# Patterson City Council, District B Compare records and positions simply between Chinyere "Chichi" Jack or Carlos Eduardo Ortega for Patterson City Council, District B at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Patterson's 5-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the citywide-elected mayor and three other district councilmembers. The term is four years. Districts A and C aren't up again until 2028. - Jurisdiction: City of Patterson - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/patterson-council-b - 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: September 1, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 92 out of 100 (Very strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Chinyere "Chichi" Jack** — Incumbent - **Carlos Eduardo Ortega** A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Two candidates are running for Patterson's District B council seat: Chinyere "Chichi" Jack, appointed in August 2026 to complete the remainder of the term, against challenger Carlos Eduardo Ortega. Whichever gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright -- no runoff. This seat is one of Patterson's four district-elected City Council seats -- Districts A, B, C and D -- each a 4-year term, alongside the citywide-elected Mayor. Councilmembers vote on the city's budget, ordinances, and land use; day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. Districts A and C aren't up again until 2028. Jack holds the seat by appointment, not election: the city's own council roster lists their current term as running only from August 13, 2026 to November 2026, meaning the council appointed them to fill a vacancy for the final months of the existing term rather than their having won it at the ballot box. This race is therefore their first time appearing before District B's voters for this seat. ## Chinyere "Chichi" Jack Chinyere "Chichi" Jack was appointed to Patterson's City Council in August 2026 to complete the remainder of the District B term through this November's election, and is now running for a full four-year term of their own. They filed nomination papers August 3, 2026, verified August 10. No independent news profile, campaign website, or civic-board record beyond their current appointed-officeholder status was found in this pass; neither the city's own council page nor the Patterson Irrigator's election preview states why the seat became vacant or who held it before them. **Strengths:** Already sitting on the council by the time voters decide this race, giving them a few months of hands-on experience their challenger doesn't have. **Trade-offs:** Because their tenure began by appointment, not election, this is their first appearance before District B's voters; no vote or public position of theirs since being appointed was found in this pass. **Keep in mind:** No source found in this pass explains why the District B seat became vacant or who previously held it -- a documented gap in this dataset's research, not a claim that no explanation exists. ## Carlos Eduardo Ortega Carlos Eduardo Ortega is challenging appointed incumbent Chinyere Jack for the District B seat. They filed nomination papers July 30, 2026, verified August 11 -- the last of any candidate in this cycle's three Patterson contests to have a filing verified. No independent news profile, campaign website, or civic-board record was found for them in this pass beyond their own filing with the city. **Strengths:** No independent source describes any record, background, or platform for Ortega beyond their name and filing dates on the city's certified nomination list -- the same access gap documented for Jack. **Trade-offs:** Voters have no statement, platform, or public record to weigh for them beyond that filing. **Keep in mind:** A thin public profile here reflects what could be found in this pass, not a judgment about their candidacy or qualifications. ## Sources 1. [City of Patterson -- "Final Nomination List," Consolidated General Municipal Election, Nov. 3, 2026 (posted by the City Clerk with each candidate's written permission): names all 5 qualified candidates across the city's 3 open offices (1 Mayor seat, 2-year term; 1 Council Member District B seat, 4-year term; 1 Council Member District D seat, 4-year term), with each candidate's office sought and exact filing/return/verification dates, all flagged "Qualified: Yes"](https://www.pattersonca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/14634/FINAL-Nomination-List---November-3-2026) 2. [City of Patterson -- "Nominees for Public Office" Legal Notice, published Aug. 20, 2026 (after the Aug. 7/12 filing deadlines): the ballot-facing office/candidate listing -- Mayor At Large (Gabriela Hernandez, Michael S. Clauzel), Council Member District B (Chichi Jack, Carlos E. Ortega), and Council Member District D (Carlos Roque, the only qualified candidate) -- independently confirming the Final Nomination List's roster](https://www.pattersonca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/14660/Legal-Notice---Nominees-for-Public-Office---November-3-2026-Election) 3. [City of Patterson -- "Mayor and City Council" page: names the 5 current officeholders and their term-expiration dates -- Mayor Michael Clauzel (at-large, term expires Nov. 2026), Gabriela Hernandez (District A, term expires Nov. 2028), Chinyere Jack (District B, term listed as running only Aug. 13, 2026-Nov. 2026, i.e. an appointment to complete a vacated term), Kendra Mora (District C, term expires Nov. 2028), and Carlos Roque (District D, term expires Nov. 2026) -- confirming which 3 seats are up this cycle and that Districts A/C are not](https://www.pattersonca.gov/133/Mayor-City-Council) 4. [City of Patterson -- "November 3, 2026 Election - Candidate Information" page: confirms the same 3 open offices (Councilmember District B, Councilmember District D, Mayor At-Large) and the nomination period (July 13-Aug. 7, 2026, extended to Aug. 12 for any office an incumbent doesn't file for); as retrieved, posts no candidate statements or biographical detail for any 2026 candidate](https://www.pattersonca.gov/899/November-3-2026-Election---Candidate-Inf) 5. [Patterson Irrigator (Timothy Benefield) -- "Election season is underway": independently names the same 5-candidate field and adds context found nowhere else in this dataset's Patterson sourcing -- Mayor Clauzel is "seeking a third term"; Gabriela Hernandez is "currently on the Patterson city council ... representing District A" and "was elected to this seat in November 2024"; Chinyere Jack was "recently appointed to complete the term" for District B](https://www.ttownmedia.com/patterson_irrigator/election-season-is-underway/article_541a3def-00b3-41cf-a024-4e4c75ed3c8f.html) 6. [Wikipedia -- Patterson, California: government section confirms a mayor-council system, mayor elected citywide to a 2-year term, four district councilmembers elected to staggered 4-year terms (2 seats plus the mayor up every 2 years), an appointed city manager, and a 2020 Census population of 23,781 -- cited only for this general structure, not for its own (stale) named council roster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson,_California) 7. [A documented financial-info gap, not a claim about any candidate's fundraising: the City of Patterson's own Campaign Finances page (pattersonca.gov/2076) redirects to a NetFile public-disclosure portal (netfile.com/public/ptsn/campaign) that is a client-rendered single-page app; its own env-config.js names a Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA site key guarding the underlying API, and a direct query against that API returned only an authentication error with no static content or discoverable public endpoint reachable to this session's fetch tooling -- the same recurring NetFile failure mode already documented elsewhere in this dataset](https://netfile.com/public/ptsn/campaign) ## The rest of the ballot Patterson City Council, District B 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, "Patterson City Council, District B — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/patterson-council-b (sources last retrieved September 1, 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.