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City of Citrus Heights · Statewide General Election

Citrus Heights City Council, District 2

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 would hold one of three Citrus Heights City Council seats up this cycle: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, under a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager, for a 4-year term. The five-member council selects one of its own to serve as Mayor for a one-year term -- this is a district council seat, not a separately elected mayor's office.

Two candidates are running for this Citrus Heights City Council seat: incumbent Mayor MariJane Lopez-Taff, seeking a second term, against first-time challenger Charles Stone, a retired law-enforcement officer.

Citrus Heights' City Council has five members, each elected from one of five districts, under a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager. Councilmembers set city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions. A 4-year term. The council itself selects one member to serve a rotating, one-year term as Mayor -- Lopez-Taff currently holds that title, but it is separate from this District 2 seat and returns to a council vote regardless of who wins here.

Whoever gets more votes wins outright -- there is no primary and no runoff. This election fills three of Citrus Heights' five council seats (Districts 2, 4, and 5); Districts 1 and 3, elected in Nov. 2024, are not up again until 2028.

MariJane Lopez-Taff

The incumbent, elected to this District 2 seat in Nov. 2022 and currently serving the council's rotating one-year term as Mayor; her filed ballot designation is "City of Citrus Heights Councilmember." An only child born and raised in San Francisco, she and her husband moved to Citrus Heights in 2000; she previously owned a small consulting and training firm and now works as Programs Manager at a local education-focused nonprofit. She is active in the Citrus Heights Chamber of Commerce, Soroptimists International of Citrus Heights, and the Citrus Heights Women's Club (where she also holds a National Committee Chair role with the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs), and represents the city on nine boards and committees, including the Sacramento Public Library Authority and the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District. Her stated priorities are safe streets, economic development, and K-12 education quality.

Strengths

A full term already in the seat, current service as the council's rotating Mayor, and a broad record of local civic and nonprofit involvement.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent (non-official, non-campaign-finance) reporting evaluating her first term's record.

Keep in mind

Her stated priorities (safe streets, economic development, K-12 education quality) come from her own official city bio, not an independent interview -- useful as a stated platform, not a verified record.

Charles Stone

A first-time candidate; his filed ballot designation is "Retired Law Enforcement," with no agency or department named. This dataset searched the city's own site, the Citrus Heights Sentinel's archive, Wikipedia, Ballotpedia, and general web search and found no campaign website, news coverage, or further biographical detail beyond that self-declared occupation.

Strengths

not established in the sourcing found for this race.

Trade-offs

as a first-time candidate with no located public record beyond his filed paperwork, voters have little beyond his name, his prior occupation, and the fact that he qualified for the ballot.

Keep in mind

this is a documented sourcing gap, not evidence against him -- a real, multi-method search turned up nothing further to report.

Source review: Strong (83/100) · 4 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • elections.saccounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Sacramento County Voter Registration & Elections — Roster of Candidates, November 3, 2026 General Election
  • citrusheightssentinel.com (opens in a new tab)Citrus Heights Sentinel — "Interested in serving on Citrus Heights' City Council? Candidate filing begins July 13" (2026-07-07): names the three seats up this cycle (Districts 2, 4, 5) and each sitting holder, the July 13–Aug. 7 filing window, and candidate eligibility rules.
  • citrusheightssentinel.com (opens in a new tab)Citrus Heights Sentinel — "Five candidates to run for Citrus Heights City Council" (2026-08-07): names all five qualified candidates across the three districted races, distinguishing the three incumbents from the two first-time challengers.
  • citrusheights.net (opens in a new tab)City of Citrus Heights — official biography page for Mayor MariJane Lopez-Taff (District 2): elected Nov. 2022, term through Dec. 2026; career, community-organization memberships, and city board/committee assignments.

Last updated September 1, 2026.