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City of Novato · Statewide General Election

Novato City Council, District 2

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 serve a 4-year term on Novato's 5-member City Council, representing District 2 -- a Marin County city of about 53,225 residents (2020 Census). Novato's Council is elected entirely by district to staggered 4-year terms, with the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem chosen each year by the Council from among its own members rather than elected directly.

Three candidates are running for Novato City Council District 2: incumbent Mayor Rachel Farac, Mike Little, and Bob Rasmussen. Whoever gets the most votes wins.

Novato's City Council has five members, each elected by district to a staggered four-year term; the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem are chosen each year by the Council from among its own members, rather than elected directly. District 2 is on Novato's west side. Novato is a Marin County city of about 53,225 residents (2020 Census).

Farac's term is expiring on schedule, not from any vacancy or appointment -- unlike Novato's District 5 seat, also on this ballot, which is filling the balance of a term after a councilmember's death in office. Little and Rasmussen are both first-time candidates for this seat.

Rachel Farac

Rachel Farac is the incumbent, currently serving as Mayor after previously serving as Mayor Pro Tem. She has represented District 2 through the current term and was directly involved in the Council's December 2025 process to appoint a replacement for the District 5 seat after Councilmember Mark Milberg's death in office.

Strengths

Direct experience in the Mayor's chair and on the Council during a recent unusual event (an in-term vacancy and appointment process).

Trade-offs

As the incumbent, she owns the current Council's record; no detailed 2026 campaign platform statement was found beyond her official capacity.

Keep in mind

The Mayor's title rotates among Council members annually -- it is not a separate elected office, and would not automatically follow her if she is reelected.

Mike Little

Mike Little grew up in foster care in Novato's own District 2, attending Hill Middle School and Novato High School. He has spent 15 years in the electric utility industry and currently works as a distribution design engineer specializing in high-voltage electrical systems, and serves as a shop steward with Engineers and Scientists of California, Local 20. He is a foster parent himself and has advocated before the Judicial Council of California that "kids belong with families, not in institutions." He says his brother Josh's death, and the difficulty he had obtaining public records about it afterward, motivated his run. His platform has four parts: protecting Measure M's dedicated sales-tax funding for streets, 911 staffing, and wildfire prevention; road repair; government transparency, citing a March 2026 increase in council compensation following the city's 2025 workers' strike; and pursuing state and federal grants for social services.

Strengths

A technical background (electrical engineering) matched to a platform plank (road repair), plus lived experience -- foster care, foster parenting -- behind his records-access platform.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed office; his motivating personal story comes only from his own campaign site.

Keep in mind

His platform is detailed but self-authored; no independent news profile was found.

Bob Rasmussen

Bob Rasmussen's ballot occupation is "Electric Incident Investigator." He works for Pacific Gas and Electric Company and is based in Novato.

Strengths

A specific, utility-industry occupation relevant to infrastructure and wildfire-prevention issues facing the city.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed public office; no campaign website, platform statement, or news profile was found -- his occupation and employer are the only independently verifiable facts about him.

Keep in mind

Far less detailed public information is available for him than for either opponent in this race.

Source review: Strong (81/100) · 14 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Mike Little's own campaign website, votemikelittle.com: grew up in foster care in Novato's District 2, attended Hill Middle School then Novato High School; 15 years in the electric utility industry, currently a distribution design engineer specializing in high-voltage electrical systems (matching his ballot occupation); shop steward with Engineers and Scientists of California, Local 20; a foster parent himself who has advocated before the Judicial Council of California that 'kids belong with families, not in institutions'; states his run was motivated by difficulty obtaining public records after his brother Josh's death. Four-point platform: protecting Measure M's dedicated sales-tax funding for streets, 911 staffing, and wildfire prevention; road repair; transparency (citing a March 2026 council-compensation increase following the city's Aug.-Oct. 2025 workers' strike); and pursuing state/federal grants for social services. may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • marincounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Marin County Elections Department -- official "Status of local candidates for office 11/03/26" page: a table of contents of every county-administered and city/town contest in the county, listing "City of Novato Councilmember District 2/4/5 (Short Term)" as a verified, filed contest; the county's own page note states the list only shows contests with papers filed with the county, and that "City and town contests signify verification of nomination signatures only" -- no candidate names appear on this page, only office titles. Retrieved via a Chrome browser workaround in a prior session (2026-08-29); every direct WebFetch/curl attempt this session returned HTTP 403, and no browser tool was available this session to retry.
  • marincounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Marin County Elections Department -- the same "Status of local candidates for office 11/03/26" page cited elsewhere in this dataset as a bare table of contents, reloaded via a live browser session this pass (a plain WebFetch/curl still returns HTTP 403): the live-rendered page in fact publishes a full per-contest candidate roster with self-declared occupations, not just office titles. For City of Novato Councilmember District 2, it lists three qualified candidates -- Farac, Rachel (Incumbent, filed 7/16/2026), Little, Mike (Distribution Design Engineer, filed 7/21/2026), Rasmussen, Bob (Electric Incident Investigator, filed 8/6/2026) -- matching the roster already established from Marin IJ reporting exactly, with no further filings or withdrawals, and independently supplying each non-incumbent's occupation for the first time. Page footer: "Created: 8/17/2026."
  • novato.gov (opens in a new tab)A negative-result access check: the City of Novato's own site (novato.gov, including its /departments/city-clerk/elections page and its root) returned a hard HTTP 403 bot-block on every direct fetch attempted this pass, by both WebFetch and a direct curl with a realistic browser user agent -- no city-published primary source was reachable at all for this shard. No Wayback Machine snapshot was found either. Documents an access gap, not any claim about the page's content.
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Callie Rhoades, "Novato appoints new City Council member" (Dec. 5, 2025): reports the City Council's Dec. 3, 2025 special-meeting appointment of Sandeep Karkal, general manager of the Novato Sanitary District and a Novato resident/Sanitary District employee since 2004, to fill the District 5 seat vacated by Mark Milberg's October 2025 death -- "He will serve an 11-month term until the November 2026 election." Quotes Mayor Tim O'Connor, Mayor Pro Tem Rachel Farac, Councilmember Kevin Jacobs, Councilmember Pat Eklund (who initially backed other candidates before endorsing Karkal "because I think it's really important for us to be united"), former councilmember Susan Wernick, and Hamilton Field of Marin Association president Marie Hoch, and reports Karkal's own stated priorities (homelessness, housing affordability, and Hamilton-area flooding) and his own statement that he intends to run in the 2026 general election.
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Dick Spotswood, "Seats across Marin are up for grabs in November" (July 18, 2026, a pre-filing-deadline preview): names Novato's three council posts up for election as District 4 (Pat Eklund, "the dean of Marin council members," serving since 1995), District 2 (Mayor Rachel Farac, expected to seek reelection), and District 5 ("newly appointed District 5 Councilmember Sandeep Karkal, who remains executive director of the Novato Sanitary District"), and states the candidate-filing period runs through Aug. 7 (Aug. 12 where an incumbent doesn't refile).
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Richard Halstead, "Slew of Marin offices up for grabs in November election" (July 27, 2026, an early-filing-period roundup): reports "In Novato, the terms of District 2 Councilmember Rachel Farac, District 4 Councilmember Pat Eklund, and District 5 Councilmember Sandeep Karkal are ending. Farac and Michael Little have filed for the District 2 seat. Eklund and Daniel Christian have filed for the District 4 seat. Karkal has filed to seek re-election as well."
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Keri Brenner, "Marin candidate list lengthens for November election" (Aug. 8, 2026, published as the initial filing deadline closed): reports "In Novato, the terms of Mayor Rachel Farac of District 2, Councilmember Pat Eklund of District 4 and Councilmember Sandeep Karkal of District 5 are ending. Farac, Bob Rasmussen and Michael Little have filed for the District 2 seat. Eklund, Luiggino Joseph Galletto, Chris Carpiniello and Daniel Christian have filed for the District 4 seat. Karkal has filed to seek reelection as well."
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Keri Brenner, "More contenders pile into Marin's fall elections" (published Aug. 13, 2026, updated Aug. 15, 2026, after the extended filing deadline closed): the final post-deadline roster, reporting "Novato City Council: Terms are expiring for Rachel Farac of District 2, Councilmember Pat Eklund of District 4 and Councilmember Sandeep Karkal of District 5. Farac, Bob Rasmussen and Michael Little have filed for the District 2 seat. Eklund, Luiggino Joseph Galletto, Chris Carpiniello and Daniel Christian have filed for the District 4 seat. Karkal has filed for reelection" -- an identical roster to the Aug. 8 piece, independently confirming no further filings or withdrawals occurred in the extension window for Novato.
  • marinij.com (opens in a new tab)Marin Independent Journal -- Dick Spotswood, "Marin candidates emerge as election filing closes" (published Aug. 15, 2026, updated Aug. 28, 2026): states "Two Novato council members will face opponents. Pat Eklund, first elected to the city council in 1995, faces three challengers in southwestern District 4. They include Chris Carpiniello, Dan Christian and Luiggino Galletto III. In her west Novato District 2, incumbent Rachel Farac faces two challengers: Bob Rasmussen and Mike Little." and "Appointed incumbent Sandeep Karkal is unopposed in southwest Novato District 5" -- an explicit, independent, dated statement (three days after the final filing deadline closed) that District 5 is an active, unopposed printed ballot race, with no mention anywhere of a Section 10229 cancellation, appointment, or council resolution for the seat.
  • public.netfile.com (opens in a new tab)A negative-result local campaign-finance check: three plausible NetFile agency codes for Marin County/Novato local candidates (MRN, NOVATO, MARIN) were each checked directly at public.netfile.com/pub2/ this pass -- every one returns only the same client-rendered single-page-application shell (a bare <div id="app"> with no server-rendered content), the same access gap documented dataset-wide for other NetFile jurisdictions. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source, not any candidate's actual campaign finances.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)A negative-result access check: California's statewide Cal-Access campaign-finance filer/candidate search was queried directly this pass and returned only a near-empty stub response (1,071 bytes, no candidate or filer content) -- consistent with the Cal-Access bot-wall documented elsewhere in this dataset. Local candidates for a seat like this typically file with the county/city rather than the state in any case. Documents an access gap, not a claim about any candidate's actual state-level filings.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Novato, California": used narrowly for the fixed, dated 2020 Census population figure (53,225) and as an independent cross-check of the city's council-manager-style structure -- a 5-member Council elected entirely by district to staggered 4-year terms, with the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem chosen each year by the Council from among its own members -- and of the current officeholder roster (Kevin Jacobs D1/Mayor Pro Tem, Rachel Farac D2/Mayor, Tim O'Connor D3, Pat Eklund D4, Sandeep Karkal D5), which independently matches every Marin IJ source in this pass.
  • linkedin.com (opens in a new tab)LinkedIn -- Bob Rasmussen's public profile (found via a Yahoo-syndicated search, not a direct LinkedIn fetch): "Bob Rasmussen -- Working to make a safer electric system," based in Novato, CA, employed at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a University of Utah alumnus -- independently consistent with his ballot occupation, "Electric Incident Investigator" (Marin County's own candidate-status page).
  • votemikelittle.com (opens in a new tab)Mike Little's own campaign website, votemikelittle.com: grew up in foster care in Novato's District 2, attended Hill Middle School then Novato High School; 15 years in the electric utility industry, currently a distribution design engineer specializing in high-voltage electrical systems (matching his ballot occupation); shop steward with Engineers and Scientists of California, Local 20; a foster parent himself who has advocated before the Judicial Council of California that "kids belong with families, not in institutions"; states his run was motivated by difficulty obtaining public records after his brother Josh's death. Four-point platform: protecting Measure M's dedicated sales-tax funding for streets, 911 staffing, and wildfire prevention; road repair; transparency (citing a March 2026 council-compensation increase following the city's Aug.-Oct. 2025 workers' strike); and pursuing state/federal grants for social services.

Last updated September 2, 2026.