Why Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is being sued over his uniform – San Bernardino Sun

In boxing, it’s said that styles make fights. But a legal fight between two California gubernatorial candidates concerns style and politics.

Democrat Stephen J. Cloobeck recently sued Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is running as a Republican in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The lawsuit, filed Aug. 19 in Riverside Superior Court, accuses Bianco of violating state campaign finance law by wearing his official sheriff’s uniform at political events.

The complaint includes photos of Bianco from his social media and campaign website. In them, he’s either wearing a tan sheriff’s shirt or collared, button-down shirts with an embroidered sheriff’s badge.

“The people of Riverside County and all Californians need to know that their elected sheriff is misusing public funds and is perpetuating the culture of Republican corruption in law enforcement,” Cloobeck, a Southern California developer whose campaign released an ad portraying Bianco as corrupt, said in a news release.

“Bianco has broken the law by wearing his uniform as a campaign prop,” Cloobeck added. “He needs to be held accountable for bending the law for his personal campaign.”

Bianco’s campaign fired back, mocking Cloobeck in its own news release.

“If Democrat Stephen Cloobeck thinks that Stephen Cloobeck can increase his name ID and Democratic bonafides by using lawfare against the Sheriff Bianco campaign, then Stephen Cloobeck is sorely mistaken,” the release states.

“Sheriff Bianco is the leading Republican in the race for California Governor. We very much discourage all the other D-list Democratic candidates for Governor from trying to copy Stephen Cloobeck’s disdainful tactics.”

Bianco’s campaign did not respond by Tuesday afternoon to a question about whether he was campaigning in uniform or if he considers that practice to be legal.

The 13-page lawsuit alleges that by wearing his uniform while campaigning, Bianco “creates a present potential danger of confusing donors and voters with the false assumption that a county of California — specifically Riverside County — has officially endorsed Sheriff Bianco’s candidacy for Governor of California.”

The practice also could intimidate voters, donors and others “who might be reluctant to oppose or contravene an acting Sheriff with considerable law enforcement resources at his disposal,” added the lawsuit, which seeks a court order barring Bianco from wearing his uniform on the campaign trail.

The lawsuit cites California Government Code Section 3206, which states: “No officer or employee of a local agency shall participate in political activities of any kind while in uniform.”

This isn’t the first time Bianco has faced scrutiny over his clothing.

In June 2024, Bianco — clad in his tan uniform — endorsed President Donald Trump.

“It’s time we put a felon in the White House,” the sheriff deadpanned in a video posted to social media.

Bianco defended his choice of threads in a TV interview.

“I’m an elected official,” he said at the time. “And with that, in my personal (social media) pages, I can do anything that I want. There is only one sheriff’s uniform, and that’s mine.”

This is at least the second time Cloobeck, the founder of a vacation timeshare company, has sued a rival candidate for governor.

In spring, he took legal action against Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa for describing himself as a “problem solver.”