sonomacounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Sonoma County Registrar of Voters -- "Local Candidates Who Have Filed," November 3, 2026 General Election (refetched fresh this session; page's own "Last Updated" stamp reads 8/17/26, 6:45 p.m., unchanged on a live re-check 2026-09-01, after both the regular (Aug. 7) and extended (Aug. 12) nomination deadlines had passed): the "City of Petaluma" section lists MAYOR (Elect 1): Kevin McDonnell (Incumbent, "Petaluma City Mayor"), John Hanania ("Small Business Owner"), Shelina Moreda ("Businesswoman/Farmer/Athlete"); CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1 (Elect 1): Janice Cader Thompson (Incumbent, "Petaluma City Councilmember"), Alan W. LaPierre ("Property Manager"), Nate Martin ("Retail Manager"); DISTRICT 2 (Elect 1): John Shribbs (Incumbent), Brent Newell ("Environmental Attorney"); DISTRICT 3 (Elect 1): Karen Nau (Incumbent), Eric Vazquez ("Affordable Housing Advocate") -- given a jurisdiction-prefixed key distinct from the county-level shard's own "sonoma-rov-candidates-2026" citation of this same page, since both cite it for different contests.
petalumavoice.org (opens in a new tab)Petaluma Voice -- "Mayor facing two election challengers: Moreda and Hanania" (Aug. 5, 2026): independently corroborates the identical nine-candidate field across Mayor and Council Districts 1-3, and states directly "The city council has a total of four positions up for the Nov. 3 election -- mayor, District 1, District 2, and District 3." Describes John Hanania as "a small business owner who last ran for city council in 2022" and Shelina Moreda as "a professional motorcycle racer and dairy farmer who had an unsuccessful bid in the June primary for the Sonoma County Board of Supervisor's seat"; names a fourth District 2 hopeful, Elece Hempel, who withdrew before the filing deadline -- consistent with the county's final two-candidate District 2 field.
en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- Petaluma, California: cited narrowly for the 2020 Census population (59,776), the city's council-manager form of government, and independent confirmation that Kevin McDonnell is the sitting Mayor and Karen Nau the sitting Vice Mayor -- its Government section carries no detail on council district structure or term lengths, so it is not relied on for either.
cityofpetaluma.org (opens in a new tab)A documented site-access gap, not a claim about any candidate's background, the city's council/district structure, or campaign-finance filing location: the City of Petaluma's own site (cityofpetaluma.org and the www. subdomain) returned HTTP 403 to every automated fetch attempt in this pass, across every path tried (site root, /city-clerk/, /elections/, /city-council/, /campaign-finance/, /city-clerk-fppc-forms/, and /government/city-clerk/elections/) -- preventing this dataset from reading the city's own notice of election, council term lengths/total district count, or campaign-finance disclosure location directly.
netfile.com (opens in a new tab)A documented financial-disclosure access gap: a guess against NetFile's public infrastructure under agency id "PET" 301-redirected successfully to netfile.com/public/PET/campaign, suggesting an active NetFile agency registered under that id, though this pass could not independently confirm the id belongs to the City of Petaluma specifically. The portal returned only a client-rendered "Public Portal" app shell with no server-side filer or candidate data reachable by this session's fetch tooling -- the same JS-gated NetFile pattern documented elsewhere in this dataset. No FPPC Form 460, 470, or 501 could be confirmed present or absent for any of the nine candidates.

Last updated September 1, 2026.

City of Petaluma

Petaluma City Council, District 3

Council members vote on Petaluma's city budget, laws, and land use. Petaluma also has a separately elected, citywide Mayor. Three council seats are up this November. They are Districts 1, 2, and 3. Petaluma elects council members by district, not at-large. Petaluma's population is 59,776.

Incumbent Karen Nau faces one challenger for Petaluma City Council District 3. They are Eric Vazquez. Whoever gets more votes on November 3 wins the seat. There is no runoff.

Councilmembers vote on Petaluma's city budget, ordinances, and land use. A Mayor is elected separately, citywide. This seat is one of three district council seats on this November's ballot. They are Districts 1, 2, and 3. Petaluma elects council members by district, not at-large. Council term lengths could not be confirmed. Neither could the city's total number of council districts. The City of Petaluma's own site blocked every automated fetch attempt.

The county's own candidate list calls itself "not final or official" pending a later posting. But every candidate here qualified before the extended August 12 nomination deadline. Petaluma Voice's independent reporting confirms the same field. So the race is treated as settled rather than left unbuilt.

Karen Nau

Karen Nau is Petaluma's sitting District 3 councilmember. Nau is also the city's Vice Mayor. They are running for reelection. Their ballot title is "Incumbent." No news profile, campaign website, or board record was found for them.

Eric Vazquez

Eric Vazquez is challenging incumbent Karen Nau for District 3. Their ballot title is "Affordable Housing Advocate." No news profile, campaign website, or board record was found for them.

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