# Bakersfield City Council, Ward 4

Compare records and positions simply between Ryan Crowl or Bob Smith for Bakersfield City Council, Ward 4 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold one of seven ward seats on Bakersfield's City Council. The Mayor is elected separately and directly. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Bakersfield is a Kern County city of about 403,000 residents. Terms are four years and staggered. Roughly half the seven wards are up every two years. Wards 1, 3, 4, and 7 are up this cycle. Wards 2, 5, and 6 were elected in 2024 and are not up. Mayor Karen Goh is not on this ballot. She was last elected in 2024, and her term runs through 2028. Bakersfield has no elected City Clerk or City Treasurer. Both are appointed positions.

- Jurisdiction: City of Bakersfield
- 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/bakersfield-council-4
- 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: October 6, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 85 out of 100 (Strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Ryan Crowl**
- **Bob Smith** — Incumbent

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

Incumbent Bob Smith, on the Council since 2012, faces first-time candidate Ryan Crowl, a local aviation-business executive, for this northwest Bakersfield seat.

This person would hold one of seven ward seats on Bakersfield's City Council, alongside a separately, directly elected Mayor. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Kern County city of about 403,000 residents. The term is four years. Bakersfield has no separately elected City Clerk or City Treasurer; both are appointed positions. There is no run-off -- whichever candidate gets the most votes wins the seat outright.

Ward 4 is one of four Bakersfield wards up this cycle (with Wards 1, 3, and 7); Wards 2, 5, and 6 were last elected in 2024 and are not on this ballot. Smith ran unopposed in his 2022 re-election, so this is his first contested race since 2012.

## Bob Smith

The incumbent since 2012, running for re-election with over $100,000 cash on hand according to his own campaign announcement. He cites a jail-bed task force addressing "catch and release" of arrestees, the near-completed Centennial Corridor, a $60 million city reserve fund he says he helped establish, traffic-calming measures on city streets, new hiring for police, park rangers, code enforcement, and firefighters, and the Friant-Kern off-street bicycle path through northwest Bakersfield as his record. He is registered nonpartisan, and his campaign materials describe raising his family -- with his wife, Pam -- and now his grandchildren in Bakersfield.

**Strengths:** A 13-year Council tenure with a specific, self-reported list of accomplishments and by far the largest disclosed campaign war chest of any candidate in this shard.

**Trade-offs:** The accomplishments above come from Smith's own campaign release, carried by the Californian -- no independent reporting fact-checking those specific claims against city records was found.

**Keep in mind:** Having faced no opponent in 2022, his last genuinely contested race was in 2012 -- his record is long, but recent voter scrutiny of it in a live campaign is limited to this cycle.

## Ryan Crowl

A first-time candidate, 47, who has spent 10 years as president of the Bakersfield Jet Center by Loyd's Aviation, which sells fuel, rents hangars, and maintains aircraft. He holds a bachelor's degree in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a master's in business administration from Missouri State University. He is a father of three who said he has "been focused on running a business providing jobs for people here and their families, raising kids and (keeping) involved in my church," and that he now "thinks the city could do some things a little better."

**Strengths:** A decade running a local aviation business gives him direct experience with payroll, city permitting, and airport-adjacent operations that intersect with municipal governance.

**Trade-offs:** As a first-time candidate challenging a 13-year incumbent with over $100,000 on hand, he starts the race without an elected record or, as reported, comparable campaign resources.

**Keep in mind:** As of this dataset's retrieval, Crowl said he was holding off on campaign details until the filing deadline closed -- his fuller platform may not yet be public here; check his own campaign channels for anything published since.

## Sources

1. [Ballotpedia -- "City elections in Bakersfield, California (2026)": the full November 3, 2026 City Council candidate roster by ward -- Ward 1 (incumbent Eric Arias, Mercy Peña), Ward 3 (Cassie Bittle, Kathryn Halling, Seth Hewett, Juan Carlos "JC" Llamas, Pedro Naveiras; Johnny Olaguez listed separately as not making the ballot), Ward 4 (incumbent Bob Smith, Ryan Crowl), and Ward 7 (incumbent Manpreet Kaur, Angie Valdez) -- with an Aug. 7, 2026 filing deadline](https://ballotpedia.org/City_elections_in_Bakersfield,_California_(2026))
2. [Ballotpedia -- "Bakersfield, California": its City Council table gives a "Date term ends" year for every sitting member -- Wards 1, 3, 4, and 7 all read 2026, Wards 2, 5, and 6 all read 2028 -- and its election-history section states that in 2014, three cycles (12 years) prior on the same staggered rotation, "Wards 1, 3, 4 and 7 were up for election"; also confirms Mayor Karen Goh's term runs through 2028 after a combined Mayor-and-Council election in November 2024, and that the Nov. 3, 2026 City Council filing deadline was Aug. 7, 2026](https://ballotpedia.org/Bakersfield,_California)
3. [The Bakersfield Californian -- "Local election filing closes, with six potential candidates for Ward 3" (Peter Segall, Aug. 7, 2026): confirms Wards 1, 3, 4, and 7 are up this cycle, that Ward 3's filing period was extended to Aug. 12 because incumbent Ken Weir was not running, and transcribes the full candidate roster "listed online by the Kern County Elections Division as of 5 p.m. Friday" for every Bakersfield ward race -- names City Clerk Julie Drimakis as the office confirming candidate status](https://www.bakersfield.com/news/local-election-filing-closes-with-six-potential-candidates-for-ward-3/article_9fd8aab6-a8d5-4ec0-bf01-1fb95bb2c4ec.html)
4. [The Bakersfield Californian -- "City Council incumbents draw challengers ahead of Aug. 7 filing deadline" (July 31, 2026): earlier-stage filing status for all four Bakersfield ward races -- Ward 3 already the most competitive with four declared candidates and no certified incumbent bid; Ward 4 incumbent Bob Smith ("serving since 2012") facing challenger Ryan Crowl; Ward 1 incumbent Eric Arias facing Mercy Peña, a Greenfield Union School District trustee; Ward 7 incumbent Manpreet Kaur facing Angie Valdez](https://www.bakersfield.com/news/city-council-incumbents-draw-challengers-ahead-of-aug-7-filing-deadline/article_c05e2155-8529-4fef-a9bc-7452dfcec7ab.html)
5. [Wikipedia -- "Bakersfield City Council": a 7-member council elected from single-member wards to staggered 4-year terms, presided over by a directly elected Mayor; names the current roster by ward and party and the council's standing committees](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakersfield_City_Council)
6. [Kern County Elections Division -- its own "November 3, 2026, General Election" landing page, confirming the election date and linking to (but not itself substituting for) the county's "Candidate List" and "Contest/Candidate Proof List" documents; fetched via an Internet Archive Wayback Machine snapshot from Aug. 28, 2026 after the live site's WAF returned HTTP 403 to every direct automated fetch, the same block already documented elsewhere in this dataset for Kern County's own Board of Education filing](https://web.archive.org/web/20260828045357/https://www.kernvote.com/elections/upcoming-elections/november-3-2026-general-election)
7. [The Bakersfield Californian -- "Smith files for re-election, joining first-time contender Crowl": Bob Smith, on the Council since 2012, reported over $100,000 cash on hand for this race and cited a jail-bed task force, the near-completed Centennial Corridor, a $60 million city reserve fund, traffic-calming measures, new public-safety hires, and the Friant-Kern bike path as his record; Ryan Crowl, 47, is president of the Bakersfield Jet Center by Loyd's Aviation, holds a bachelor's in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and an MBA from Missouri State University, and is a first-time candidate](https://www.bakersfield.com/news/smith-files-for-re-election-joining-first-time-contender-crowl/article_4c7511eb-130a-4931-a9f2-13b6689b89bf.html)
8. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Bakersfield City Council Member, Ward 4' race (statewide All Races list): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus answers to the League's questions -- top three priorities; qualifying background, experience and education. No answers were on file at capture. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/bakersfield-council-4.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote)

## The rest of the ballot

Bakersfield City Council, Ward 4 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, "Bakersfield City Council, Ward 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/bakersfield-council-4 (sources last retrieved October 6, 2026).

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