# Member of the State Assembly, District 16 Compare records and positions simply between Rebecca Bauer-Kahan or Joseph A. Rubay for Member of the State Assembly, District 16 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the California State Assembly (2-year term). - Jurisdiction: California Legislature - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-16 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 24, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 10 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Rebecca Bauer-Kahan** — Assemblymember/Mother · Democratic · Incumbent - **Joseph A. Rubay** — Businessman/Father · Republican Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan took 65.6% of the June 2 vote and Republican Joseph A. Rubay took 30.6% in the district's first three-way primary in more than a decade. The district covers the Tri-Valley in Contra Costa and Alameda counties. The winner holds one of 80 Assembly seats for a two-year term, inside a 12-year lifetime cap on service in Sacramento. An Assemblymember authors bills, sits on the policy committees that decide which bills advance, and argues for the district's share of the annual state budget. Committee assignment is where most of the leverage sits, and it is handed out by the majority's leadership rather than won at the ballot box. This is a rematch several times over, and the candidates disagree less about the district than about the state's books. One is running on legislation produced inside the majority; the other is running primarily against the budget that majority passes. Weigh whether you want this seat used to add to that legislative output or to argue against its cost. ## Rebecca Bauer-Kahan Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a Democrat, is the sitting Assemblymember for this Tri-Valley district, first elected in 2018 (official site). As an attorney, she "specialized in ensuring major corporations complied with environmental laws" and built her office's pro bono program to cover civil rights, immigration, homelessness and domestic-violence work; she also taught appellate law at Santa Clara University and Golden Gate University (official site). In the Assembly she chairs the Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection, after chairing the Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife, and has authored legislation on reproductive health, mental health and menopause care (official site). Her campaign site says she has "a passion for solving problems and making a difference" and has "worked tirelessly to tackle the issues that matter to local families." In September 2026, Governor Newsom signed Adam's Law (Senate Bill 1119), which Bauer-Kahan co-authored with Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and Senator Steve Padilla, setting nation-leading safety standards for AI companion chatbots used by children (official site). She promises to keep children safe online, stabilize California's homeowners-insurance market, invest more in local schools and protect reproductive rights, under what her campaign calls "Common Sense Solutions for Local Families" (campaign site). She says her approach is "working across the aisle and standing up to special interests to get things done" (campaign site). **Strengths:** Eight years in the Assembly with committee chairs in privacy, water and reproductive health, plus a signed law setting AI chatbot safety rules for children. **Trade-offs:** Her seniority puts her deep inside the majority's committee structure, a cost if you want a member with more distance from Sacramento's insiders. **Keep in mind:** This is a repeat matchup against the same challenger. The June margin was 35 points, in line with past cycles. ## Joseph A. Rubay Joseph Rubay, a Republican, is a real estate appraiser from Alamo who has run his own appraisal business for more than 30 years and previously worked as a certified public accountant (Contra Costa Herald; Ballotpedia). He chairs the Alamo Police Services Advisory Committee and sits on the Contra Costa County Fair Board, to which he was appointed under Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Pleasanton Weekly). He has not held elected office. This is his fourth run for this Assembly seat since 2020 (Ballotpedia). He says "the reason I am running is simple" and promises "common sense leadership" for the district (Contra Costa Herald). He has lost three previous runs for this seat, in 2020, 2022 and 2024 (Ballotpedia), and says of this campaign, "I plan to run every two years until I win" (Pleasanton Weekly). He promises to fund law enforcement instead of cutting it, prioritize victim support and hold repeat offenders accountable (Contra Costa Herald). He calls for cutting what he describes as wasteful state spending and taxes, auditing state agencies, and a "back-to-basics" school curriculum with more parental oversight of classroom content (Contra Costa Herald; Pleasanton Weekly). **Strengths:** Three decades running a local appraisal business and long service on county advisory boards, giving him direct familiarity with the district he is asking to represent. **Trade-offs:** No record in any office, and three previous losses in this same race since 2020. **Keep in mind:** He has run against this incumbent multiple times without winning. The June margin was 35 points, close to his past results. ## Record in office Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 33 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 11 of them signed into law. Joseph A. Rubay has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Bauer-Kahan — AB 302 (2026): Pupil and parental communication: extracurricular activities: addictive feeds. Bauer-Kahan — AB 1405 (2026): Artificial intelligence: auditors: registration. Bauer-Kahan — AB 56 (2025): Social media: warning labels. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Rebecca Bauer-Kahan** - Primary: $380,670 raised (Small donors: $387; Individuals: $29,783; PACs & committees: $190,500; Businesses & other orgs: $160,000) - November: $20,800 raised (PACs & committees: $7,400; Businesses & other orgs: $13,400) - **Joseph A. Rubay** - Primary: $35,025 raised (Small donors: $1,360; Individuals: $21,355; Businesses & other orgs: $165; Self-funding: $5,350) - November: No itemized funding reported yet. Figures are CA Form 460 filings through June 30, 2026 by committees controlled by each candidate, and can include transfers from a candidate's earlier committees. Semi-annual reports covering January–June 2026 were due July 31, 2026, so some totals lag a period behind. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-09-21. Joseph A. Rubay has no itemized contributions dated after the June 2, 2026 primary reported to Cal-Access yet. Total is itemized (Schedule A) contributions and self-funding loans dated after the June 2, 2026 primary, through June 26, 2026 — small-dollar unitemized (under $100) contributions aren't independently dated in Cal-Access's raw export, so they aren't reflected here and this may undercount true small-donor activity since the primary. This also doesn't include money reported only on 24-hour late-contribution reports (Form 497) that haven't yet appeared in a periodic Form 460 filing. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-08-30. ## Review notes - Rebecca Bauer-Kahan for Assembly and Joseph Rubay for Assembly may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [CA Secretary of State — Statement of Vote, June 2, 2026 primary (certified 2026-07-10)](https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/prior-elections/statewide-election-results/primary-election-june-2-2026/statement-vote) 2. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org) 3. [Pleasanton Weekly — Assembly District 16 candidate coverage](https://www.pleasantonweekly.com/election/2026/05/21/bauer-kahan-facing-two-challengers-in-race-for-assembly-district-16/) 4. [Contra Costa Herald — Assembly District 16 candidate interview](https://contracostaherald.com/candidate-for-16th-assembly-district-rubay-critical-of-californias-73-billion-deficit/) 5. [Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan — official Assembly website (biography and press releases)](https://bauer-kahan.asmdc.org/) 6. [Rebecca Bauer-Kahan for Assembly — campaign site (biography and priorities)](https://www.rebeccabauerkahan.com/) 7. [Ballotpedia — Joseph Rubay (biography, elections history, campaign finance history)](https://ballotpedia.org/Joseph_Rubay) 8. [Joseph Rubay for Assembly — campaign site](https://www.rubay4assembly.com/) 9. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 10. [Cal-Access raw data export — California Secretary of State](https://www.sos.ca.gov/campaign-lobbying/helpful-resources/raw-data-campaign-finance-and-lobbying-activity) ## The rest of the ballot Member of the State Assembly, District 16 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Member of the State Assembly, District 16 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-16 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.