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City of Paso Robles · Statewide General Election

Paso Robles City Council, District 2

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On the ballot

This person would hold the District 2 seat on Paso Robles's 5-member City Council (the Mayor is the fifth, elected citywide), representing that district's residents on city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this San Luis Obispo County city of about 31,490 residents (2020 Census). Paso Robles moved from at-large to by-district Council elections after a California Voting Rights Act legal challenge. A 4-year term.

Incumbent Chris Bausch faces two challengers, Michael Massey and Robert Simoni, for Paso Robles's District 2 City Council seat, in a race shaped heavily by a costly public-records dispute from Bausch's first term.

Paso Robles's City Council has five members -- a directly elected Mayor (a separate race) plus four district Council Members, each representing one of four voting districts the city adopted after a California Voting Rights Act challenge to its former at-large system.

This seat is a standard 4-year term. The race is shaped in part by a costly public-records dispute from the incumbent's first term, detailed in his profile below.

Chris Bausch

Chris Bausch is the incumbent, appointed to the Council in 2022 and a District 2 resident since 1989. He has owned and managed multiple small businesses and served three terms (2012, 2016, 2020) on the Paso Robles school board. His first term was marked by a serious controversy: after then-City Manager Ty Lewis filed a $2.2 million claim against the city alleging Bausch led a campaign to oust him, Lewis retired with a $366,000 settlement, and the San Luis Obispo Tribune sued to force Bausch to release public records -- thousands of texts and emails on his personal devices -- that he had withheld under the California Public Records Act. A judge ultimately ordered him to comply, and the combined settlements and legal fees from the episode exceeded $841,000. Mayor John Hamon called Bausch's conduct "unacceptable" and had at one point suggested recall proceedings. Bausch is running for reelection despite the controversy and was endorsed by the San Luis Obispo County Republican Party in August 2026.

Strengths

Incumbency, a long local business record, and three prior terms on the school board.

Trade-offs

A first term dominated by a Public Records Act dispute that cost the city over $841,000 in combined settlements and legal fees, and public criticism from the Mayor himself.

Keep in mind

Both of his challengers frame their campaigns substantially around this controversy -- this race is, in significant part, a referendum on his first term's conduct.

Michael Massey

Michael Massey is a Paso Robles native running on a 4-part platform: expanding housing supply across price points while preserving neighborhood character, attracting industry and jobs (including support for agriculture and wine), investing in infrastructure (roads, water systems, parks, and addressing the expiration of Measure E-12 sales tax revenue and pension liabilities), and government accountability through transparent budgets. He has said he intends to focus on the city's future rather than relitigate the Bausch controversy: "I'll leave the past few years for others to litigate." His own words describe him as "not a career politician... a neighbor who cares about this community and is ready to do the work."

Strengths

A specific, detailed 4-part platform naming real fiscal pressures (Measure E-12's expiration, pension liabilities), and a stated focus on governance over controversy.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed city office, and limited independent biographical detail (occupation and residency history) was found this pass.

Keep in mind

Positions himself as the forward-looking alternative to both the incumbent's controversy and Simoni's more pointed critique of it.

Robert Simoni

Robert "Bob" Simoni is a financial systems administrator, formerly at Google, who plans to retire this year and says he decided to run specifically because of the Bausch controversy, framing his campaign as offering voters "a clear choice." He owns only his home in Paso Robles, with no other business or land holdings in the city, which he cites as evidence he can make decisions free of conflicts of interest. His "Preserve What We Love, Provide What We Need" platform emphasizes smart growth, road improvements (citing Niblick Road specifically), fiscal responsibility, and open-space preservation. He moved to Paso Robles nearly five years ago, volunteers locally, and serves as treasurer for community organizations; he has argued the Council needs fresh perspectives, noting that "several current council members have served for more than 15 years."

Strengths

A specific rationale tied directly to the incumbent's record, a stated absence of local business/property conflicts of interest, and existing local volunteer and treasurer experience.

Trade-offs

A shorter local tenure than his opponents (under five years in Paso Robles) and no prior elected office.

Keep in mind

The most direct of the three candidates in naming the Bausch controversy as his reason for running -- a clear contrast with Massey's more future-focused framing.

Source review: Strong (87/100) · 12 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • slocounty.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)San Luis Obispo County Elections Division -- "Certified Candidate List for the November 3, 2026 General Election" (report CFMR009): contains three Paso Robles Joint Unified School District rows but no city-office row of any kind for Paso Robles or any other San Luis Obispo County city; a companion county page states the list "does not include candidates running for city office" since city candidates file directly with their own city clerk.
  • web.archive.org (opens in a new tab)City of Paso Robles -- own "City Council" page (retrieved via web.archive.org, since prcity.com itself returns a Cloudflare bot challenge to every direct fetch; Oct. 25, 2025 snapshot): names Paso Robles a general-law, council-manager city with a 5-member Council -- a directly elected Mayor plus four district Council Members, moved from at-large to by-district elections after a California Voting Rights Act challenge (Ordinance 1071 N.S.) -- and lists every sitting officeholder's term-expiration date: Mayor John Hamon, District 1 Kris Beal, and District 2 Chris Bausch each "Term Expires 12/2026"; District 3 Steve Gregory and District 4 Fred Strong each "Term Expires 12/2028."
  • web.archive.org (opens in a new tab)City of Paso Robles -- own election-info page (retrieved via web.archive.org, since prcity.com itself 403s direct fetches; Feb. 3, 2026 snapshot, still titled and slugged for the 2024 cycle since no 2026-specific page has been crawled by the Wayback Machine): describes the city's by-district Council system, its nomination-paperwork process and roughly July 13-Aug. 7 filing window (extendable to Aug. 12 for a non-incumbent challenger to a seat an incumbent didn't refile for), and the 2024 cycle's own offices and qualified candidates -- District 1 (partial term, won by Kris Beal), District 3, District 4, and an at-large Treasurer (Ryan Cornell, unopposed, full 4-year term through 2028) -- used here only for office/process structure and to confirm no Treasurer race recurs in 2026, not as a 2026 candidate roster.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Paso Robles, California": used narrowly for the fixed, dated 2020 Census population figure (31,490) -- the article's own claims about an all-at-large City Council and an elected City Clerk are stale relative to the city's own live/archived pages (which show by-district Council elections and no City Clerk race) and are not used.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)A negative-result local campaign-finance check: no page reachable this session -- the city's own Wayback-archived pages, the Tribune/Paso Robles Daily News/New Times/Cal Coast News coverage, or several guessed NetFile agency codes tried directly against netfile.com's own public filing-log API -- named, linked, or resolved to any specific campaign-finance disclosure portal for Paso Robles candidates. Documents a failure to locate a portal this pass, not a claim that one doesn't exist or that any candidate's finances are unusual.
  • web.archive.org (opens in a new tab)City of Paso Robles -- Councilmember Chris Bausch's own city-published biography page (retrieved via web.archive.org, since prcity.com itself 403s direct fetches; Jan. 9, 2026 snapshot): lists his "Councilmember, District 2, Term: 2022-2026" and gives his own account of his background -- a Paso Robles District 2 resident since 1989, small-business owner/consultant, cancer survivor, and three terms (2012, 2016, 2020) on the Paso Robles school board.
  • pasoroblesdailynews.com (opens in a new tab)Paso Robles Daily News -- "Michael Massey announces campaign for Paso Robles City Council, District 2": reports Massey's candidacy launch and 4-part platform (housing supply and workforce housing, industry/jobs, infrastructure and pension liabilities, and government accountability), quoting him: "I'm not a career politician, and I'm not interested in becoming one. I'm a neighbor who cares about this community and is ready to do the work."
  • pasoroblesdailynews.com (opens in a new tab)Paso Robles Daily News -- "Bob Simoni launches Paso Robles council campaign": reports Robert "Bob" Simoni's District 2 candidacy launch, his "Preserve What We Love, Provide What We Need" platform (smart growth, road improvements, fiscal responsibility, open-space preservation), that he owns only his home in the city with no other business or land holdings, and his stated view that "several current council members have served for more than 15 years."
  • newtimesslo.com (opens in a new tab)New Times San Luis Obispo -- "Three candidates vie for Paso Robles 2nd District seat": profiles all three District 2 candidates -- incumbent Chris Bausch (appointed 2022; PRA/legal disputes with former City Manager Ty Lewis and the Tribune costing the city over $840,000; a recall proceeding Mayor Hamon once floated); Michael Massey (Paso Robles native, Generation Build founder, housing affordability as his central issue); and Robert Simoni (retiring financial-systems administrator formerly at Google, "smart growth"/fiscal responsibility/Niblick Road traffic focus, an independent with no local business interests).
  • yahoo.com (opens in a new tab)San Luis Obispo Tribune (via Yahoo News syndication) -- "Paso Robles councilman to run for reelection after violating state law, costing city $840,000": details Bausch's Public Records Act dispute (972 emails and 3,524 texts on personal devices, released only after a judge's order), the $2.2 million claim filed by former City Manager Ty Lewis, Lewis's $366,000 settlement, and a combined $841,000-plus settlement/legal-fee total, alongside challengers Robert Simoni's ("a clear choice" after the Bausch controversy) and Michael Massey's ("I'll leave the past few years for others to litigate") stated rationales for running, and Mayor John Hamon's on-the-record criticism of Bausch's conduct as "unacceptable."
  • yahoo.com (opens in a new tab)San Luis Obispo Tribune (via Yahoo News syndication, since sanluisobispo.com itself could not be fetched by this session's tooling) -- "Paso Robles will get a new mayor, while 2 councilmembers face challengers": the fullest single roundup of the certified field -- Mayor: William Britton, Faith Frankel, Chris Rogalla (three newcomers for the open seat); District 1: incumbent Kris Beal vs. Linda George; District 2: incumbent Chris Bausch vs. Michael Massey vs. Robert Simoni -- with a summary of each candidate's platform and the $841,000-plus Bausch/Ty Lewis legal controversy.
  • pasoroblesdailynews.com (opens in a new tab)Paso Robles Daily News -- "SLO County Republican Party endorses 10 local candidates": reports the Republican Party of San Luis Obispo County's endorsements for Paso Robles races -- Faith Frankel for Mayor and Chris Bausch for City Council District 2 -- independently corroborating both as active, filed 2026 candidates after the extended Aug. 12 nomination deadline.

Last updated September 2, 2026.