Incumbent LA, Riverside County Sheriffs Fail To Win Majority Votes
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Incumbent county sheriffs in Los Angeles and Riverside counties will have to battle to keep their jobs come November, while the man picked by the retiring Orange County sheriff won the office outright in Tuesday night's election.
Don Barnes picked up 51 percent of the vote to succeed Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, beating out Duke Nguyen, an investigator with the LA County District Attorney's Office, and Aliso Viejo Mayor Dave Harrington.
In Los Angeles County, Sheriff Jim McDonnell won 47 percent of the vote over sheriff's Lt. Alex Villanueva's 33 percent. The race became a referendum on McDonnell's commitment to reform and the concerns of rank-and-file deputies.
In Riverside County, the sheriff's race is still too close to call. With 58 percent of precincts reporting, sheriff's Lt. Chad Bianco has 35 percent of the vote over incumbent Stan Sniff, who won 34 percent of the vote.
Sniff had been appointed in October 2007 to finish out the term of then-Sheriff Bob Doyle, who left the county for a state position, and has since been elected to two full terms. This fall's runoff won't be the first time the two face off – Sniff has already fended off one challenge from Bianco in 2014.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
