# Mayor of Patterson Compare records and positions simply between Gabriela Hernandez or Michael S. Clauzel for Mayor of Patterson at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person presides over City Council meetings and represents Patterson publicly. They vote as one of five members on the budget and city laws. An appointed city manager runs daily government. Patterson's mayor is the only council member elected citywide. The other members are elected by district. The term is two years. - 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-mayor - 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 - **Gabriela Hernandez** - **Michael S. Clauzel** — Incumbent 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 at-large Mayor seat: incumbent Michael S. Clauzel, seeking a third term, against Gabriela Hernandez, a sitting District A councilmember running for the citywide seat instead of finishing her council term. Whichever gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright -- no runoff. Patterson's Mayor presides over City Council meetings and represents the city publicly, but votes as one of five members on the budget and city ordinances -- day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. It's the only council seat elected citywide rather than by district, and unlike the four district council seats' 4-year terms, Patterson's mayor serves a 2-year term. Both candidates already hold local elected office. Clauzel is completing his second two-year term as Mayor and seeking a third. Hernandez was elected to the District A council seat in November 2024 -- a four-year term not up again until 2028 -- and is running for the citywide Mayor's office instead of completing it. ## Michael S. Clauzel Michael S. Clauzel is Patterson's sitting Mayor, seeking a third two-year term. He filed his nomination papers earliest of any 2026 candidate for any of the city's three seats -- taken out July 13, 2026, verified July 17 -- consistent with an incumbent filing as soon as the window opened. No independent news profile, campaign website, or civic-board record beyond his current officeholder status was found in this pass; the city's own Mayor and City Council page lists only his name, seat, and term dates, without a biography. **Strengths:** Two completed terms as Mayor already give him a checkable record in the role, and he filed earliest of any 2026 candidate for any of the three Patterson contests. **Trade-offs:** No independent news coverage, campaign website, or record of specific accomplishments in office was found in this pass -- only the city's page and its filing documents were found for him. **Keep in mind:** A third term, if he wins, would be his fifth two-year cycle including reelections; whether that continuity or a change is preferable is exactly the question this contest puts to voters. ## Gabriela Hernandez Gabriela Hernandez is a sitting Patterson councilmember, elected to the District A seat in November 2024, now running for the citywide Mayor's office rather than completing that four-year term. She filed nomination papers later in the window than Clauzel -- taken out August 3, 2026, verified August 6, about three weeks after his filing. No independent news profile, campaign website, or civic-board record beyond her current officeholder status was found in this pass. **Strengths:** Nearly two years of sitting-council experience by Election Day, on the same body whose meetings the Mayor presides over. **Trade-offs:** No independent news coverage, campaign website, or record of specific votes or initiatives was found in this pass -- like Clauzel, only the city's page and its filing documents were found for her. **Keep in mind:** A vote for her moves a sitting district councilmember into the citywide seat rather than bringing in an outsider -- her only track record voters can weigh is roughly 22 months representing one district, not the whole city. ## 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 Mayor of Patterson 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, "Mayor of Patterson — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/patterson-mayor (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.