What's at stake?
District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp and Sheriff John Zanoni will be able to serve out six-year terms to bring the county’s law enforcement election cycle in line with a controversial 2022 state law.
It’s official.
The next political contests for Fresno County’s district attorney and sheriff’s office won’t come up again until 2028 after a California appeals court on Wednesday dealt the final blow to the fight over local law enforcement election cycles.
District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp and Sheriff John Zanoni will be able to serve out six-year terms to bring the county’s law enforcement election cycle in line with a controversial 2022 state law.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Zanoni said it was “time to move on.”
“We’re staying focused on public safety and we’re not worried about whether the election is in ‘26 or ‘28,” Zanoni said. “Now we know, the courts have ruled and we’ll abide by the law.”
Smittcamp also took Wednesday’s ruling in stride.
“I am not surprised by the appellate court’s ruling following the well-reasoned opinion issued by Fresno County Superior Court Judge Tharpe,” Smittcamp said. “While the legal process surrounding Measure A created some uncertainty, it never affected our mission.”
Fresno County spokesperson Sonja Dosti confirmed that the next law enforcement elections will be scheduled in 2028.
On Wednesday, California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal formally rejected Fresno County’s effort to reverse a lower-court ruling from June that nullified voter-approved changes to the county’s charter scheduling the law enforcement elections for the gubernatorial election cycle. Fresno County argued that the trial court judge erred in his ruling that forces the county to comply with the 2022 law requiring law enforcement elections to follow the presidential election cycle.
But the state court on Wednesday refused to take up the case, formally rejecting the county’s petition and securing a legal win for the California Attorney General’s Office, which sued Fresno County last year to force compliance with the new state election law.
The wonky fight between state Democrats and Fresno-area Republicans began in 2022 when the governor quietly signed AB 759, a Democrat-sponsored law that required most California counties to conduct law enforcement elections on the presidential election cycle. Democrats argued that law enforcement elections should generally be conducted when voter turnout is highest, which is always during the presidential cycle.
Republicans pushed back, calling the move a thinly-disguised effort to game election advantages in races that Democrats frequently struggle to win. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors in 2024 forced the issue onto the ballot and about 55% of Fresno voters said they wanted to elect the DA and sheriff on the gubernatorial cycle.
But in June, a Republican-appointed judge in Fresno agreed with California’s justice department and said the state law “preempted” the county charter amendment, throwing out Fresno’s election results and resetting the law enforcement races to the presidential cycle.
The Attorney General’s press office issued a brief statement celebrating the ruling.
“There is nothing more fundamental to American democracy than the right to vote and make your voice heard. Measure A threatened to undermine that fundamental right, and we’re pleased with the appellate court’s decision leaving in place a prior order invalidating Measure A.”
