Skip to main content

City of Galt · Statewide General Election

Galt 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 would hold one of five district seats on the Galt City Council, which sets the budget, ordinances, and land-use decisions for this Sacramento County city of about 25,000. This is Galt's first council election by district: after an Aug. 2024 California Voting Rights Act demand letter, the city adopted district-based elections in March 2025, replacing its previous at-large system. A 4-year term.

Incumbent Council Member Paul Sandhu, first elected in 2022, faces one challenger, Tom Silva, for this district seat.

This is one of five district seats on the Galt City Council, which sets the city's budget, ordinances, and land-use decisions. It's a newly created district: Galt elected its Council entirely at-large until a 2024 California Voting Rights Act demand letter pushed the city to adopt district-based elections (Ordinance No. 2025-04, March 27, 2025). Sandhu was elected to the Council at-large in 2022, before the district system existed, and now seeks a new term representing District 5 specifically. A 4-year term.

Both candidates have run for this Council before: Sandhu won his seat in 2022, while Silva ran a full campaign for the same Council that same year and was not elected. Sandhu's 2026 campaign has stepped up from an initial short-form filing to a formal fundraising committee; Silva's has not yet done so.

Paul Sandhu

The incumbent, first elected to Council in 2022; his filed ballot designation is "City Council Member." His own city biography describes immigrating to the United States from India in his early twenties after earning a Bachelor's degree, then a 25-year career in United States Postal Service management before early retirement. He is a local Galt business owner, served 6 years on Galt's Planning Commission (as both Chair and Vice Chair), sits on the Galt Chamber of Commerce board, and is active in the Galt Sunrise Rotary and Galt Shop Local; he has lived in Galt for 25 years. His 2026 campaign filed an initial Form 470 in July, then opened a formal Form 410 fundraising committee Aug. 5 (amended Aug. 24).

Strengths

a full term already on the Council, a long pre-politics management career, and years of prior local civic involvement (Planning Commission, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary) before he was first elected.

Trade-offs

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

Keep in mind

his move from a short-form Form 470 to a formal Form 410 committee mid-summer suggests he is actively fundraising for a contested race, but no Form 460 with dollar totals is on file yet as of this dataset's retrieval.

Tom Silva

A repeat candidate; his filed ballot designation is "Retired Master Sergeant." City of Galt campaign-disclosure records show he ran a full campaign for this same Council in 2022 (a Form 410 committee through a January 2023 termination) and was not elected -- he does not appear on the city's current Council roster. This dataset found no campaign website, news coverage, or further biographical detail beyond his self-declared occupation and this filing history. His 2026 campaign has filed only an FPPC Form 501 to date, no committee yet.

Strengths

a retired military background (Master Sergeant) and a second run at this same seat, suggesting sustained interest in serving.

Trade-offs

his 2022 campaign for this Council did not succeed, and this dataset found no independent reporting on either that run or this one.

Keep in mind

no Form 460 is on file for his 2026 campaign yet, so there's no current fundraising picture -- only his 2022 filing history, which is a different election cycle.

Source review: Strong (85/100) · 6 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • elections.saccounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Sacramento County Registrar of Voters -- unified countywide Nov 2026 candidate report, queried directly for Galt's three City Council contests (Districts 1, 3, 5), all flagged "On Ballot: Yes": District 1, Mark A Jackson ("Small Business Owner", Incumbent: No); District 3, Bonnie Rodriguez ("Contract Analyst", Incumbent: No); District 5, Paul Sandhu ("City Council Member", Incumbent: Yes) and Tom Silva ("Retired Master Sergeant", Incumbent: No).
  • cityofgalt.org (opens in a new tab)City of Galt -- live "City Council" roster page (read via a Google Translate proxy after cityofgalt.org itself returned HTTP 403 to direct fetches in this pass; content is the city's own official page, not a translation of substance): names Mayor Bonnie Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Tim Reed, and Council Members Shawn Farmer, Paul Sandhu, and Mathew Pratton, with per-member term-expiration years of 2026 for Rodriguez, Farmer, and Sandhu and 2028 for Reed and Pratton -- confirming three of Galt's five Council seats are up this cycle, matching the county's three-contest count.
  • cityofgalt.org (opens in a new tab)City of Galt -- "District Elections Overview" page (read via the same Google Translate workaround): the city received an Aug. 24, 2024 CVRA demand letter from Shenkman & Hughes, PC; the Council adopted Resolution No. 2024-89 (Oct. 1, 2024) declaring intent to move from at-large to district elections, then Ordinance No. 2025-04 (March 27, 2025) establishing the district boundaries, with the district system "debuting in the 2026 election" -- this is Galt's first-ever district-based Council election.
  • cityofgalt.org (opens in a new tab)City of Galt -- "Campaign Financial Disclosure and Statements of Economic Interests Filings" page (read via the same Google Translate workaround), listing every FPPC filing on record for all four 2026 Council candidates: Mark A. Jackson (Form 501 only, filed July 22, 2026 -- no earlier Galt candidacy on file); Bonnie Rodriguez (2026 Form 501 Aug. 3 and Form 470 July 27, plus a continuous filing history back to a Form 410 committee opened Aug. 14, 2024 and terminated via Form 460 Dec. 30, 2024 -- an active 2024 candidacy under the same name with the City of Galt); Paul Sandhu (2026 Form 470 July 20 stepped up to a Form 410 committee Aug. 5, amended Aug. 24, plus a full 2022 campaign -- Form 410 through Form 460 termination -- matching his 2022 Council election); Tom Silva (2026 Form 501 only, filed Aug. 6, 2026, plus a full but ultimately unsuccessful 2022 Council campaign -- Form 410 through a Jan. 2023 termination, and he does not appear on the city's current Council roster).
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's Galt, California article -- 2020 census population 25,383; incorporated Aug. 16, 1946; Sacramento County. Its government infobox lists Shawn Farmer as Mayor and Paul Sandhu as Vice Mayor, at odds with the city's own live roster page naming Bonnie Rodriguez as Mayor and Tim Reed as Vice Mayor -- this dataset treats the city's own live page as authoritative over Wikipedia's evidently stale infobox for current leadership titles, using Wikipedia here only for population and incorporation facts.
  • cityofgalt.org (opens in a new tab)City of Galt -- official biography page for Council Member Paul Sandhu (read via the same Google Translate workaround): immigrated to the US from India in his early twenties after a Bachelor's degree; 25 years in USPS management before early retirement; a local Galt business owner; 6 years on Galt's Planning Commission (Chair and Vice Chair); board member of the Galt Chamber of Commerce; active in the Galt Sunrise Rotary and Galt Shop Local; a 25-year Galt resident.

Last updated September 1, 2026.