As Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s re-election campaign was in full swing last week, the incumbent sent out a plea to his nearly 10,000 deputies: Send me money! That plea, straight from Villanueva's mouth in a video now circulating online, has landed him in hot water. L.A.’s district attorney opened up a probe Wednesday to determine whether Villanueva violated state law by using his position to solicit donations from subordinates who may have feared retribution if they didn’t pony up. “This message is for deputies,” Villanueva said in the video, before rambling about losing funding from the police union, who gave $1 million to his campaign in 2018 but just $1,500 this year. The probe may be salt in the wound for Villanueva, who remained 14 points behind challenger Robert Luna on Wednesday evening with 42 percent of the county’s vote in.
