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City of Los Banos · Statewide General Election

Los Banos Mayor

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On the ballot

This person is Los Banos's directly elected, citywide Mayor: presides over City Council meetings and votes as a full member of the 5-person council (Mayor plus four district-elected Council Members) that sets city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Merced County city of about 45,532 residents (2020 Census). Unlike Council seats, the City Clerk, and the City Treasurer -- each a 4-year term -- the Mayor serves only 2 years. Day-to-day operations run through an appointed City Manager.

Incumbent Mayor Michael S. Amabile is unopposed for a full 2-year term on the November 3, 2026 ballot -- no other candidate qualified for Los Banos's directly elected Mayor's seat. Amabile, a longtime Los Banos restaurant owner who also served as Mayor from 1994 to 2006, was elected to his current term in November 2024.

The Mayor of Los Banos is directly elected citywide -- unlike most California cities, where the council chooses its own Mayor. The Mayor presides over City Council meetings and votes as a full member of the 5-person council (Mayor plus four district-elected Council Members) that sets city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Merced County city of about 45,532 residents (2020 Census). Uniquely among the city's elected offices, the Mayor serves only a 2-year term, while Council seats, the City Clerk, and the City Treasurer each serve 4-year terms. Day-to-day city operations run through an appointed City Manager.

Amabile's return to the Mayor's office follows a turbulent stretch for the rest of the council: a November 2024 recall election removed the sitting District 2 and District 3 councilmembers, and the council has filled those seats by appointment more than once since -- including twice on the District 2 seat, also on this ballot (see that contest).

Michael S. Amabile

Michael S. Amabile owns and operates Espana's Southwest Bar & Grill in Los Banos and previously served as Mayor for 12 years, from 1994 to 2006. Between his two mayoral stints, per his own city-published biography, he was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the San Joaquin Valley Economic Development Board and by Governor Brown to chair a joint Designated Land Authority for Merced and Los Banos, and has served as president of both the Los Banos Chamber of Commerce and the Westside Community Foundation. He currently also sits on the boards of the Merced County Association of Governments, the Merced County Formation Commission, Peninsula Clean Energy, and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District's oversight committee. His filed ballot designation for this race is "Businessman."

Strengths

Twelve years as Mayor before (1994-2006) plus regional-board experience -- MCAG, Peninsula Clean Energy, and the county's Formation and Air Pollution Control boards.

Trade-offs

No opponent qualified, so this election offers no comparison point; voters are ratifying a returning incumbent, not choosing between platforms.

Keep in mind

His day job -- owning a restaurant and bar in Los Banos -- is a direct financial stake in the city's business climate and hospitality permitting, worth knowing given his Council votes touch those same subjects.

No committee or disclosure record for Amabile's 2026 campaign was found this session. Merced County's own campaign-finance portal (eCampaign) requires an interactive, JavaScript-driven session this pass's automated tools could not complete, and California's CAL-ACCESS -- which covers only state-level committees, not local ones -- returned nothing useful either. This documents an absence of a reachable disclosure record, not any claim about Amabile's actual campaign finances.

Source review: Strong (86/100) · 6 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • countyofmerced.com (opens in a new tab)Merced County Elections -- official "Final Qualified Candidate List" for the November 3, 2026 General Election (22-page PDF, "Candidates flagged with Authority to Release," print-stamped 8/25/2026): confirms five Los Banos offices, each Vote For: 1 -- Mayor (Michael S. Amabile, "Businessman"), Councilmember District 2 (Refugio Morales Llamas, "Councilmember"), Councilmember District 3 (Erasmo Viveros, "Public Affairs Professional"; Marcus Chavez, "Transportation Coordinator"), City Clerk (Lucy Mallonee, "Incumbent"), and City Treasurer (Lucy Lawrence, "Los Banos City Treasurer") -- and gives each candidate's filed ballot designation verbatim.
  • losbanos.org (opens in a new tab)City of Los Banos -- own "Mayor & City Council Members" page: states the City Council is "made up of the Mayor and four Council seats," that "Council Members serve four-year terms while the Mayor serves a two-year term," and that "the City Clerk and City Treasurer are also elected positions and serve four-year terms." Its own "Terms of Office" table gives each current officeholder's exact term: Mayor Michael S. Amabile (Dec. 4, 2024 - Dec. 2026); District 1, vacant (TBD); Refugio Llamas, District 2 (March 9, 2026 - Dec. 2026); Marcus Chavez, District 3 (Jan. 8, 2025 - Dec. 2026); Mayor Pro Tem Deborah Lewis, District 4 (Nov. 5, 2024 - Dec. 2028); City Clerk Lucy Mallonee (Dec. 7, 2022 - Dec. 2026); City Treasurer Lucy Lawrence (Dec. 4, 2024 - Dec. 2026) -- confirming only Mayor, District 2, and District 3 are up in 2026 alongside the separately elected Clerk and Treasurer.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Los Banos, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population figure (45,532).
  • losbanos.org (opens in a new tab)City of Los Banos -- Mayor Michael S. Amabile's own city-published biography ("Michael S. Amabile: A Proven Leader for Los Banos," PDF linked from his Mayor's Web Office page): owner/operator of Espana's Southwest Bar & Grill; Mayor of Los Banos 1994-2006 (12 years) and again since his November 2024 election; appointments by Governors Schwarzenegger (San Joaquin Valley Economic Board) and Brown (Designated Land Authority chair for Merced and Los Banos); president of the Los Banos Chamber of Commerce and the Westside Community Foundation; current board seats on the Merced County Association of Governments, the Merced County Formation Commission, Peninsula Clean Energy, and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District's oversight committee; a "Small Town Mayor Award" from Washington, D.C.; AA (Merced College) and BA (Fresno State); married to Michelle Amabile, two children.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- its own Power Search scope statement covers state-level campaign-finance filings only, which excludes all six Los Banos candidates' local committees by definition; direct filer-search attempts for each name returned no usable result.
  • southtechhosting.com (opens in a new tab)A negative-result local campaign-finance check: Merced County's own eCampaign portal (hosted by SouthTech) is a client-rendered ASP.NET system requiring an interactive, JavaScript-driven search session; a public document-retrieval mirror (campaigndocs.co.merced.ca.us) exists but likewise requires interactive form postbacks this pass's automated fetch tools could not complete for any of the six Los Banos candidates. Documents an absence of a reachable disclosure source, not any candidate's actual campaign finances.

Last updated September 1, 2026.