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City of La Palma · Statewide General Election

La Palma City Council, District 4

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 La Palma's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. La Palma's Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem are chosen annually by the council from among its own members rather than directly elected, so there's no separate Mayor's race on this ballot. Only Districts 2 and 4 have terms expiring this cycle. A 4-year term.

Mary Paningsoro and Jonathan Dinwiddie are running for La Palma City Council District 4, an open seat -- the county's own record flags no incumbent here. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff.

This person holds District 4's seat on La Palma's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. La Palma's Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem are chosen annually by the council from among its own members rather than directly elected, so there's no separate Mayor's race on this ballot. Only Districts 2 and 4 have terms expiring this cycle. A 4-year term.

The county's own record marks this seat "No Incumbent Elected" -- an open seat. Neither candidate's filed ballot designation claims current city office, and neither appears on Wikipedia's current La Palma officeholder roster. Beyond each candidate's filed occupation, no independent profile, platform statement, or news coverage was found for either candidate in this pass despite a real, time-boxed search effort -- documented below as a gap, not filled in with speculation.

Mary Paningsoro

Filed her candidacy under the ballot designation "Community Volunteer." No campaign site, official city biography, or news coverage describing her background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort.

Strengths

A self-described community-volunteer background, which could reflect direct familiarity with local civic and neighborhood concerns.

Trade-offs

No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of her priorities beyond her listed occupation, and no record of prior elected office was found.

Keep in mind

CAL-ACCESS's filer-search tool was not checked in this pass -- see Financial info.

Jonathan Dinwiddie

Filed his candidacy under the ballot designation "Small Business Owner." No campaign site, official city biography, or news coverage describing his background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort.

Strengths

A small-business ownership background, which could be relevant to a council seat's budget and local-economy decisions.

Trade-offs

No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of his priorities beyond his listed occupation, and no record of prior elected office was found.

Keep in mind

CAL-ACCESS's filer-search tool was not checked in this pass -- see Financial info.

Source review: Strong (82/100) · 2 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with a narrow source base.

  • ocvote.gov (opens in a new tab)OC Registrar of Voters -- Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 -- City of La Palma section (pages 126-128 of 188, downloaded directly and parsed locally with pypdf since a plain fetch returns undecodable PDF stream data): confirms Member City Council District 2 (2 qualified candidates) and Member City Council District 4 (2) as the city's two November 2026 races, each Vote for 1, both marked "No Incumbent Elected," with every candidate's filed ballot designation -- and that no Mayor or other La Palma contest appears anywhere in the document
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's La Palma, California article: names the current officeholders -- Mayor Mark I. Waldman, Mayor Pro Tem Nitesh P. Patel, and Council Members Debbie S. Baker, Janet Keo Conklin, and Vikesh P. Patel -- confirming Nitesh P. Patel's current council service (he is a District 2 candidate this cycle) and, by describing a rotating Mayor/Mayor Pro Tem title rather than a separately elected Mayor's office, corroborating the county's Proof List showing no La Palma Mayor contest

Last updated August 31, 2026.