Villanueva’s campaign for supervisor is low on funds in final weeks

With about a month to go until the March 5 primary, former L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has a little less than $7,800 cash on hand. “You go pull contributions from somewhat marginal city council candidates, and they would have all done better than that.” Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles for Loyola Marymount University, says Villanueva’s haul is what one might expect of a little-known candidate running in a sleepy city — not a recent sheriff vying to represent a 400-square-mile district. “He didn’t ask me for the money.” To have a real chance against a powerful incumbent such as Hahn, Villanueva would need to have raised around $5 million, Guerra said. The leftist organization also disclosed that it had censured Raman for seeking and then obtaining support from Democrats for Israel-Los Angeles, which bills itself as the “voice of Los Angeles County’s Jewish and Pro-Israel community to the Democratic Party.” — DOUBLE DUTY: Democrats for Israel actually delivered a dual endorsement in Raman’s race, providing support not just for her but also one of her opponents, Deputy City Atty. The move astonished free speech advocates, including one who said the city’s actions have “absolutely no place in a 1st Amendment context.” — GENDER GAP: As L.A.’s political leaders begin the search for a new police chief, they are growing concerned about the low number of female leaders in the upper echelons of the LAPD.