Overview: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s bid to become California’s next governor has been dealt a blow as voters become aware of his “flash, arrogance, belligerence, ineffective and ill-informed and deceptive” leadership. Bianco’s record as leader of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is abysmal, with failures of deputies under his supervision being arrested and charged with crimes such as smuggling opioids, and sexually assaulting women, in addition to killing a motorist in an accident determined to be the deputy’s fault. Bianco’s support has dropped significantly, and he is now in fourth place in an average of the most recent polls. If he loses the race for governor, Riverside County will be stuck with him as sheriff for another two years.
S. E. Williams
Recent weeks on the campaign trail have been less than kind to Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco in relation to his audacious quest to become the next governor of California.
Once a braggadocious front runner in the race, it’s becoming evident that as voters across the state have gotten to know Bianco they’ve come to realize what we here in Riverside County have known for a long while—he is all flash, arrogance, belligerence, ineffective and ill informed and deceptive.
Take for example one of his latest debate performances where he could barely keep his story straight as he bumbled through an inept explanation about his membership in the extremist militia organization, Oath Keepers, whose leaders were convicted in the 2021 Insurrection.
Whether it’s bad press about failures of deputies under his supervision being arrested and charged with smuggling opioids; sexually assaulting women through coercion; or having the California Highway Patrol determine his deputy was at fault for killing a 21-year-old man and critically injuring his fiancée after running a red light at nearly 100 miles per hour in Calimesa last September; Bianco’s record as leader of the Riverside County Sheriffs Department is abysmal.
And lest we forget one of the most pressing issues related to Bianco’s leadership of the county’s Sheriff’s Department—the ongoing Civil Rights Pattern-or-Practice investigation launched in February 2023. The investigation was initiated in response to high rates of in-custody deaths, allegations of excessive force and other alleged misconduct.
Although the Department of Justice has yet to release its final findings in this case and in-custody deaths continue to occur, in an unrelated issue CA Attorney General Rob Bonta has flagged what he qualified as “deficiencies” in the sheriff’s March seizures of about 650K ballots from last year’s special election. The ballots were seized based on unwarranted claims of election fraud—all in Bianco’s service to Donald J. Trump.
This, of course, was before Trump threw his full-throated support to Bianco’s major Republican challenger for CA governor, Steve Hilton. I’m sure Bianco wished he could have given those ballots back after his MAGA hero “punked him” and endorsed Fox News darling, Hilton. As much as the Riverside Sheriff appeared on Fox News in recent years, I’m sure Bianco thought he really was Trump’s Fox News darling…Trump showed him otherwise.
In other news related to the sheriff, last month the Riverside County Board of Supervisors finally stiffened its spine in relation to Bianco. It voted four to one, “not to cover legal fees for Bianco as he faces multiple lawsuits tied to his investigation into the 2025 special election,” according to NBC Palm Springs.
This is especially good news for Riverside County taxpayers when we consider how Bianco continues to rack up millions upon millions of dollars in judgement and settlement costs/fees that are accrued to the county each year for failures in his department.
The other good news seems to be that as Californians learn more and more about Bianco—his bumbling speech; his poor judgement of character that led to his fealty to a man (Trump) who obviously has no loyalty to him; his inability to lead a team of deputies without some of them being accused of sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, use of excessive force, vehicular manslaughter, etc., and the accruing costs in claims against the county triggered by actions by his deputies—combined, appear to have shifted voters away from him.
In other words, support for Bianco has dropped like a stone according to an average of recent polls. Just a few short weeks ago Bianco beamed as he hovered at the top of the gubernatorial candidates in either first or second place. In recent weeks he has fallen to a far distant fourth place in the most recent 270towin poll summary.
There is however a down side to Bianco falling in the polls in the race for governor. If he loses the race for governor, Riverside County will be stuck with him as sheriff for another two years thanks to AB 759. This bill will keep Bianco in office as sheriff until 2028. Before the law, his current term was set to expire this year.
“You better start swimming, or you’ll sink like a stone. ‘Cause the times they are a‑changing.”
Bob Dylan
The new law shifted sheriff and district attorney elections in most California counties to presidential election years. This was a smart decision by state legislators who supported it. Moving sheriff and district attorney elections to align with presidential election cycle will increase the potential for greater voter turnout thereby helping to ensure these criminal justice-related officials will be elected by a larger percentage of registered county voters than in the past.
California voters once had Bianco as a top contender in the race for governor. Now that they’ve gotten to know him, they are apparently changing their minds.
Our wise ancestor Maya Angelou is credited with saying, “When you know better, you do better.” I recently learned what she actually said was, “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”
No matter how one chooses to say it and if the polls are any indication, when it comes to Bianco for governor, California voters are paying attention and now appear to know him better. According to recent polls voters seem prepared to do better by choosing someone other than Chad Bianco for governor.
Of course this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.