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by\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/strong> August 4, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0eq43-780x550.jpg\")
If Chad Bianco was any more of a right-wing zealot, Gov. Gavin Newsom would tap him to be a recurring guest on his dopey podcast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re in favor of arresting transgender people in locker rooms for indecent exposure when they \u201cstrut around naked<\/a>,\u201d he\u2019s your guy. If you want to abolish<\/a> any state sanctuary protections for immigrants, look no further. If your idea of criminal justice is \u201ccuff \u2018em and stuff \u2018em,\u201d he\u2019s your huckleberry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bianco is the sheriff of Riverside County and a Republican candidate for governor. He is also, notably, San Francisco sheriff Paul Miyamoto\u2019s choice<\/a> for governor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n And this is baffling. San Francisco political leaders are baffled. San Francisco political thinkers are baffled. Miyamoto\u2019s current and erstwhile colleagues are also baffled, though they do point out that Bianco and Miyamoto do seem to share a similar taste in hats<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s baffling to San Franciscans aren\u2019t Bianco\u2019s beliefs: People are entitled to hold conservative views and these do resonate across broad swaths of the nation and much of California \u2014 a vast state with more Republicans in it than almost any other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A bewhiskered, Covid-denying sheriff seeking higher office isn\u2019t baffling, either \u2014 that is, essentially, the plot of \u201cEddington.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s baffling is that a San Francisco elected official would publicly promote a politician whose views are antithetical to those of a vast majority of his constituents. And, more to the point, antithetical to his own stated positions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bianco can now sanewash himself by claiming \u2014 accurately \u2014 that even the sheriff of the dirty hippies and liberal fruitcakes in San Francisco is backing him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what does Miyamoto get out of this? Nothing. Less than nothing. He\u2019s now inviting scrutiny of an office that, other than inmates, their families<\/a>, and people ranked by having to take off their belts<\/a> when entering a public building, few give much thought to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He is now being made to explain a thought process, or lack thereof, that is, indeed, baffling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When your humble narrator last week noticed Miyamoto\u2019s name on a list of Bianco endorsers, my first thought was that there must have been some manner of mistake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You will note that Alpine County sheriff Tom Minder is listed twice<\/a> here; the utmost care may not have been applied in producing this material. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding at some back-slapping meeting among the state\u2019s 58 sheriffs. It turns out there was not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI support Sheriff Chad Bianco, alongside other sheriffs in California, as a peer leader in law enforcement and in the work we do to keep our communities safe,\u201d Miyamoto wrote last week in a statement to Mission Local<\/em>. \u201cLaw enforcement is not defined by political parties, but grounded in a commitment to public safety and the integrity of the profession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Law-enforcement may not be defined by political parties, though only members of one political party are talking about kicking down the doors of high school locker rooms and arresting transgender children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, regardless, the office of governor of California is <\/em>defined by political parties. That, and nothing else, is the issue here. As such, Miyamoto\u2019s statement makes no sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The sheriff did not return multiple calls and messages asking for clarification. But he did talk to KQED<\/a>, the Chronicle<\/em><\/a> and, we\u2019re told, Channel 2. These interviews did not offer much in the way of illumination; amid Dead shows and on the cusp of Outside Lands, you could call this Sheriff Miyamoto\u2019s Incoherent Summer Tour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He told the Chron <\/em>that he supported Bianco because the two are friendly; He told KQED \u201cWe\u2019re both sheriffs.\u201d He emphasized that he does not share any of the MAGA beliefs of the man he endorsed to be our governor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nobody should begrudge Miyamoto and Bianco\u2019s friendship; of note, right-wing loons are slagging<\/a> the Riverside County sheriff for associating with a registered Democrat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there is a rather large delta between \u201cChad Bianco is a lot of fun to be around, does the same job as me and has great taste in hats\u201d and \u201cI want Chad Bianco to tell us all what to do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The First Amendment provides Miyamoto and all the rest of us the right to free speech. But it does not protect us from the consequences of our free speech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The consequences here could be deleterious. And not just for Miyamoto. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s the political upside for Miyamoto to endorse a MAGA Republican who\u2019ll be hard-pressed to escape the gubernatorial primary? There isn\u2019t one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere isn\u2019t a good reason to do this,\u201d said veteran political consultant Jim Ross. \u201cThere isn\u2019t even a bad reason to do this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, Jr., summed up the off-the-wall endorsement as, \u201cThey are both sheriffs. There\u2019s no other reason, and you don\u2019t need any other reason. He may not even be thinking politically.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He may not be thinking at all. Da Mayor, however, said voters shouldn\u2019t hold this against Miyamoto. Instead, they should just judge him on how well he\u2019s serving as San Francisco sheriff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s an intriguing proposition, however. Brown himself admits that, prior to his political life, all he knew about sheriffs was what he saw in cowboy movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What a sheriff and his deputies do in a dense, urban environment like San Francisco is not something many people give much thought to. The answer, in a nutshell: Staff the jails and guard public buildings, neither of which requires you to wear a big hat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Miyamoto is now inviting further public examination of his office. Of late, the two most notable stories coming out of the Sheriff\u2019s Department have been Miyamoto\u2019s chief of staff wrecking a staff car in a hit-and-run and filing a false police report<\/a> \u2014 in an investigation that, inexplicably, was handled by Miyamoto\u2019s office and not the cops \u2014 and strange and terrible conditions<\/a> in San Francisco\u2019s rapidly filling and understaffed jails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like the assessor or treasurer, what the sheriff does is not something most voters know about, think about or know to think about. We vote for the officials who espouse the positions we like and pose next to the people we like. Miyamoto has compromised his ability to do this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Voters compelled to scrutinize his department may not be wholly enamored of what they find. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So that\u2019s suboptimal news for Miyamoto. But his decision to elevate a MAGA Republican could resonate further. <\/p>\n\n\n\n San Francisco remains a sanctuary city. While this is now a favorite right-wing pi\u00f1ata, one needn\u2019t be a bleeding-heart liberal to understand the benefit of sanctuary policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Daryl Gates died, the headline for his obituary was \u201cDaryl Gates<\/a>, the Ruthless L.A. Police Chief Who Ran an International Spying Operation on the Side.\u201d He also instituted sanctuary policies<\/a> in Los Angeles to ensure undocumented people felt safe reporting crimes to the police. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Politically and practically, San Francisco officials in 2025 should at least be able to espouse the positions Daryl Gates held in the 1970s. But Miyamoto\u2019s endorsement of an anti-immigration extremist works against even this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur sanctuary policies rest on the fact that we\u2019re all safer when people feel safe cooperating with law enforcement,\u201d says longtime San Francisco political strategist Eric Jaye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen one of the city\u2019s leading law-enforcement officers is embracing a Trump-like candidate who is encouraging cooperation with ICE, that undermines the foundational trust we\u2019re trying to build through being a sanctuary city,\u201d Jaye said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This, Jaye continues, is more than a political mistake \u2014 though it is that. It\u2019s also \u201ca sheriff undermining a foundational safety policy in San Francisco.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n As Bianco persists in his quest for Sacramento, a broader swath of voters will get to know him beyond just a tough-on-crime Fox News mainstay with a big hat and a bigger mustache. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He is facing more than a dozen lawsuits<\/a> filed by the survivors of inmates who died in Riverside County jails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no shortage of plaintiffs<\/a>: \u201cThe raw data and the per capita data make clear that the Riverside County Jails are a death sentence for any pretrial detainee,\u201d reads a lawsuit<\/a> from the survivors of Richard \u201cBump\u201d Matus, Jr., one of 18 inmates to die in custody in Riverside County jails in 2022 alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This spate of in-custody deaths led to an ongoing investigation<\/a> from the state Department of Justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In July 2025, former longtime Riverside Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Victoria Flores sued<\/a> Bianco and the county,<\/a> alleging Bianco fired her after she complained of guards beating inmates and eluding discipline. Flores also alleges that Bianco\u2019s department used administrative tricks to elude responsibility for tallying even more inmate deaths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It remains to be seen if voters like Bianco more or less as they learn more about him. It remains to be seen if the same goes for his endorser, Miyamoto. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We’re a small, independent, nonprofit newsroom<\/strong> that works hard to bring you news you can’t get elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2025, we have a lofty goal: 5,000 donors by the end of the year \u2014 more than double the number we had last year. We are 20 percent of the way there: Donate today and help us reach our goal!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Donate!<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n getbackjoejoe@gmail.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Managing Editor\/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYour humble narrator\u201d was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.More by Joe Eskenazi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018There isn\u2019t a good reason to do this. There isn\u2019t even a bad reason to do this.\u2019 by\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI August 4, 2025 (MissionLocal.org) If Chad Bianco was any more of a right-wing zealot, Gov. Gavin Newsom would tap him to be a recurring guest on his dopey podcast. If you\u2019re… Continue reading ![\"Mission](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mission-local-logo-300x300.jpg\"){kind=logo}
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCuatro de cada cinco solicitantes de asilo, arrestados el viernes en la corte de S.F.<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Tenderloin has to replace its fancy trash bins. No one knows with what.<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nICE lo arrest\u00f3 en SF y regres\u00f3 a un M\u00e9xico que ya no recuerda<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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