Palmdale Lieutenant at the challenge of Sheriff Robert Luna in 2026 primary

A lieutenant at the Palmdale station announced this week that he would challenge the Sheriff of the County of Los Angeles, Robert Luna, during the primary elections, becoming the first opposition candidate in a race for more than a year.

During a campaigning event on Wednesday in Santa Clarita, Lieutenant Oscar Martinez promised to bring solid leadership to the largest department of the country, as well as the accent on the modernization of the agency and the support of the deputies.

“Today, I put my career and everything for what I worked on the line, not for a personal gain but for my partners in the application of laws as well as for the future of public security in our communities,” he told participants. “The radical programs have taken (over) our schools, many of our municipal governments, our county council, our state leadership and, unfortunately, they now dismantle the application of the law of the interior.”

American veteran of marine combat which has been with the department for 16 years, Martinez is a registered republican – although he told Times that he did not think that it mattered, even in a deeply blue place like Los Angeles.

“This is a non-partisan race, and I run to protect the citizens of this county,” he said in an interview. “No policy, just public security.”

Born in the Dominican Republic, Martinez immigrated to the east coast in his youth and spent eight years in American Marines, serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. He settled in the Los Angeles region in 2006 and joined the Sheriff’s Department of the County of Los Angeles two years later. Since then, he said, he worked in the prisons, has been an executive assistant in chief, has been spokesperson for the last administration and is currently supervisory commander at the Palmdale sheriff station.

He said he had decided to come to the elections after other deputies and members of the community encouraged him, in particular following a controversial incident which ended with the federal conviction this year of an assistant from a sheriff of Lancaster who was found guilty of having used excessive force.

“The deputies had just enough-they don’t feel supported,” he said. “You have deputies who fear being fired for putting handcuffs a little too tight on a suspect.”

The main problems he wishes to approach includes the defense of the 2nd amendment, the search for more resources to support the Veterans of the Department and the prevention of the release of violent criminals, according to his campaign website.

On social networks and in his interview with Times, Martinez stressed her interest in pushing the state to change her approach to applying immigration, saying that he would pressure for adjustments to a law that prevents local law organizations from holding people in prison for more time only for immigration agents to recover them.

“After having their time for the moment, we have to release them to the general population, and I think it’s bad,” he said. “We must have a working relationship with ice.”

Martinez spoke of the need to modernize the obsolete systems of the department – such as its faulty distribution system and ineffective buses – but it also stressed the need for tax liability, in particular with regard to the allocation of resources.

Given the shortage of endowment for years, he said, deputies should not be diverted from contractual cities to specialized staff teams such as the mental evaluation team. He advocated the reduction of this team, which is trained to respond to calls involving people with mental health attacks, until the department’s endowment levels improve.

A subject that haunted the county sheriffs during the decades is the flow of allegations concerning the tattooed internal gangs which run at certain stations. Some sheriffs have denied their existence, but Martinez recognized that exclusion groups existed in the department. He said he had no tattoos.

“Each agency’s size institution has clicks,” he said. “I belong to the Marine Body. There are clicks there. I guarantee if I go to IBM there, there are clicks there. ”

He said the problem came from a lack of leadership and by offering solid leadership and vision, he would eliminate the need for deputies to arrange controversial groups.

Relaxing an elected sheriff can be a difficult task. According to Jessica Pishko, author of “the highest law in the country”, the holders win a re -election of around 90% of the time.

In the County of Los Angeles, only two sheriffs were elected in the last century: in 2018, Villanueva ousted Jim McDonnell, who is now the police chief of Los Angeles. In 2022, Luna – a former Long Beach police chief – came out of his retirement at the best Villanueva. During the campaign, Luna positioned himself as the calm antidote to what he described as the “dysfunction and chaos” of her opponent.

Since its entry into office, it has been faced with many problems that have disrupted the previous sheriffs: poor prison conditions, tentacular consent decrees, allegations concerning assistant gangs and persistent staff problems. But he also made his promises to ensure leadership and repair fractured relationships with other county heads.

Last year, in the midst of contrary speculation, he told Times that he would present himself “absolutely” to re -election. Friday morning, the County Registrar site registered him as well as Martinez as the only candidates of the race.

Friday, in a press release, Luna praised her record for maintaining communities in security and stability in the department.

“Since it has become a sheriff, violent crimes have fallen into the LASD-patrolled areas each year, and 2024 has seen the least homicides in the past five years,” he said. “In addition, the uses of the force have decreased and our reforms, including our office of the constitutional police and policies prohibiting the law enforcement, increased public confidence to the ministry.”