that annual index,<\/a> produced by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in partnership with the California Community Foundation, was 48%, up from 37% in 2023. His unfavorability, meanwhile, has stayed steady between 21% and 26% throughout his relatively scandal-free tenure as sheriff.<\/p>\nLuna\u2019s biggest base of support, the study found, was among Latinos, 55% of whom reported a favorable view of him, versus just 39% of whites.<\/p>\n
Luna worked for the Long Beach Police Department for 36 years, including a seven-year stint as its first Latino chief, before winning election to helm the nation\u2019s largest sheriff\u2019s department in 2022.<\/p>\n
In an interview, Luna said his track record demonstrates why he\u2019s the best choice for sheriff. Since Luna took office, he noted, violent crime has fallen every year and he has brought homicides down by 25%. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo one running even comes close to me in my experience for leadership, management running two large departments,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then my accomplishments \u2014 no one can even hold a candle to those.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Luna aims to show that he has been an effective leader, Villanueva tells a far different story. In an interview, Villanueva painted a picture of a Sheriff\u2019s Department in severe decline.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779964688_14_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva arrives to testify about deputy gangs before the county\u2019s Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission in 2024. <\/p>\n
(Irfan Khan \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Villanueva said the department has thousands of vacancies that Luna is struggling to fill because of his \u201ctoxic leadership\u201d as sheriff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sheriff\u2019s Department is in a tailspin,\u201d the former sheriff said. \u201cIt\u2019s collapsing right before our eyes and the establishment wants to pretend everything is OK, but it\u2019s in total chaos and dysfunction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luna defended his recruitment and retention record and said the department is operating far more smoothly today than it ever did under Villanueva. <\/p>\n
His campaign provided Sheriff\u2019s Department statistics that showed the department \u2014 which employs nearly 18,000 people \u2014 made 1,017 sworn hires under Luna from 2023 to 2025, 201 fewer than it made under Villanueva from 2020 to 2022. <\/p>\n
But that gap was counterbalanced, according to the data, by the fact that the department lost 204 more sworn employees to attrition under Villanueva than it did under Luna over the same periods.<\/p>\n
Although \u201cevery large agency in the United States is struggling with retention,\u201d Luna said, Villanueva is \u201csaying all these people didn\u2019t want to come or wanted to leave. That is not factual and the numbers prove that.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"L.A.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779964688_175_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Then-L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva speaks at a news conference in 2022.<\/p>\n
(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Villanueva also called Luna \u201ca puppet\u201d of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. \u201cHe\u2019s just part of the far-left agenda of the board,\u201d the former sheriff added. \u201cHe\u2019s not a law-and-order sheriff who\u2019s going to enhance public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luna said he has a \u201cvery good relationship with the board.\u201d That relationship, he said, has allowed for better cooperation with the county than under Villanueva \u2014 who lost a bid for Supervisor Janice Hahn\u2019s seat in 2024 and whose interactions with the supervisors were often combative \u2014 when he was sheriff. <\/p>\n
All five supervisors have endorsed Luna\u2019s candidacy, along with the L.A. County Chief Police Chiefs Assn., the L.A. County Federation of Labor, and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).<\/p>\n
This month, Luna picked up the endorsement of one of two unions for members of the Sheriff\u2019s Department, the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, or ALADS, which lauded Luna\u2019s \u201cprofessionalism, integrity and commitment.\u201d In 2022, the union endorsed Villanueva.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey appreciate the fact that I\u2019m taking the department in a different way, the accountability, the responsibility,\u201d Luna said of ALADs. \u201cThey\u2019re not getting their asses handed to them every day in the media, like they were under Alex.\u201d<\/p>\n
This cycle, Villanueva\u2019s list of public endorsements is not as deep as it was four years ago. But it includes the L.A. County Republican Party, the Los Angeles School Police Assn. and more than a dozen members of the state Assembly, mayors and members of multiple city councils.<\/p>\n
Capt. Mike Bornman, who has decades of experience at the Sheriff\u2019s Department he is now vying to run, said \u201cthis campaign has always been about restoring confidence in the Sheriff\u2019s Department and putting public safety first. I continue to believe that voters are looking for experienced, steady leadership that is focused on results, accountability, and safer communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luna\u2019s campaign spent about $515,000 from April 19 to May 16, far outstripping those of his challengers, records show. Luna\u2019s campaign reported in its May 16 campaign finance filing that it raised more than $103,000 over the period and that he still had more than $326,000 available to spend in the campaign\u2019s home stretch.<\/p>\n
At less than $91,000, Villanueva\u2019s campaign raised the second-most money this year, about $18,000 of which came in from April 19 to May 16, when there was about $103,000 left in the former sheriff\u2019s war chest.<\/p>\n
The campaign for Eric White, a Compton-raised detective with about 12 years\u2019 experience at the department, reported raising about $19,000 in that same period, the second-most of all the candidates, according to its filing. That left his campaign with about $7,500 after spending almost $22,000 during the period.<\/p>\n
The other challengers struggled to raise money during that period. <\/p>\n
Strong brought in about $2,300 and spent less than $16,000, leaving him with around $19,000. Brendan Corbett, who was assistant sheriff for custody operations under Villanueva, brought in $1,000 and spent about $1,300 in that same period, when his campaign reported that it had about $32,000 on hand.<\/p>\n
Bornman\u2019s campaign brought in about $1,900 and spent $2,900 in the period, leaving him with more than $13,000 to spend. <\/p>\n
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Oscar Martinez, who has worked in the Sheriff\u2019s Department after fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, reported having less than $5,500 left on May 16. His campaign spent about $500 and brought in less than $50 from April 19 to then.<\/p>\n
Sgt. Karla Carranza, who has worked for the department for more than two decades and also ran for sheriff in 2022, reported having about $600 on hand on April 19. Her campaign did not appear to have filed a report for the May 16 filing period, according to L.A. County campaign finance records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna unseated his predecessor Alex Villanueva in a hard-fought campaign four years ago.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[20675,13540,6246,138687,9576,37835,138688,1520,48,52,51,47,50,49,2302,2324,592,73547,127762,138686,72],"class_list":["post-335765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-april","tag-candidate","tag-department","tag-ex-sheriff-villanueva","tag-experience","tag-former-sheriff","tag-hard-fought-campaign","tag-interview","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-may","tag-member","tag-people","tag-primary","tag-same-period","tag-sheriff-luna","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"LA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779964687_861_.jpeg\")
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna with reporters last year after three people were killed in an explosion at the Sheriff Department\u2019s Biscailuz<\/a> Center Training Academy. <\/p>\n