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City of Murrieta · Statewide General Election

Murrieta 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 holds your district's seat on Murrieta's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. A 4-year term. The council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor and another as Mayor Pro Tem -- the titles rotate rather than being separately elected -- and day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager.

Incumbent Cindy Warren faces challenger Luiz Valdez Jr. for Murrieta's District 5 City Council seat.

The winner holds one of five district seats on Murrieta's City Council, a 4-year term: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor and another as Mayor Pro Tem -- the titles rotate rather than being separately elected -- and day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. Whoever gets more votes wins; Murrieta elects its council directly, with no primary.

Warren filed and qualified July 30, 2026; Valdez qualified August 4, per the city's own nomination-papers record. No independent biography, occupation, or platform statement was found for Valdez beyond that record -- a documented gap: name searches across four search engines returned nothing relevant or were blocked by automated-traffic challenges this research could not clear, and a Facebook search returned no result.

Cindy Warren

The incumbent District 5 councilmember. Per the city's own biography page, she founded a design, print, and promotional-products business at age 24 that has operated for 42 years, and moved to Murrieta in fall 2013 after raising her family and building that business in Orange County. She has been active with the Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber of Commerce since 2014, including recognition as its 2018 Ambassador of the Year and 2021 Citizen of the Year.

Strengths

Incumbency, a four-decade record running a business, and over a decade of documented local civic involvement through the Chamber of Commerce.

Trade-offs

No documented policy disagreements or controversies were found in this research pass -- the record here is drawn entirely from the city's own biography of her, not independent reporting.

Keep in mind

Her city biography lists public safety, economic development, infrastructure/traffic, government transparency, and parks as her stated priorities -- self-described goals on an official city page, not independently verified accomplishments.

Luiz Valdez Jr.

A challenger, not a sitting officeholder, who qualified for the ballot August 4, 2026. No independent biography, occupation, or platform statement was found for him beyond the city's own filing record.

Strengths

None could be independently confirmed in this research pass.

Trade-offs

No incumbency, and no independent biography, professional background, or stated platform was found for him.

Keep in mind

With no public record to evaluate beyond his name and filing date, this is effectively a choice between continuity (the incumbent's record) and an unknown quantity (his candidacy).

Source review: Strong (89/100) · 7 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • murrietaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Murrieta City Clerk -- "Qualified Candidates Contact List for Member of the City Council Districts 1, 2, and 5": names every candidate who qualified for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Municipal Election by district (Jon Levell, District 1; Joshua Barton, Ron Holliday, and Keelan McCullough, District 2; Luiz Valdez Jr. and Cindy Warren, District 5), and states explicitly "No other qualified candidates for District 1."
  • murrietaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Murrieta City Clerk -- "List of Nomination Papers Issued and Filed for Member of the City Council Districts 1, 2 and 5," updated Aug. 7, 2026 (the close of the nomination period): gives each candidate's full legal name (Joshua Morgan Barton, not just "Joshua Barton") and filing/qualification dates, corroborating the qualified-candidates list above with a second, later-dated city record.
  • murrietaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Murrieta -- "Elections" / Election Central page: states the Nov. 3, 2026 General Municipal Election's nomination period (July 13 -- Aug. 7, 2026) and voter-registration deadline (Oct. 19, 2026), that Council members are "elected by-district," and cites Elections Code section 10227's district-residency requirement for candidates.
  • murrietaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Murrieta -- "City Council" government page: lists the current 5-member, by-district Council -- Jon Levell (Mayor, District 1), Ron Holliday (Mayor Pro Tempore, District 2), Lisa DeForest (District 3), Lori Stone (District 4), Cindy Warren (District 5) -- corroborating each 2026 incumbent's district and office, and showing the Mayor/Mayor Pro Tem titles attached to district seats rather than a separately elected office.
  • voteinfo.net (opens in a new tab)Riverside County Registrar of Voters — 2026 Annual Election Calendar (lists every November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election office by city, including "City of Cathedral City: City Council District 3 / District 4 / District 5 / City Treasurer")
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Murrieta, California": lists the current Mayor (Cindy Warren per this dataset's retrieval -- see note below), Mayor Pro Tem, and City Council, independently corroborating that Jon Levell, Ron Holliday, and Cindy Warren are sitting councilmembers; describes the city as a "Council-manager" government but does not explain Mayor selection or give council term lengths. (Wikipedia's own snapshot listed Cindy Warren, not Jon Levell, as Mayor -- an apparent lag behind the city's own current page, which this dataset follows as the more authoritative, more frequently updated source; Wikipedia is cited here only for roster corroboration, not for the Mayor title.)
  • murrietaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Murrieta -- Cindy Warren council-member biography page: founded a design, print, and promotional-products business at 24, operating for 42 years; moved to Murrieta in fall 2013; stated priorities are public safety, economic development, infrastructure/traffic, government transparency, and parks; active with the Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber of Commerce since 2014 (2018 Ambassador of the Year, 2021 Citizen of the Year).

Last updated August 31, 2026.