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City of Needles · Statewide General Election

Needles 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 open, at-large seats on Needles's 6-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the separately elected Mayor. All six Council seats are elected citywide rather than by district, on a staggered 4-year term -- the other three seats (currently Vice Mayor Ellen Campbell, Tona Belt, and Larry Ford) were last up in November 2024 and aren't on this ballot.

Five candidates -- incumbents Henry Longbrake and Jamie McCorkle, and challengers Charles Dressler, Sandra Queen Noble, and Wayne Colburn -- are running for three open, at-large seats on Needles's City Council on the November 3, 2026 ballot. Whoever gets the three highest vote totals wins outright -- there is no primary or runoff.

This person would hold one of three open seats on Needles's 6-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the separately elected Mayor. All six Council seats are elected citywide rather than by district, on a staggered 4-year term -- the other three seats (currently Vice Mayor Ellen Campbell, Tona Belt, and Larry Ford) were last up in November 2024 and aren't on this ballot.

Longbrake and McCorkle are both seeking another term after first winning their seats. A third incumbent whose term also expires this cycle, JoAnne Pogue, did not file for re-election and is not on the ballot -- leaving three open seats for five candidates rather than an incumbents-versus-challengers race for all three.

Henry Longbrake

Henry Longbrake is a sitting Needles City Councilmember, in office since moving to the city in 2017, now seeking another term. His filed ballot designation is "City Council Member." The city's own site notes he works with the Sheriff's K9 unit and hosts a local radio show.

Strengths

Four years of sitting council experience since moving to Needles in 2017; a public-safety-adjacent background through his work with the Sheriff's K9 unit.

Trade-offs

No campaign-finance committee was found under his name, and no independent news coverage of his council record was found in this pass.

Keep in mind

He also hosts a local radio show, per the city's own bio page -- a public-facing role distinct from his council seat, worth knowing alongside his voting record.

Jamie McCorkle

Jamie McCorkle is a sitting Needles City Councilmember, a resident since 2001, now seeking another term. Her filed ballot designation is "Incumbent." The city's own site credits her marketing and project-management background toward downtown development, off-highway-vehicle (OHV) tourism planning, and cannabis-tax enforcement work on the council.

Strengths

Four years of sitting council experience; a marketing and project-management background the city's own bio page credits toward downtown development and OHV-tourism planning work.

Trade-offs

No campaign-finance committee was found under her name, and no independent news coverage of her council record was found in this pass.

Keep in mind

Her own bio also credits her with pushing cannabis-tax enforcement -- a specific policy focus worth weighing against a challenger field with no comparable record to compare it to.

Charles Dressler

Charles Dressler is a candidate for Needles City Council whose filed ballot designation is "No Ballot Designation Requested." No campaign-finance committee, independent news coverage, or biographical detail beyond his own candidacy was found for him in this pass.

Strengths

No independent background beyond his own candidacy was found in this pass -- stated plainly, not as a mark against him.

Trade-offs

No campaign committee, financial disclosure, or independent news coverage of any kind was found under his name.

Keep in mind

He filed no ballot designation, which the county's own form allows -- it isn't evidence of anything beyond his own choice not to list an occupation.

Sandra Queen Noble

Sandra Queen Noble is a candidate for Needles City Council whose filed ballot designation is "No Ballot Designation Requested." A campaign-finance filer record under the name "Noble, Sandra" on the county's shared NetFile portal shows two short-form filings dated October 15, 2015 -- neither carries a dollar figure, and neither is tied to a named office in the filing metadata, so this dataset cannot confirm it belongs to the same Sandra Queen Noble running in 2026.

Strengths

A filer record under this name shows a short-form 2015 disclosure -- possible evidence of a prior run for local office, though not confirmed as the same seat.

Trade-offs

That 2015 filing is a decade old and carries no dollar figures; nothing was found tying it to a specific office, and no committee or filing was found for this 2026 cycle.

Keep in mind

She filed no ballot designation, which the county's own form allows -- it isn't evidence of anything beyond her own choice not to list an occupation.

Wayne Colburn

Wayne Colburn is a candidate for Needles City Council whose filed ballot designation is "Non Profit President." No campaign-finance committee, independent news coverage, or further biographical detail was found for him in this pass.

Strengths

A nonprofit-leadership background, per his own filed ballot designation "Non Profit President" -- distinct experience from both incumbents' and the other two challengers'.

Trade-offs

No campaign committee, financial disclosure, or independent news coverage of any kind was found under his name in this pass.

Keep in mind

Nothing beyond his own filed ballot designation was found describing which nonprofit he leads or his platform -- a documented gap in what's publicly available.

Source review: Strong (88/100) · 6 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- "Offices Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election" (the same document as sb-offices-up-2026, a different section): lists exactly two City of Needles offices -- "City of Needles, Mayor" (1 seat, 2-year term) and "City of Needles, Member, City Council" (3 seats, 4-year term).
  • uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- statewide "Report_CandidateList.pdf" candidate-filing report (the same document as sb-candidate-list-2026, a different section): the "City of Needles" section (pp. 155-158 of 249) names two qualified 2026 Mayor candidates -- Jeff Williams ("Retired Deputy Sheriff") and Janet Jernigan (flagged Incumbent, "Mayor") -- and five qualified City Council candidates for three at-large seats -- Sandra Queen Noble and Charles Dressler (both "No Ballot Designation Requested"), Henry Longbrake (flagged Incumbent, "City Council Member"), Wayne Colburn ("Non Profit President"), and Jamie McCorkle (flagged Incumbent, "Incumbent") -- each "Last Updated: 8/28/2026."
  • cityofneedles.com (opens in a new tab)City of Needles -- City Clerk's Election Information page: confirms the same two offices and term lengths (Mayor, 1 seat, 2 years; City Council, 3 seats, 4 years each), the July 13-August 7, 2026 nomination filing period (extendable to August 12 for City Council seats under Elections Code section 10225), and names the same seven qualified 2026 candidates as the county's own candidate list.
  • cityofneedles.com (opens in a new tab)City of Needles -- City Council page: names the sitting seven-member governing body (Mayor Janet Jernigan, Vice Mayor Ellen Campbell, and Council Members Henry Longbrake, Jamie McCorkle, JoAnne Pogue, Tona Belt, and Larry Ford) with each one's term-expiration date, confirming which three council terms (Longbrake, McCorkle, Pogue) expire this cycle and which three (Campbell, Belt, Ford) are on the other half of the staggered cycle, not up until 2028; states outright that "the Mayor is elected for a two-year term and there are six City Council members who are elected to serve four-year terms"; and gives each officeholder's own short biography.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Needles, California": incorporated October 30, 1913; a charter city with an elected Mayor and a six-member City Council; independently states "Mayors serve two-year terms of office, and councilmembers serve four-year terms," citing the city's own site, and that "the council designates a vice mayor from among its members."
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County's shared NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (aid=SBD -- Needles does not appear to have its own city-specific portal, unlike some other San Bernardino County cities in this file), queried by name via its own QuickNameSearch/filings-by-filer JSON API for all seven 2026 candidates: Jernigan, Williams, Longbrake, McCorkle, Dressler, and Colburn each returned zero filers or committees. A "Noble, Sandra" filer/committee record returned exactly two filings, both dated October 15, 2015 -- a short-form FPPC Form 470 and a Form 501 candidate-intention statement, neither carrying a dollar figure and neither tied to a named office in the filing metadata itself -- which may or may not be the same Sandra Queen Noble running in 2026; nothing found in this pass confirms or rules out the connection.

Last updated August 31, 2026.