Posse Seeks Baca’s Job

The campaign for Los Angeles County sheriff is rarely a competitive affair.

In the last 73 years, four men have held the seat, and no living sheriff has been voted out. Even after dying in office in 1998, Sheriff Sherman Block took nearly 40% of the vote.

Sheriff Lee Baca, however, is beginning his run for a third term at an inauspicious moment. In recent months, Baca has faced criticism for rising crime, a wild shootout in Compton in which his deputies fired more than 100 shots at an unarmed man and persistent problems of slayings and escapes at the county jails.

Three challengers say they will try to exploit Baca’s troubles in the June election. They realize the odds are long, but the candidates -- Sheriff’s Capt. Ray Leyva, recently retired Sheriff’s Capt. Ken Masse and Glendale Police Lt. Don Meredith -- say they will focus on Baca’s early release of inmates from county jails.

Facing budget cutbacks, Baca since 2002 has been releasing some inmates after they have served only a fraction of their sentences. To date, more than 200,000 low-level offenders have been released early, many after serving just 10% of their terms.

“The first thing he does when he’s looking to cut costs is start releasing people from jail,” Masse said. “It has to be a big issue. We have to make it an issue. People need to understand that dismantling the justice system in Los Angeles County affects public safety.

“People going to jail are taking full advantage of Sheriff Baca’s catch-and-release program. They know if they go into court and plead guilty, the amount of time they’ll spend in jail is negligible.”

Baca, 63, who joined the Sheriff’s Department 40 years ago and rose through the ranks before winning election in 1998, said he’s uniquely qualified to run the department and is confident of a third term.

“My opponents can say whatever they want.... The department’s accomplishments speak for themselves,” he said. “I don’t have the time to be responding to unqualified candidates running for this office.”

The sheriff manages a $1.9-billion budget and about 8,000 deputies who serve 40 cities, the county transit system, nine community colleges and courts throughout the county. He said the early releases were a byproduct of budget cuts in 2002.

“It is my constitutional obligation not to overspend the taxpayers’ money. We did not,” Baca said.

Leyva said Baca should spend less time on the county’s homeless problem.

“We don’t need a social worker. We need to get back to doing our job, taking people to jail and, more important, keeping them there,” said Leyva, who joined the Sheriff’s Department 24 years ago.

Leyva acknowledged that it may be uncomfortable to run against his boss. He said he may take a leave of absence when the election nears.

Masse spent 35 years with the department before retiring in March to campaign full time for Baca’s job.

Getting the public to pay attention to the debate will be difficult. Baca has an enormous fundraising advantage. According to their most recent campaign finance reports, covering the first half of 2005, Leyva had $4,400 cash on hand, Masse had $55,000 and Baca had $333,000.

Meredith, a Glendale police officer for 33 years, said he intended to raise $3 million but did not file a statement because he had not formed a committee.

Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, said he believed it would take an opponent several million dollars to pose a threat to Baca. He said the sheriff has “as good a name ID as you can expect from a county official.”

“These days a million dollars is what you need to run for a seat in the U.S. House. And Los Angeles County is many times bigger” than a congressional district, Pitney said. “Unless it were somebody who already had extraordinary name ID,” he said, an opponent would need to spend millions to unseat Baca.

With about $1 million available to spend on political campaigns, the union that represents deputy sheriffs could play a key role in the campaign, but the union is unlikely to break ranks with the chief. Members would need to approve any expenditure, union officials said.

“Currently, the union enjoys a very productive relationship with the sheriff and sheriff’s management.... The sheriff has been open to the union, more than any of his predecessors,” said Steve Remige, vice president of the Assn. of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs.

Baca, speaking by telephone Tuesday from Amman, Jordan, where he is studying that country’s anti-terrorism tactics, said he was proud of his seven years in office. The sheriff, who is Latino, said he had worked hard to make the county’s many ethnic communities feel connected to his department.

The sheriff has set up 19 citizen groups, such as the Bangladesh Advisory Council and the Gay and Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Advisory Council, to receive input from the county’s diverse population. He said he was particularly proud of a program that helps deputies and civilian employees pay for college. He said well-educated deputies benefit the community.

“My record is one of the strongest records today in law enforcement. The entire county of Los Angeles, wherever I go, people are saying positive things about the Sheriff’s Department,” Baca said. “The public is very proud of the things I stand for, and will not accept a change.”

But as the campaign progresses, Baca may have to deal with other controversies. Last week, two inmates beat and stomped to death another inmate while housed in an unsupervised holding room at Men’s Central Jail -- the eighth inmate-on-inmate homicide at the jail in the last two years.

Jailhouse escapes -- 20 so far this year -- doubled during that time, and 23 inmates were released by accident.

Baca won praise for his response to the wild Compton shootout, in which bullets went flying into nearby homes and a deputy was injured. The sheriff and his deputies apologized to the community, and a speedy internal affairs investigation resulted in the public discipline of 13 deputies.

“We’re not the bureaucratic, slow-moving, refuse-to-change organization that typifies bigger police departments,” Baca said. “We are quick to solve our problems, quick to create new solutions and quick to admit our mistakes.”