Alex Villanueva Launches Bid to Unseat Janice Hahn

He’s baaaack.

Former L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced last week that he’ll challenge District 4 Supervisor Janice Hahn in the March 2024 primary. The announcement comes less than a year after the one-term sheriff was ousted by voters.

Villanueva’s campaign pitch is nearly identical to the one he ran on in November. At a news conference, he blasted Dist. Atty. George Gascón for L.A.’s crime problem and called the county the “homeless capital of the entire nation.”

It’s unlikely to work any better this time around. Villanueva soundly lost District 4 when he was up for re-election.

In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs’ President Richard Pippin acknowledged it “would be an understatement to say the former sheriff faces significant challenges if he expects to make any kind of contest of this race.”

But his candidacy is likely to introduce plenty of drama and bombast. They don’t call him the ‘Donald Trump of L.A. County’ for nothing.