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City of Mendota · Statewide General Election

Mendota City Council

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 three City Council seats up this cycle in Mendota, a Fresno County farming city of about 12,600 residents in the San Joaquin Valley: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. This dataset could not confirm whether Mendota's Mayor is directly elected or selected by the Council from among its own members, or the city's total council size, because the city's own official site (ci.mendota.ca.us) returned a broken-configuration error for every attempt this session -- and two look-alike domains, cityofmendota.org and a "City of Mendota" Facebook page, both turn out to belong to unrelated same-named cities in Minnesota and Illinois. Wikipedia independently names Victor Martinez as the sitting Mayor; he is also one of this contest's three incumbents, running here for a council seat rather than in a separate Mayor contest, consistent with (but not proof of) a Council-selected Mayor. Mendota has no elected City Clerk or City Treasurer in either county candidate document.

Four candidates are running for three of Mendota's City Council seats on November 3: incumbents Joseph Riofrio, Victor Martinez, and Libertad "Liberty" Lopez are all seeking another term against challenger Oscar Rosales.

This person would hold one of three at-large City Council seats up this cycle in Mendota, a Fresno County farming city of about 12,600 residents in the San Joaquin Valley, self-described as "The Cantaloupe Center of the World." This dataset could not confirm whether Mendota's Mayor is directly elected by voters or selected by the Council from among its own members, or the city's total council size, because the city's own official site (ci.mendota.ca.us) returned only a broken-configuration error for every fetch attempt this session -- and two look-alike domains, cityofmendota.org and a "City of Mendota" Facebook page, both turn out to belong to unrelated same-named cities in Minnesota and Illinois, not California's Mendota. Wikipedia independently names Victor Martinez, one of this contest's three incumbents, as the sitting Mayor; he is running here for a council seat rather than in a separate Mayor contest, which is consistent with (but does not prove) a Council-selected Mayor. Mendota has no elected City Clerk or City Treasurer in either Fresno County candidate document.

With four names on the ballot for three seats, this is a plurality race decided in one round -- the three highest vote-getters win outright. Two incumbents' filed ballot designation is simply "Incumbent," with no stated occupation; the third incumbent, Libertad "Liberty" Lopez, filed as "Clinician/Mother" instead -- Fresno County's own incumbent-of-record listing confirms she holds her seat by election even though she didn't use the word "Incumbent" on the ballot. Rosales's filed designation is "Maintenance Operations Director." None of the four candidates filed a Candidate Statement, and this dataset found no independent reporting comparing the four or covering the race.

Joseph R. Riofrio

An incumbent seeking another term; his filed ballot designation is simply "Incumbent," with no stated occupation. Fresno County's own records confirm he holds this seat by direct election, not appointment. This dataset found no independent biographical detail (occupation, background, or platform) for him beyond the county's own filing.

Strengths

A term already served on the Council, confirmed by the county's own incumbent-of-record listing.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent reporting or biography evaluating his record -- occupation, background, and platform are all unconfirmed here.

Keep in mind

No candidate statement was filed for this race per the county's own record, and no campaign site or social-media presence could be found for him this session.

Victor M. Martinez

An incumbent seeking another term; his filed ballot designation is simply "Incumbent," with no stated occupation. Fresno County's own records confirm he holds this seat by direct election, not appointment. Wikipedia independently confirms he currently serves as Mendota's Mayor, though this dataset could not confirm whether that title is directly elected or assigned by the Council from among its own members. This dataset found no further independent biographical detail for him beyond those two sources.

Strengths

A term already served on the Council plus current service as the city's Mayor, per Wikipedia.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent reporting evaluating his record in either role -- occupation, background, and platform beyond the Mayor title are unconfirmed here.

Keep in mind

No candidate statement was filed for this race per the county's own record.

Libertad "Liberty" Lopez

An incumbent seeking another term; her filed ballot designation is "Clinician/Mother" rather than the word "Incumbent." Fresno County's own separate incumbent-of-record listing confirms she holds this seat by direct election, not appointment, despite that filed designation. This dataset found no independent detail on what clinical role she holds beyond the two-word ballot designation.

Strengths

A term already served on the Council, confirmed by the county's own incumbent-of-record listing, plus a stated clinical background that this dataset could not independently verify or expand on.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent reporting or biography evaluating her record -- what "Clinician" means in practice, her background, and her platform are all unconfirmed here.

Keep in mind

No candidate statement was filed for this race per the county's own record, and she is the only one of the three incumbents who did not use "Incumbent" as her filed designation.

Oscar H. Rosales

The only challenger in the field, facing all three sitting incumbents; his filed ballot designation is "Maintenance Operations Director." This dataset found no independent biographical detail (what organization, background, or platform) for him beyond the county's own candidate filing.

Strengths

A stated operations-management occupation that could bring a facilities/logistics perspective to the Council, though this dataset could not independently verify or expand on it.

Trade-offs

No campaign materials, endorsements, or independent coverage were found for him.

Keep in mind

As the only challenger facing three incumbents for three seats, he has no council voting record to evaluate, and he qualified last among the four candidates this cycle.

Source review: Very strong (90/100) · 4 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • www2.fresnocountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters -- CFMR009 "Candidate List" for the Nov. 3, 2026 Consolidated Statewide General Election (printed 8/12/2026 5:37:13PM, post-filing-deadline): lists Mendota's single City Council contest (5120), Vote For 3, with Joseph R. Riofrio ("Incumbent"), Victor M. Martinez ("Incumbent"), Libertad "Liberty" Lopez ("Clinician/Mother"), and Oscar H. Rosales ("Maintenance Operations Director") as the four qualified candidates, none of whom filed a Candidate Statement
  • www2.fresnocountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters -- CFMR001 "Contest/Candidate Proof List," filtered to Contests on Ballot, for the Nov. 3, 2026 election (printed 8/18/2026 8:39:55AM): independently confirms Mendota's City Council contest (5120) as ON BALLOT, Vote For 3, 4 qualified of 4 filed, and separately names Victor Manuel Martinez Ayala, Libertad Esmeralda Lopez, and Joseph Ruben Riofrio as the seat's three incumbents-of-record, each reaching their current seat by direct election ("Elected"), not appointment
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's Mendota, California article: population 12,595 (2020 census), incorporated June 17, 1942, self-described as "The Cantaloupe Center of the World"; names Victor Martinez as Mayor and Jose Alonso as Mayor Pro Tempore, with no further detail on council size, term length, or how those titles are assigned
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)This dataset's own documented record of a blocked Cal-Access search for all four Mendota City Council candidates: cal-access.sos.ca.gov returned only an HTTP 403 Incapsula bot-detection response for every query attempted this session (WebFetch and direct curl alike), and no live browser session was available in this worktree to work around it; this dataset's own cached statewide Cal-Access snapshot carries no filer for any of the four (it covers only state-level contests). Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source for this contest, not any candidate's actual finances

Last updated September 1, 2026.