Jim McDonnell wins Los Angeles County Sheriff's race

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Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Jim McDonnell (left) defeated former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka in the LA County sheriff's race.
Jim McDonnell (left) defeated former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka in the LA County sheriff's race.
KABC-KABC

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell has won the race for Los Angeles County Sheriff.

McDonnell had joined the Long Beach Police Department in 2010 after serving the Los Angeles Police Department for 29 years.

He was endorsed by Interim L.A. County Sheriff John Scott, who took office when former Sheriff Lee Baca unexpectedly resigned.

McDonnell's challenger, Paul Tanaka, had all but disappeared from the campaign trail prior to election night.

Tanaka had won 15 percent of the primary vote, enough to force a runoff with McDonnell.

However, Tanaka's bid was plagued by scandal: Six sheriff's deputies were recently convicted for obstruction of a federal investigation, for actions they undertook at Tanaka's direction while he was undersheriff of the department.

Tanaka himself was the target of an FBI probe.