Republican sheriff’s campaign for California governor hurt by lawsuits, settlements

Three Republican candidates running to replace Gavin Newsom as Governor of California made their case Thursday night on a conservative talk radio show — including Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who spent much of his time downplaying the tens of millions his county has paid out in recent years to settle wrongful death and use of force lawsuits filed against his department.

Bianco, the most well-known GOP candidate in the race so far, launched his campaign in February. Beyond the wrongful death and use of force lawsuits, he also defended a claim he made last fall that he “probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt” of President Donald Trump at a Coachella rally last October.

That accusation led to an ongoing $100 million defamation suit against the sheriff and Riverside County. The lawsuit was filed by Las Vegas resident Vem Miller, who was arrested at a security checkpoint for the rally and charged with having two loaded weapons in his vehicle.

Speaking on conservative content creator Kim Yeater’s show, Bianco said he made the statement the day after Miller’s arrest “based on what we knew at the time and what we arrested him for,” adding that “if we had evidence that it was an attempted assassination, we would have arrested him for attempted assassination.”

The sheriff also sought to justify the statement that landed him in a lawsuit.

“After two attempts on the president’s life, he knowingly showed up — after being advised no weapons on scene — he showed up with two loaded guns in his car.”

“What would a normal person think?” he said.

When Yeater asked Bianco about the tens of millions of dollars paid to settle various other lawsuits against his department, the sheriff blamed “ambulance chaser” attorneys, saying the suits have “nothing to do with whether or not deputies did anything wrong. It’s about whether or not they have an attorney that would sue.”

The Riverside Sheriff’s department has faced scrutiny for high numbers of in-custody deaths, including suicides, and conditions inside county jails.

A 2022 Washington Post investigation found Riverside County paid out $77 million between 2010 and 2020 to settle police use of force lawsuits. During the same period, neighboring Orange County, which has a higher population, paid out $14 million, according to the Post.

Bianco was elected sheriff in 2018, but large settlements appear to have continued in recent years: last year Riverside County paid $7.5 million to the family of a man who died in custody. In March the county awarded $498,000 to an elderly man who was thrown to the ground after daring a deputy to arrest him.

The tens of millions in settlements “is a lot, but based on the 5 million contacts that I have with criminals every single year, it’s kind of minuscule,” Bianco said.

“We do a very good job of doing things right in this county,” he said.

State of the California governor’s race

The legal matters are a weak spot for Bianco, the Republican with the highest level of name recognition and fundraising power in the race.

Two other Republican gubernatorial candidates, Leo Zacky and Leo Naranjo, also appeared to answer questions in a one-on-one interview format on the Rumble platform, a video-sharing site favored by Republicans and Trump supporters.

Naranjo is a Republican military veteran and former state worker from Sacramento County. Zacky, whose family started the now-defunct Zacky Farms poultry operation, also ran for governor in 2022 and the unsuccessful 2021 recall against Newsom.

Each candidate criticized Democratic leadership in California and the state’s struggle to get a handle on homelessness, the cost of living and environmental challenges like drought and megafires.

Candidates also took shots at each other, as well as other potential Republican entrants to the governor’s race: Zacky and Naranjo have never held elected office and Bianco cast them as inexperienced.

The sheriff said he likes Steve Hilton, a Fox News contributor who is mulling a run, but that “no (Republican) is going to have the ability to win this election other than me at this current point.”

On the Democratic side, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former Senate leader Toni Atkins, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former Rep. Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Controller Betty Yee have all announced campaigns for the seat.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is also considering a run.

Bianco called on Republicans to rally behind him to ensure a GOP candidate for governor makes it to the top-two general election. He also said he has a preferred opponent to face in the general election.

“The entire world is going to be watching the pro-law enforcement, highly respected and liked sheriff against the failure vice president, failure attorney general, Kamala Harris,” he said.