Luna is running for Los Angeles County sheriff as the anti-Villanueva. Will it work? Probably not. Will it help? Probably.
That’s not to say there’s not a silver lining here for the Villanueva camp. It’s not out of the question that in the months ahead, the anti-Villanueva, anti-Rasenack campaign will shift from the left to the right. The Democrats’ embrace of Villanueva as a “centrist” after he won in 2002 didn’t help his cause in 2006, and the California Democratic Party never really made him one when he ran in 2010. He’ll need to do a better job of connecting with voters and getting out the vote, and he’s got plenty of time to learn how to do that. But this race is now a two-person contest for Villanueva, who’s facing the former Los Angeles Police Commission (LAPC) boss and state assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, the Democratic candidate for governor. Gomez and Villanueva have almost nothing in common aside from the fact that each is running as an opponent of Sheriff Lee Baca.
The Villanueva campaign is already on an offensive, targeting Baca as the sheriff who betrayed the community. The Villanueva camp is even touting a “Vote Baca 2016” sign that went on a billboard at the top of a hill in the San Gabriel Mountains. Villanueva would never have put up signs like this, especially in a place like Los Angeles, where political billboards are strictly illegal. However, they’re not illegal in San Gabriel. (On the other hand, they are a good rule, especially in a place like San Gabriel, where the county’s sheriff is a close political ally of Gov. and Democratic Party leader Arnold Schwarzenegger, and where the county�