It’s now official: three candidates are running for mayor of Ceres, two are competing for the District 3 Ceres City Council seat and the incumbent for the District 4 seat returns to the council with no opponent.
The candidate nomination period closed Friday.
Running for re-election, District 3 Ceres City Councilman Bret Silveira is being challenged by Cerina Otero, a member of the Ceres Planning Commission.
As Ceres Mayor Javier Lopez runs for re-election, he has two serious challengers in Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra and Ceres Planning Commissioner Gary M. Condit.
Lopez was elected mayor in 2020.
Vierra was elected to the council two years ago and is midway into her four-year term.
Condit was seven months ago to a four-year term on the Ceres Planning Commission, which has met only five times this year with 12 cancellations due to a lack of business.
Councilman Daniel Martinez was appointed to the Ceres Planning Commission in October 2021 and elected to the City Council in November 2022 to fill out the remainder of Couper Condit’s four-year term.
Incumbent City treasurer Kayla Martinez is the only candidate for that office. She is the wife of Councilman Martinez.
Three seats on the Ceres Unified School District Board of Trustees will be decided on Nov. 5. Brian de la Porte is now unopposed in his re-election bid for the Trustee Area 1 seat. Hugo Molina is also unopposed for the Trustee Area 7 seat.
And it appears that student Alondra Reyes is the only candidate for the Trustee Area 4 seat occupied by Faye Lane who had not filed for re-election as of Tuesday. That means the filing period extends until 5 p.m. today.
In the city of Hughson, voters will be deciding who will fill two seats opening on the City Council this fall. Incumbent councilmembers Alan McFadon and Sam Rush are seeking re-election and being challenged by Abel Morin, Brian Evans, Susana Vasquez and Billy Gonzales.
Unlike their larger counterparts, Hughson still elects their councilmembers at large and not by district.
Voters in the Hughson Unified School District will be electing two board trustees. Running unopposed are incumbent Trustee Darin Chiesa in Trustee Area 1 and incumbent Daniel Sexton in Trustee Area 3.
The three open seats on the rural Hughson Fire Protection District board of directors will be filled by the three incumbents that hold them. Since there are no opponents, board members Mark A. Hughes, Dave Absher and Anthony Douds will be appointed to serve by action of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors in lieu of an election.
The deadline to file to run for one of three seats on the Westport Fire Protection District board has been extended until today. Candidates thus far are incumbents John A. Varni and Stacy Cardoso and farmer Joe S. Nunes.
Keyes Union School board incumbent trustees Jeffrey Greener (Trustee Area 1) and Mike Bernal (Area 4) are running unopposed.
In the Keyes Community Services District (KCSD), there are only two candidates for the two open four-year board seats. Candidates are appointed incumbent Kristina D. Vasquez and incumbent Cody Knee.
Frank Chavez, a retired equipment operator, is the only candidate for the two-year KCSD board seat.
There is an absence of interest for the two seats on the rural Ceres Fire Protection District. No candidates had signed up as of Tuesday. Likewise, two seats on the Monterey Park Tract Community Services District, one a four-year seat and the other a two-year seat, have failed to attract any candidates as of Tuesday.
There are also no candidates to run for two seats on the Riverdale Park Tract Community Services District.
Voters in Ceres and the mostly western half of Stanislaus County voters will be deciding if Congressman John Duarte, R-Modesto, returns to the 13th Congressional District or is replaced by Adam Gray, a Merced Democrat and former state Assemblyman who lost two years ago. The eastern half of the county – including Hughson and most of Modesto – mostly falls within the 5th Congressional District occupied by Tom McClintock. McClintock is being challenged by perennial Democrat candidate Michael “Mike” Barkley of Manteca.
Eastern Stanislaus County residents – including Hughson – will vote in the 9th Assembly District. Currently Heath Flora, a Ripon Republican, holds the seat and remains popular with his voters. He is being challenged by Tami Nobriga, who is an American Independent Party candidate, retired advertising businesswoman and conservative Christian.
Voters in the 22nd State Assembly District will decide if Juan Alanis, R-Modesto, goes back to Sacramento or is replaced by Democrat Jessica Self. Self, a public defender who ran for the office two years ago . She was defeated by Alanis by a margin of 58.1 percent to 41.9 percent. The 22nd Assembly district includes Ceres as well as Keyes, Modesto, Turlock, Empire, Denair, Patterson, Gustine, Newman, Hilmar, Ballico, Snelling, Grayson, Crows Landing, Diablo Grande and Stevinson.
In the Yosemite Community College District Trustee Area 7, which encompasses Ceres, running are incumbent board trustee Antonio Aguilar and his challenger, M. Geri Vargas of Ceres, a retired executive assistant.
Voters in California will decide who will represent them in the U.S. Senate. Democratic Party candidate Rep. Adam Schiff is running against Republican Steve Garvey, a former professional baseball player. Whoever wins will replace short-term appointee Senator Laphonza Butler.
The biggest contest is, of course, the presidential election in what has been the strangest candidate season in history. President Joe Biden went through the primary season as the Democratic Party nominee but was ousted due to political pressure. Headed into the Democratic National Convention, it appears that Vice President Kamala Harris is taking his place, with a possible floor fight for delegates going to another candidate. Harris announced her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, last week.
Former President Donald Trump and his vice presidential pick, U.S. Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio were nominated as the Republican ticket weeks ago.
