City of Needles · Statewide General Election
Needles Mayor
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
- Jeff Williams — Retired Deputy Sheriff
- Janet Jernigan — Mayor · Incumbent
This person is Needles's directly elected, citywide Mayor: presides over City Council meetings and votes as a full member of the 7-person governing body (Mayor plus six at-large Council Members) that sets city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Colorado River city on Route 66. Needles is a charter city; day-to-day operations run through an appointed City Manager. Unusually, the Mayor's own term is 2 years while the six Council seats serve staggered 4-year terms -- a feature of Needles's own charter, not a vacancy or a partial-term appointment.
Incumbent Janet Jernigan, Mayor since 2022, faces challenger Jeff Williams, a retired deputy sheriff, on the November 3, 2026 ballot for Needles's directly elected Mayor. Whoever gets the most votes wins outright -- there is no primary or runoff.
This person is Needles's directly elected, citywide Mayor: presides over City Council meetings and votes as a full member of the 7-person governing body (Mayor plus six at-large Council Members) that sets city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Colorado River city on Route 66. Needles is a charter city; day-to-day operations run through an appointed City Manager.
Unusually, the Mayor's term is 2 years while the six Council seats serve staggered 4-year terms -- a structural feature of Needles's own charter, confirmed by the city's own site and independently by Wikipedia, not a vacancy or an appointment filling a partial term.
Janet Jernigan
Janet Jernigan is Needles's incumbent Mayor, first elected in 2022 and now seeking a second term. Her filed ballot designation is "Mayor." The city's own site describes her as bringing "business experience, involvement in community groups, and a love of Needles." In March 2026, accepting a $50,000 T-Mobile Hometown Grant for a Route 66 gateway-arch project at a ceremony at the historic El Garces Depot, she said: "Needles is honored to be selected as a recipient of a T-Mobile Hometown Grant," per PublicCEO's reporting.
Strengths
Four years as Mayor, more citywide executive experience than her opponent, and a dated instance of representing the city publicly at an independently reported grant ceremony.
Trade-offs
No FPPC campaign-finance committee was found under her name in the county's shared NetFile portal, and no independent news coverage of her broader record beyond that one event was found.
Keep in mind
Needles's charter gives the Mayor a 2-year term, half the 4-year term Council members serve -- a structural feature of the city's own governing document, not evidence of an appointment or a partial term.
Jeff Williams
Jeff Williams is a challenger for Needles Mayor whose filed ballot designation is "Retired Deputy Sheriff." No FPPC campaign-finance committee was found under his name in the county's shared NetFile portal, and California's CAL-ACCESS filer search was Incapsula-blocked outright on every attempt (a JavaScript challenge page, not search results) -- the same wall documented for every other San Bernardino County city in this dataset. No independent news coverage or campaign platform statement was found in this pass either.
Strengths
A law-enforcement career background, per his own filed ballot designation -- distinct experience from the incumbent's business and community-group background.
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 his background or platform -- a documented gap in what's publicly available, not evidence one way or the other about his qualifications.
Source review: Very strong (90/100) · 7 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.
- 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.
- publicceo.com (opens in a new tab)PublicCEO -- "City of Needles Receives $50,000 T-Mobile Hometown Grant for Route 66 Arch Project": Mayor Janet Jernigan accepted the grant at a March 2026 ceremony at the historic El Garces Depot, one of 25 communities nationwide selected from nearly 900 applicants; quotes her directly: "Needles is honored to be selected as a recipient of a T-Mobile Hometown Grant."
Last updated August 31, 2026.