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City of Banning · Statewide General Election

Banning City Council, District 5

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person holds your district's seat on Banning's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this San Gorgonio Pass city between Beaumont and Cabazon. A 4-year term, staggered across the 5 districts. Banning has no separately elected Mayor -- the council appoints one of its own members Mayor each year (and another Mayor Pro Tem), rotating the titles among sitting councilmembers from different districts; day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager under Banning's council-manager form of government. The City Clerk and City Treasurer are separately elected citywide offices, not on this cycle's ballot.

Incumbent Colleen Wallace, first elected in November 2022, faces two challengers -- Chris Castorena and Christian Villagran -- for Banning's District 5 City Council seat on the November 3, 2026 ballot. Whoever gets the most votes wins a 4-year term; there is no primary or runoff.

This person holds your district's seat on Banning's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this San Gorgonio Pass city between Beaumont and Cabazon. A 4-year term, staggered across the 5 districts. Banning has no separately elected Mayor -- the council appoints one of its own members Mayor each year (and another Mayor Pro Tem), rotating the titles among sitting councilmembers from different districts; day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. The City Clerk and City Treasurer are separately elected citywide offices, not on this cycle's ballot.

Wallace is on the city's standard cycle: her current term, from her November 2022 election, runs through December 2026. She previously served a term as the council-selected Mayor herself, in 2020-2021. Castorena currently serves on the city's own Planning Commission. No independent news coverage was found for either challenger despite a genuine search; their entries below rely on the city's own certified filing records and, for Castorena, his own state campaign-finance disclosure.

Chris Castorena

Chris Castorena is a challenger for Banning's District 5 seat. He currently serves on the city's own Planning Commission (term through January 2027), per the city's official roster. His own FPPC filing discloses a small project-management and economic-development consulting practice, run both as a sole proprietorship and through a single-member LLC ("Civarrio LLC"), based at his own Banning address.

Strengths

Current service on the city's own Planning Commission, giving direct experience with land-use matters the Council oversees, plus a background in project-management/economic-development consulting.

Trade-offs

No independent (non-city, non-self-filed) reporting on his Planning Commission record or consulting work was found in this research pass.

Keep in mind

The link between the Planning Commissioner and this candidate rests on a matching name and city, not an explicit cross-reference in either city record.

Christian Villagran

Christian Villagran is a challenger for Banning's District 5 seat. No ballot designation, independent biography, occupation detail, or platform statement was found for him beyond the city's own certified candidate record and his own state campaign filings.

Strengths

None could be independently confirmed in this research pass beyond the city's own certified candidate record.

Trade-offs

No independent biography, professional background, or stated platform was found beyond that filing record.

Keep in mind

With no public record of his priorities beyond qualifying to run, this is a vote based on the ballot itself, not a documented record.

Colleen Wallace

Colleen Wallace is the incumbent, seeking another term after first winning this seat in November 2022. She previously served a term as the council-selected Mayor, in 2020-2021. Per her own city biography, her career includes 30 years managing a group home for children in addiction and substance-abuse treatment, and extensive regional civic involvement including transportation-policy appointments to SCAG and SANDAG.

Strengths

A term already served, including a stint as the council-selected Mayor, plus a three-decade career working with youth in addiction treatment and regional transportation-policy involvement.

Trade-offs

No independent (non-city) reporting on her record in office was found in this research pass.

Keep in mind

Beyond her own city-published biography and campaign filings, no independent profile of her record in this seat was found in this research pass.

Source review: Strong (87/100) · 13 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Banning -- "Government" page: "The City of Banning was incorporated in 1913 as a general law city with a Council-Manager form of government. The City has 5 elected council members, one of which is appointed mayor by the Council every year" -- states plainly that Banning has no separately elected Mayor, and lists an elected City Clerk and elected City Treasurer as further citywide offices distinct from the 5 district council seats.
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Banning -- "Past Mayors of Banning" roster (1913 to present): shows the council-selected Mayor title passing to a different sitting councilmember almost every year in the recent record -- Colleen Wallace (2020-2021), Kyle Pingree (2021-2022), Alberto Sanchez (2022-2024), Sheri Flynn (2024-2025) -- independently corroborating, with actual named officeholders over time, the annual rotation the city's own Government page describes in the abstract.
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Banning -- "Current City Council Districts" page: the city's 5 single-member council districts were last redrawn by Ordinance 1581 following the 2020 Census (process 2021-2022); links to detailed boundary maps and an address-lookup tool.
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Banning -- City Clerk's Office "2026 General Election" page: "There are two Council Member seats on the November 3, 2026 ballot, representing City Council Districts 4 and 5," with the nomination period (July 13 - Aug. 7, 2026) stated directly.
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Banning -- City Clerk's Office "2026 General Election Candidates & Campaign Filings" page: names all six qualified candidates by district -- District 4: Nathaniel Rodriguez, Richard Royce (Incumbent), Marco Santana; District 5: Chris Castorena, Christian Villagran, Colleen Wallace (Incumbent) -- with a table linking each candidate's filed Code of Fair Campaign Practices, FPPC Form 700, Form 501, Form 460 and Form 410 as applicable.
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)Chris (G. Christopher) Castorena's own filed FPPC Form 501 (Candidate Intention Statement) with the Banning City Clerk's Office (received Dec. 8, 2025; address/phone/email redacted in the city's posted copy): non-partisan City Council, District 5, City of Banning, 2026, executed December 8, 2025 -- one of the earliest of the six filings, well before the July-August 2026 nomination period opened.
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)Christian M. Villagran's own filed FPPC Form 501 (Candidate Intention Statement) with the Banning City Clerk's Office (received March 18, 2025): 1455 N Valley Drive, Banning; non-partisan City Council, District 5, City of Banning, 2026, executed 03/18/2025.
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)Colleen Wallace's own filed FPPC Form 501 (Candidate Intention Statement) with the Banning City Clerk's Office (received May 14, 2025): 1337 Vista Serena, Banning; non-partisan City Council, District 5, City of Banning, 2026, executed 05/14/2025 (the printed election-year field was hand-corrected from 2025 to 2026).
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)Chris Castorena's own filed FPPC Form 700 (Statement of Economic Interests), filed 07/31/2026, position "City/Town Council Member," City of Banning, election 11/03/2026 -- unlike the other five candidates, Castorena's Schedule A-2 reports two small business interests at the same Banning address (45 Santa Rita Pl.): a sole proprietorship under his own name (Owner/Independent Contractor) and "Civarrio LLC" (Managing member, single-member LLC), both doing "project management and economic development consulting," each with gross income under $1,999 and no reportable single source of income of $10,000 or more.
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)Christian Villagran's own filed FPPC Form 700 (Statement of Economic Interests), candidate cover page filed 08/05/2026: position "City/Town Council Member," City of Banning, election 11/03/2026; checks "None - No reportable interests on any schedule" and attaches no schedules.
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)Colleen Wallace's own filed FPPC Form 700 (Statement of Economic Interests), candidate cover page filed 08/04/2026: position "City/Town Council Member," City of Banning, election 11/03/2026; checks "None - No reportable interests on any schedule" and attaches no schedules.
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Banning -- "Colleen Wallace - Council Member" government biography page: "Elected to City Council November 2022. Term Ends December 2026. District 5" -- confirms her current term is the city's standard 4-year council term. Lists a 30-year career as a group-home manager for children in addiction/substance-abuse treatment, 5 years in Desert Hospital medical records, extensive local civic involvement (Banning Woman's Club, Pass Democratic Club, chair of the Community Action Partnership, SCAG/SANDAG transportation appointments, Vice Chair of the League of California Cities' transportation policy committee), and education (Banning High School, class of 1979; San Bernardino Valley College; Skadron College of Business).
  • banningca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Banning -- "Planning Commission" government page: current 5-member roster lists "Chris Castorena, Commissioner, Term Ends January 2027" -- the same name as the District 5 council candidate, in the same small city where his own FPPC filing places his consulting business; this dataset treats them as the same person on that basis, though the city's roster does not cross-reference the candidacy explicitly. Also confirms Commission terms are staggered 4-year terms, consistent with the Council's own term length.

Last updated August 31, 2026.