Glendale Police Lt. Don Meredith did not manage to force incumbent LA County Sheriff Lee Baca into a runoff in a race for the LA County Sheriff's office, nor did any of his fellow candidates.

Like the seat of County Supervisor, for decades it has been virtually impossible for candidates to successfully challenge incumbents in county offices. Given the spread of the geography, the population and the number of media outlets, only incumbents are assured of being able to raise the campaign cash needed to run a credible campaign. Indeed, it has become a self-fulfilling prophesy; potential donors don't contribute to challengers because they know challengers have trouble raising enough contributions.

Over the years we've seen county office holders able to retain their seats even despite incompetence, enormous ethical lapses, outrageous scandals and even illness that left them largely unable to serve. Indeed, Baca himself managed to win only after his predecessor died before election day, though the late Sherman Block still captured 33% of the votes in the 1998 election held days after his death. I don't mean to imply Baca's service fits in any of the aforementioned categories, but it's exceptionally rare that county races are anything more than a formality to reinstall incumbents.

That said, Meredith did accomplish an amazing feat, placing second in the field of five. Baca was easily the leader with 486,192 votes. But Meredith managing to capture 72,824 votes is a measure of how hard he's worked in the last year.