The new L.A. County sheriff is off to a bumpy start. Makes you wonder why we appoint police chiefs but elect sheriffs

In 1998, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block took a fall in his bathtub, suffered a brain hemorrhage and died.

But his supporters so detested his reelection challenger, Lee Baca, they kept Block’s campaign alive after his death.

The candidate with a pulse prevailed, but 703,178 L.A. County…