Make Fun of Chad Bianco If You Want–but Don’t Underestimate Him–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: June 4, 2026

Indy Digest: June 4, 2026

It’s been a rough several months for Chad Bianco.

About four months ago, he was a legitimate gubernatorial frontrunner. Polls were showing he and fellow Republican Steve Hilton in the lead—and Bianco was No. 1 in some polls. He appeared to have a real chance of at least advancing in the primary.

Then … the wheels fell off of his campaign.

First, the president endorsed his Republican opponent—even though Bianco has been a fervent Trump supporter from the start. He’d even followed Trump’s playbook of baselessly sowing doubt about elections—only for the president to shun him.

Next, he had several debate performances that were trainwrecks. I suspect Bianco will grimace whenever he hears the word “swindled” for as long as he lives.

The election is now over, and Bianco is going to finish fourth—a distant fourth. He has 11.1 percent of the votes counted as of this writing. He’ll get fewer votes than two Democrats. As of now, Steve Hilton has almost 2 1/2 times the number of votes Bianco has.

His campaign was a failure—and many people who dislike Bianco are using this as an opportunity to make fun of him. Yes, in many ways, this race has shown Bianco to be a loser.

In many ways, but not in all ways.

Riverside County is the 10th-largest county in the country by population, and the 26th-largest in terms of geographical size. If you call the Coachella Valley home, Riverside County is where you live.

Here are the results of Riverside County voting in the governor’s race, as of this writing:

Statewide, Chad Bianco is a loser—but in this county, he’s not.

Now that the gubernatorial campaign is over, Bianco will again focus on his job: being the Riverside County sheriff. Despite the president endorsing his GOP opponent, the bad debates, a lot of negative news about his job performance—his deadly jails, for one thing, and his poor crime-clearing rate, for another—and a not-insignificant number of Bianco-leaning citizens voting for Hilton to assure a Republican finished in the top two, Chad Bianco is the top vote-getter in Riverside County.

Here, Chad Bianco remains somewhat popular. He still has a lot of power.

Make fun of Chad Bianco if you’d like. But you’d be a fool to underestimate him.

—Jimmy Boegle

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From the Independent

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More News

• Speaking of “Trump’s playbook of baselessly sowing doubt about elections,” the Los Angeles Times reports: “To the surprise of few, President Trump has once again claimed without evidence that Democrats are somehow cheating to win California’s primary elections—writing on social media late Wednesday that federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are investigating the matter. ‘The Dumocrats are at it again! They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS,’ Trump posted to his social media website. ‘There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles,’ he wrote in a second post. ‘Why the vote counting DELAY???’ … The White House declined to say what Trump was basing his cheating claims on, if anything, or provide details about the inquiry.”

• The Least Surprising Headline of the Day: “Granted Clemency by Trump, Scores of Jan. 6 Rioters Have Been Accused of New Crimes.” The New York Times (gift link) reports: “One was arrested after allegedly threatening a person with a gun in a church parking lot. Another was convicted of felony charges of grand larceny and burglary. Still another was convicted of child molestation. At least 97 of the nearly 1,600 people who were charged in connection with the Capitol riot have been accused of new crimes since Jan. 6, 2021, according to a study released on Thursday from Lawfare, the nonprofit legal issues publication. The figure, which is larger than previously known, includes 19 cases that happened after Mr. Trump granted clemency to Jan. 6 defendants on the first day of his second term, according to the study’s author. The rest of the cases happened in the years after the riot.”

• Elon Musk is taking SpaceX public. Marketplace explains how this IPO—and other big tech IPOs coming up—could be a problem for retirement accounts: “SpaceX’s initial public offering is expected to be the largest of all time and, eventually, end up in most investors’ portfolios—whether they like it or not. The Elon Musk-led rocket company is set to be the first beneficiary of a slew of recent moves by index operators to speed up the time it takes for newly large public firms to list on several major indexes. That could push many passive exchange-traded funds, like the popular Invesco QQQ, to buy SpaceX’s stock soon after its IPO, likely exposing many investors’ retirement plans to the company. ‘It’s not a question of whether you will own it or not own it,’ Mercer Advisors Chief Investment Officer Don Calcagni told MarketWatch. ‘The question is, “Do you want to own more of it?”’ Nasdaq has led the rush by index providers to accommodate firms like SpaceX and OpenAI. It became the first to propose and enact a ‘fast entry’ rule that could allow SpaceX to join the popular Nasdaq 100.”

• As predicted in this space on Monday, 60 Minutes is toast. Scott Pelley was fired—and he then revealed that Bari Weiss and co. have been inserting bias into stories. The Washington Post explains: “In response to claims from Pelley that his firing was politically motivated, a CBS News spokesman said: ‘There is no political interference at CBS News, not from ownership, not from Bari Weiss. The only “interference” is the normal back and forth between editor and correspondent that happens in every newsroom.’ … Current and former staffers, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive details of the program, expect that the situation at ‘60 Minutes’ could further degrade. All eyes are on whether the remaining correspondents—Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, L. Jon Wertheim and contributor Norah O’Donnell—will depart.”

• Today’s recall news involves … Fords! The Associated Press reports: “Ford is recalling almost 420,000 vehicles because of a seat belt issue that may result in an injury if a crash occurs. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a report Tuesday that the recall includes certain Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator vehicles with model years 2018 through 2022. The issue involves seat belts that may lock inadvertently, not allowing them to retract or extend. The NHTSA report says a seat belt that doesn’t retract or extend may result in an injury if a crash happens. Individuals may also face injury in some instances if the seat belt retracts rapidly.”

• And … Subarus! USA Today says: “Subaru is recalling more than 60,000 vehicles due to issues with its moonroof assembly. The affected 69,663 car models are the 2026 Subaru Forester and the 2026 Subaru Forester Hybrid, according to a recall notice published May 28 on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website. … The vehicles may have been manufactured without the power moonroof being properly installed due to a lack of primer, according to the recall notice. Over time, the bond between the sliding frame and the glass can deteriorate, causing the moonroof glass to become detached while the car is operating. The issue could result in injury or a crash, per the notice.”

• And finally … The New York Times has provided one of the funniest corrections I’ve seen in a long time. Here are the details. It has similarities to the funniest and most embarrassing correction with which I’ve been involved; you can read about that here. If you need a laugh, these will do the trick!

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