Angeles station last year, was sparsely attended.
He said he was discriminated against when he tried ascending the ranks, having passed the lieutenant’s test four times before being promoted.
“No matter how hard I worked, how much schooling I got, every door was shut,” he said recently. “So I figured, well, there’s one door that’s always open, and that’s [the sheriff’s] office. That’s the one job they forgot to safeguard against.”
Even as he gained momentum, he was out-fundraised by McDonnell 8 to 1.
But the dark horse candidate used the county’s political mood to his advantage, experts said, trumpeting his status as a Democrat and claiming he would be the first Democratic sheriff in the county in 138 years. That message in the nonpartisan race was advertised on social media and direct mailers to voters....
