In cream khakis, grey Oakley sneakers and a sherbet-colored striped polo shirt, Alex Villanueva appeared extra like your uncle from Santa Clarita than the sheriff of Los Angeles County.
On the sunny Third Road Promenade in Santa Monica round noontime Saturday, he stood in entrance of a now-closed Mediterranean restaurant with a “Re-Elect Villanueva” banner hanging beneath a “For Lease” signal. A safety guard stood on the door.
L.A. County’s high lawman appeared relaxed, even joyful. After which he checked out me.
His marketing campaign had despatched out a press launch promoting a walk-and-talk about homelessness with residents and shopkeepers. It seemed like a repeat of what Villanueva did in June 2021, when he strutted by the Venice boardwalk in a cowboy hat and vowed powerful motion in a jurisdiction that wasn’t even his.
I anticipated the identical charade in Santa Monica, so I had dressed the rancho libertarian half. I wore my 501s, good leather-based sneakers, a pearl snap western shirt and the coup de grace: my wonderful cinto piteado full with arabesque designs and my full initials — GAM, for Gustavo Arellano Miranda — on the belt buckle.
For the final yr, Villanueva and I had dropped diss tracks on one another in public, on-line and in print. I figured a lunchtime stroll — the wannabe cowboy and the scribbling son of 1 — could be a becoming subsequent spherical.
“I’m going to observe you round right now,” I advised El Sheriff.
“How about that?” Villanueva replied, eyeing my ensemble. He then slunk again contained in the restaurant-turned-temporary marketing campaign headquarters.
These are determined instances for the incumbent. His opponent, retired Lengthy Seashore Police Chief Robert Luna, attended a “Ladies for Luna” occasion that very same afternoon in East Los Angeles that included neighborhood organizers and politicians who helped Villanueva pull off an upset in 2018.
An October ballot by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Research, co-sponsored by The Occasions, discovered 36% of probably voters favored Luna, whereas 26% needed Villanueva. Forty-four p.c seen the sheriff unfavorably.
On the Third Road Promenade, consumers barely cared. They paid extra consideration to the dinosaur-shaped bushes, to the large Día de los Muertos skeletons, to the couple dressed like Edward Scissorhands and Swamp Factor. One man did go inside Villanueva’s headquarters to seize a marketing campaign hat, then advised to his spouse — who had been shopping on the clothes store subsequent door — that they snap a fast picture with the person of the day.
“No,” she replied. They walked away.
Quickly after, Villanueva emitted a loud whistle. About 20 volunteers filed in. Some time later, a middle-aged Latina cornered me.
“Why do it’s important to say so many lies?” mentioned Michelle, who refused to present her final identify or the place she lived. After I requested for examples, she acknowledged that I had unfold “false detrimental propaganda” about Villanueva.
Like what?
“That he drinks the blood of youngsters,” Michelle replied.
Um, that’s the language Villanueva himself used to explain how the political institution views him.
Michelle went on and on extolling Villanueva’s supposed virtues, till I noticed what she was doing: The sheriff had escaped by a again alley and right into a getaway automotive.
Curses!
I hurried to my Yukon with a Occasions photographer and sped by Santa Monica’s Pico neighborhood, the place his marketing campaign spokesperson advised me Villanueva was going to canvass.
After a fruitless half-hour — think about “The Quick and Livid” meets “Mario Kart” — we returned to the Promenade, the place extra volunteers now waited for his or her man. Steps away, a busker performed “Can You Really feel the Love Tonight” on violin.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva interacts with individuals alongside the Third Road Promenade in Santa Monica.
(Kyusung Gong / For The Occasions)
The sheriff emerged with Tariq Ali and Chie Lunn on both facet of him. Ali is a safety guard in Venice who misplaced a finger final summer time after an attacker slashed him with a damaged vodka bottle. Lunn is a Venice resident and instructor on the Realm Inventive Academy in Santa Monica. She has publicly criticized L.A. Metropolis Councilmember Mike Bonin and different public officers over their dealing with of homeless individuals, whom she blamed for making it unsafe to take her college students to the seashore or on the Metro.
“After I yelled for assist, I couldn’t let you know who the sheriff was,” Lunn advised me. “Solely he and Decide [U.S. District Court Judge David O.] Carter listened. I get a complete lot of flak for being a Black girl who helps the sheriff. Nicely, I’m not a token for anybody.”
Right here, as in Venice, residents can vote within the Nov. 8 sheriff’s contest, however their streets are patrolled by metropolis law enforcement officials.
A hatless Villanueva and his supporters marched up after which down two blocks of the Promenade. If he was anticipating throngs to affix, that didn’t occur. Only some individuals went as much as greet him. A bunch of zillennials consuming mimosas applauded solely on the prompting of a volunteer. The warmest reception got here from Sandro Martin, co-owner of his household’s restaurant, Casa Martin.
“You had been right here a couple of month in the past!” he advised Villanueva. “That is your home.”
However the chumminess was considerably contrived: It turned out that Martin and Villanueva’s essential strategist, Javier Gonzalez, had grown up collectively in Santa Monica. Gonzalez even had a tattoo of the identify of Martin’s late cousin on his proper shoulder.
The rally led to entrance of a Día de los Muertos statue. The busking violinist’s playlist had turned somber. Villanueva mentioned nothing past his key speaking factors — that homelessness, violent crime and public corruption are destroying Los Angeles County, and solely he’s courageous sufficient to struggle again. There have been boos when somebody talked about L.A. mayoral candidate Karen Bass, and laughs when he trashed the L.A. Occasions.
That was my cue.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva poses for a photograph with individuals eating at a restaurant in Santa Monica
(Kyusung Gong / For The Occasions)
Surrounded by dozens of Villanueva followers, I requested how he anticipated to win with polls exhibiting him behind.
The relaxed Villanueva disappeared. The Villanueva everyone knows — a person who twists information like a pretzel maker and who retains vendettas on his thoughts always — returned.
“One ballot,” he mentioned, placing up his index finger, then pointing it at me. “Your ballot.”
Everybody laughed.
He didn’t trouble to say that there have really been two Berkeley/L.A. Occasions polls — and the proportion of probably voters who favored him shrank every time.
Villanueva went on to say that his marketing campaign did “a official ballot the place we really requested all the proper questions.” And wouldn’t you understand? He and Luna had been tied.
So how do you win? I repeated.
“We’re going to proceed doing what we’re doing,” he mentioned. “My opponent — first candidate in historical past [who] decides to run with no single plan to do something. His solely factor he says is on the homeless entrance: ‘It’s unacceptable.’ Oh, gee, thanks for that revelation.”
Earlier than I may level out that Luna way back revealed a multi-pronged technique on a spread of points, a supporter yelled, “He’s going to win as a result of we’re going to vote for it. That’s why.”
Everybody applauded.
Somebody requested if Villanueva and Luna had debated. “He’s operating away from me,” Villanueva mentioned. “He desires nothing to do with me on the stage with him.”
In actual fact, the candidates have appeared collectively or on-line at three major debates and at two neighborhood boards the place every had an opportunity to reply questions from moderators and the viewers.
Their solely one-on-one debate was such a non sequitur of a catastrophe — Villanueva insinuated Luna was a gang member and racist, recited all of the East L.A. faculties his spouse Vivian had attended, and answered a query in too-formal Spanish for causes identified solely to him — that nobody besides Villanueva has mourned the dearth of a repeat.
Retired Lengthy Seashore Police Chief Robert Luna, left, and Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva debate on the Skirball Cultural Heart in Los Angeles on Sept. 21.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)
The sheriff went on to insist that Luna would turn into a “corrupt politician” as a result of he has expressed curiosity in repairing the Sheriff’s Division’s relationship with, nicely, everybody.
“He’s actually born and raised in forms — a failed one — and he desires to marry himself to greater forms,” Villanueva mentioned. “That isn’t going to repair something.”
Then he checked out me once more.
“You already know that very nicely, since you’re a sensible man, and I’ve but to see the L.A. Occasions decide aside Mr. Luna’s reply to something, as a result of he has no solutions. However the worst half is you’re not even asking the questions. That’s the scariest half proper there.”
Everybody cheered.
I didn’t have the guts to inform his admirers that it was Villanueva, not Luna, who used his assembly with the L.A. Occasions editorial board to bray with no proof in anyway that considered one of his essential critics, L.A. County Inspector Common Max Huntsman, is a Holocaust denier.
The busking violinist abruptly struck up a brand new tune: “Winter,” from Vivaldi’s “The 4 Seasons.” The concerto’s darkish, frenetic notes of chaos and closure seemed like a cosmic joke as Villanueva returned to his headquarters, the place everybody munched on pizza.
Or was it a warning?
