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City of Petaluma · Statewide General Election

Mayor of Petaluma

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

Petaluma's Mayor presides over City Council meetings and represents the city publicly, but votes alongside the city's district councilmembers on the budget, ordinances, and land use -- day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. The Mayor is elected citywide (at-large); this November's ballot also includes three of the city's district council seats (Districts 1, 2, and 3). Petaluma is a council-manager city; this dataset could not independently confirm the Mayor's exact term length or the city's total council size, since the City of Petaluma's own site returned an access block to every automated fetch attempt in this pass.

Incumbent Mayor Kevin McDonnell faces two challengers: small business owner John Hanania and motorcycle racer/dairy farmer Shelina Moreda. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright -- no runoff.

Petaluma's Mayor presides over City Council meetings and represents the city publicly, but votes alongside the district councilmembers on the city budget, ordinances, and land use -- day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. Unlike the district council seats, the Mayor is elected citywide (at-large). Petaluma is a council-manager city of about 59,800 residents (2020 Census). This dataset could not independently confirm the Mayor's exact term length or the city's total council size: the City of Petaluma's own site returned an access block to every automated fetch attempt in this pass.

Kevin McDonnell

Kevin McDonnell is Petaluma's sitting Mayor, running for reelection. The county's own candidate list prints his ballot designation simply as "Petaluma City Mayor." Wikipedia's Petaluma article independently confirms his current officeholder status. No further independent news profile, campaign website, or civic-board record was found for him in this pass -- the city's own site, which would normally carry his mayoral record, was unreachable throughout.

Strengths

Sitting officeholder status, the only candidate in this race with a checkable record in the seat.

Trade-offs

No independent news coverage, campaign website, or record of specific council votes from his time as Mayor was found in this pass -- only the county's bare candidate list and his incumbency.

Keep in mind

This dataset could not reach Petaluma's own site in this pass, so no fuller account of his record as Mayor -- good or bad -- could be checked beyond what's here.

John Hanania

John Hanania is a small business owner challenging incumbent Mayor Kevin McDonnell; his ballot designation reads "Small Business Owner." Petaluma Voice's own filing-roundup reporting adds that he last ran for Petaluma City Council in 2022. No further independent news profile, campaign website, or civic-board record was found for him in this pass.

Strengths

A prior 2022 city council run, giving him some track record as a repeat local candidate, per independent local reporting.

Trade-offs

No independent source describes a specific platform, business background beyond "small business owner," or civic record for him beyond that single prior-run reference.

Keep in mind

A thin public profile here reflects what could be found in this pass -- Petaluma's own site was unreachable throughout -- not a judgment about his candidacy.

Shelina Moreda

Shelina Moreda is a professional motorcycle racer and dairy farmer challenging incumbent Mayor Kevin McDonnell; her ballot designation reads "Businesswoman/Farmer/Athlete." Petaluma Voice's own reporting adds that she ran unsuccessfully for the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in the June 2026 primary. A residency question was raised about her mayoral eligibility in mid-August -- see the note above -- and resolved in her favor by the City Clerk before the filing deadline. No further independent news profile, campaign website, or civic-board record was found for her in this pass.

Strengths

Her recent county campaign (June 2026 Board of Supervisors primary) gives her a track record as a candidate, and local reporting independently describes her professional/agricultural background.

Trade-offs

That June county campaign was unsuccessful, and no independent source describes a specific platform for this mayoral race beyond her ballot designation.

Keep in mind

The residency question raised about her candidacy was resolved by the City Clerk before the filing deadline, based on documentation she submitted; it is not an open dispute at the time of this pass.

Source review: Strong (85/100) · 6 cited sources

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

  • 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.
  • petalumavoice.org (opens in a new tab)Petaluma Voice -- "Moreda to remain on ballot after residency question" (Aug. 21, 2026): SEIU member Ryan Williams and North Bay Labor Council's Maddy Hirshfield submitted correspondence to the city on Aug. 15 questioning whether mayoral candidate Shelina Moreda -- previously resident at a ranch outside city limits -- met the requirement to establish city residency by July 7, 30 days before her Aug. 6 filing; City Clerk Caitlin Corley determined Moreda "has provided sufficient information to establish that her residency meets the City's code requirements," based on a lease agreement, landlord letter, an Aug. 1 rent check, and a July 1 receipt; confirms she remains on the ballot as one of three mayoral candidates.

Last updated September 1, 2026.