# Needles City Council

Compare records and positions simply between Wayne Colburn, Henry Longbrake, Charles Dressler, and 2 more for Needles City Council at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold one of three open, at-large seats on Needles's City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. A separately elected Mayor also sits on the council. All six Council seats are elected citywide, not by district. Terms are four years and staggered. The other three seats were last up in November 2024. Vice Mayor Ellen Campbell, Tona Belt, and Larry Ford hold those seats now. None of them are on this ballot.

- Jurisdiction: City of Needles
- Election: November 3, 2026 California general election
- Seats: 3
- Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements.
- Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/needles-council
- 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: August 31, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 6 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Wayne Colburn** — Non Profit President
- **Henry Longbrake** — City Council Member · Incumbent
- **Charles Dressler**
- **Sandra Queen Noble**
- **Jamie McCorkle** — Incumbent

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the 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. They vote on 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. Their filed ballot designation is "City Council Member." The city's own site notes they work with the Sheriff's K9 unit and host a local radio show.

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

**Trade-offs:** No campaign-finance committee was found under their name, and no independent news coverage of their council record was found in this pass.

**Keep in mind:** They also host a local radio show, per the city's own bio page -- a public-facing role distinct from their council seat, worth knowing alongside their 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 their own candidacy was found for them in this pass.

**Strengths:** No independent background beyond their own candidacy was found in this pass -- stated plainly, not as a mark against them.

**Trade-offs:** No campaign committee, financial disclosure, or independent news coverage of any kind was found under their name.

**Keep in mind:** They filed no ballot designation, which the county's own form allows -- it isn't evidence of anything beyond their 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:** They filed no ballot designation, which the county's own form allows -- it isn't evidence of anything beyond their 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 them in this pass.

**Strengths:** A nonprofit-leadership background, per their 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 their name in this pass.

**Keep in mind:** Nothing beyond their own filed ballot designation was found describing which nonprofit they lead or their platform -- a documented gap in what's publicly available.

## Sources

1. [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).](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_OfficesUpForElection.pdf)
2. [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."](https://uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov/ROV/Elections/2026/1103/Report_CandidateList.pdf)
3. [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.](https://www.cityofneedles.com/City-Clerks-Office/Election-Information)
4. [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.](https://www.cityofneedles.com/City-Council)
5. [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."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needles,_California)
6. [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.](https://netfile.com/public/SBD/campaign)

## The rest of the ballot

Needles City Council 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, "Needles City Council — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/needles-council (sources last retrieved August 31, 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.
