# Citrus Heights City Council, District 2 Compare records and positions simply between MariJane Lopez-Taff or Charles Stone for Citrus Heights City Council, District 2 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold one of three Citrus Heights City Council seats this cycle. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. An appointed City Manager runs daily operations. The term is four years. The five-member council picks one member to serve as Mayor for a year. This is a district council seat, not a separate mayor's office. - Jurisdiction: City of Citrus Heights - 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/citrus-heights-council-2 - 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 1, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 83 out of 100 (Strong), across 4 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **MariJane Lopez-Taff** — City of Citrus Heights Councilmember · Incumbent - **Charles Stone** — Retired Law Enforcement A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. 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. The term is four years. 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; their filed ballot designation is "City of Citrus Heights Councilmember." An only child born and raised in San Francisco, Lopez-Taff and their husband moved to Citrus Heights in 2000; Lopez-Taff previously owned a small consulting and training firm and now works as Programs Manager at a local education-focused nonprofit. They are active in the Citrus Heights Chamber of Commerce, Soroptimists International of Citrus Heights, and the Citrus Heights Women's Club (where they also hold a National Committee Chair role with the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs), and represent the city on nine boards and committees, including the Sacramento Public Library Authority and the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District. Their 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 their first term's record. **Keep in mind:** Their stated priorities (safe streets, economic development, K-12 education quality) come from their own official city bio, not an independent interview -- useful as a stated platform, not a verified record. ## Charles Stone A first-time candidate; their 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 their filed paperwork, voters have little beyond their name, their prior occupation, and the fact that they qualified for the ballot. **Keep in mind:** this is a documented sourcing gap, not evidence against them -- a real, multi-method search turned up nothing further to report. ## Sources 1. [Sacramento County Voter Registration & Elections — Roster of Candidates, November 3, 2026 General Election](https://elections.saccounty.gov/content/vre/us/en/campaign-services/candidate-report.html) 2. [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.](https://citrusheightssentinel.com/2026/07/07/interested-in-serving-on-citrus-heights-city-council-candidate-filing-begins-july-13/) 3. [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.](https://citrusheightssentinel.com/2026/08/07/six-candidates-to-run-for-citrus-heights-city-council/) 4. [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.](https://www.citrusheights.net/Directory.aspx?EID=6) ## The rest of the ballot Citrus Heights City Council, District 2 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, "Citrus Heights City Council, District 2 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/citrus-heights-council-2 (sources last retrieved September 1, 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.