# Martinez City Council, District 1 Compare records and positions simply between Jay Howard or Nakenya Allen for Martinez City Council, District 1 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold one of Martinez's four district-elected City Council seats. Martinez also has a separately, citywide-elected Mayor. An appointed City Manager runs daily operations. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Martinez is the county seat of Contra Costa County. The term is four years. Whichever candidate gets the most votes wins. Martinez does not use ranked-choice voting. - Jurisdiction: City of Martinez - 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/martinez-council-1 - 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 7, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Jay Howard** — City Councilmember District 1 · Incumbent - **Nakenya Allen** — IHSS Care Worker A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Incumbent Jay Howard faces one challenger, first-time candidate Nakenya Allen, for Martinez's District 1 City Council seat -- the only Martinez city race voters will actually decide this November. This person would hold one of Martinez's four district-elected City Council seats, alongside a separately, citywide-elected Mayor, on a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use for Contra Costa County's county seat (about 37,000 residents as of the 2020 census). The term is four years. Whichever candidate gets the most votes wins -- no ranked-choice voting is documented for Martinez. Martinez's other two Nov. 2026 city races aren't decided by voters this cycle. Mayor Brianne Zorn and City Council District 4's Debbie McKillop each drew no challenger, and at its Aug. 19, 2026 meeting the City Council appointed both of them directly to new terms under California Elections Code Section 10229 rather than hold an election -- their offices will not appear on the November 3, 2026 ballot at all. District 1 is the only Martinez city contest voters will actually decide. ## Jay Howard The incumbent District 1 councilmember, seeking reelection; their filed ballot designation is "City Councilmember District 1." Elected in November 2022, Howard is the third generation of their family born and raised in Martinez's Alhambra Valley. Since 2014 they have been the Superintendent for G Swanson Construction, and serve on the boards of the Nor Cal Carpenters Regional Council's Union Local 152, Loaves and Fishes, and the Martinez Historical Society, as well as a delegate to the Carpenters' Regional Council spanning 46 counties. **Strengths:** a full first term on the council, deep Alhambra Valley roots, and construction-management experience. **Trade-offs:** this dataset found no independent reporting on Howard's first term -- their bio here is the city's own page, not outside journalism. **Keep in mind:** running as the incumbent, Howard has no confirmed 2026 campaign-finance figures on file here -- Martinez's own NetFile portal renders results client-side and could not be queried directly in this pass. ## Nakenya Allen A first-time candidate challenging the incumbent. Their filed ballot designation is "IHSS Care Worker" -- In-Home Supportive Services, the state-county program that pays caregivers to support elderly or disabled Californians living at home. This dataset searched the city's own site (their candidate statement is a PDF that Cloudflare blocks even through the workaround that reached the rest of the city's site), Ballotpedia, Wikipedia, the Martinez News-Gazette's own site search, 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, voters have little beyond Allen's name, their self-declared occupation, and the fact that they qualified for the ballot to go on. **Keep in mind:** this is a documented sourcing gap, not evidence against Allen -- a real, multi-method search (the city's own site, Ballotpedia, Wikipedia, local news, and general web search) turned up nothing further to report. ## Sources 1. [City of Martinez — City Clerk's "General Election 2026" page (read via a Google Translate proxy workaround after cityofmartinez.org itself returned HTTP 403 to direct fetches in this environment): the official notice that the Mayor and District 4 elections were cancelled and appointed in lieu of election under Elections Code Section 10229 at the City Council's Aug. 19, 2026 meeting, and the live candidate table naming both District 1 candidates (Jay Howard, incumbent, qualified 07/28/2026; Nakenya Allen, qualified 07/23/2026) with filed ballot designations and contact info, plus the Sept. 7 – Oct. 20, 2026 write-in filing window for District 1.](https://www.cityofmartinez.org/government/city-clerk/general-election-2026) 2. [City of Martinez — "Mayor and City Council" page (read via the same Google Translate proxy workaround): confirms the 5-member council-manager structure (at-large Mayor, four district Councilmembers, 4-year overlapping terms) and carries each sitting member's own official biography, including District 1's Jay Howard (elected Nov. 2022; Superintendent for G Swanson Construction since 2014; Alhambra Valley native), Mayor Brianne Zorn (elected Mayor Nov. 2022; professional wetland scientist), and District 4's Debbie McKillop (on the council since Nov. 2014; the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Chief of Forensic Services).](https://www.cityofmartinez.org/government/mayor-and-city-council) 3. [Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Positions Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": the only county-section contest in the document is County Board of Education Areas 2, 4, and 5 (under Schools) -- no Board of Supervisors, row office, or Superior Court seat appears anywhere, consistent with both Supervisor seats up this cycle (Districts 1 and 4) having been decided outright in the June 2026 primary](https://www.contracostavote.gov/wp-content/uploads/26Nov03_PositionsUpForElection.pdf) 4. [Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Contest/Candidate Proof List" (8-27-26_candidatelist_detail_final.pdf), the county's post-certification ballot-order-proofing export: shows Area 2 as a 3-candidate contest (Sarah Butler, incumbent; Pamela West; Sibyl Minighini) with each candidate's filed ballot designation and qualification date -- this export omits single-filer contests entirely, which is why Areas 4 and 5 do not appear in it (see cc-candidate-summary-2026)](https://www.contracostavote.gov/wp-content/uploads/8-27-26_candidatelist_detail_final.pdf) 5. [Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Candidate List" (8-14-26_candidatelist_summary_final.pdf), the county's complete qualified-candidate roster including single-filer contests: confirms Area 2 (Sarah Butler, Pamela West, Sibyl Minighini), Area 4 (Mike Maxwell, sole qualified candidate), and Area 5 (Clyde Henry Lewis, Jr., sole qualified candidate)](https://www.contracostavote.gov/wp-content/uploads/8-14-26_candidatelist_summary_final.pdf) 6. [Wikipedia's Martinez, California article — names Martinez as the county seat of Contra Costa County, with a 2020 census population of 37,287.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinez,_California) 7. [Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Positions Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": lists Martinez Mayor, Council District 1, and Council District 4 as the city's three offices with expiring terms this cycle.](https://www.contracostavote.gov/wp-content/uploads/26Nov03_PositionsUpForElection.pdf) 8. [Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Contest/Candidate Proof List" (8-27-26_candidatelist_detail_final.pdf), the county's post-certification ON-BALLOT export: shows Martinez Council District 1 as a 2-candidate contest (incumbent Jay Howard, legal name Jarl John Howard, and Nakenya Allen) -- this export omits single-filer contests entirely, which is why Martinez's Mayor and District 4 races do not appear in it (see martinez-cc-candidatelist-summary-2026).](https://www.contracostavote.gov/wp-content/uploads/8-27-26_candidatelist_detail_final.pdf) 9. [Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Candidate List" (8-14-26_candidatelist_summary_final.pdf), the county's complete qualified-candidate roster including single-filer contests: confirms Martinez Mayor (Brianne E. Zorn, sole qualified candidate) and Council District 4 (Debbie McKillop, sole qualified candidate) alongside the two-candidate District 1 field (Nakenya Allen, Jay Howard).](https://www.contracostavote.gov/wp-content/uploads/8-14-26_candidatelist_summary_final.pdf) ## The rest of the ballot Martinez City Council, District 1 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, "Martinez City Council, District 1 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/martinez-council-1 (sources last retrieved September 7, 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.