# Riverside City Council, Ward 4

Compare records and positions simply between Chuck Conder or Rich Vandenberg for Riverside City Council, Ward 4 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your ward's seat on Riverside's City Council. Members vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The council has seven ward-elected members, plus a Mayor elected citywide. The Mayor presides over meetings but does not vote. All seats serve four-year terms. Wards 2, 4, and 6 are elected together. The Mayor and Wards 1, 3, 5, and 7 vote in the other years. That group is next up in March 2028. A candidate needs over half the vote in the spring primary to win outright. Otherwise, the top two candidates meet in a November runoff, as here.

- Jurisdiction: City of Riverside
- 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/riverside-council-4
- 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: October 6, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 87 out of 100 (Strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Chuck Conder** — Incumbent
- **Rich Vandenberg**

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

Incumbent Chuck Conder came close to an outright majority in June (45.6%) but fell just short, so he faces runner-up Rich Vandenberg (28.3%) in this runoff; both beat out third-place finisher Jessica Qattawi (26.0%). Whoever wins takes a 4-year term.

This person holds Ward 4's seat on Riverside's 8-member City Council (7 ward members plus a separately elected, non-voting Mayor). They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use for a charter city of about 315,000 with council-manager government. Riverside elects by majority vote -- a candidate who tops 50% in the spring primary wins outright, as Ward 6 did this cycle -- and sends the top two to a November runoff otherwise, as here.

Three candidates ran in the June 2, 2026 primary (13,074 total votes): Conder and Vandenberg advanced; Jessica Qattawi (26.0%) did not. Riverside's Mayor and City Council Wards 1, 3, 5, and 7 are on a separate cycle and are not on this ballot -- they are next up in March 2028.

## Chuck Conder

Chuck Conder -- whose own Ballotpedia page and prior city record use the fuller "Charles Conder Jr.," though the county's certified results print the ballot name "Chuck Conder" -- is the sitting Ward 4 councilmember, seeking reelection after coming within about 4.4 points of an outright June majority. Per Ballotpedia, he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1978 to his retirement at the rank of major in 1998, and became an assistant to then-Councilman Chris Mac Arthur in 2007.

**Strengths:** The sitting incumbent, closest of either Riverside runoff candidate to an outright June majority (45.6%); a documented Air Force career and prior council-aide experience.

**Trade-offs:** No independent reporting on his record in the Ward 4 seat was found, so his current priorities are undocumented.

**Keep in mind:** A strong primary finish and public-service background, but his record in office is not independently documented here.

## Rich Vandenberg

Rich Vandenberg finished second in June with 28.3% of the vote (3,705 votes), edging out Jessica Qattawi by about 2.3 points for the second runoff spot. No independent biography, occupation, or platform statement was found for him. In his Vote411 questionnaire he describes himself as a Riverside native with more than 20 years as a local business owner and mortgage professional. By his own account he is vice chair of the city's Budget Engagement Commission, served on the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, and was vice president of the Mission Inn Foundation. He also says he has knocked on more than 13,000 doors this campaign.

His three stated priorities are public safety, with support for police and firefighters and more resources for Ward 4; responsible growth, where he opposes new warehouse development near homes and schools while backing economic growth that brings quality jobs; and accountable city government, with careful budgeting, transparency, and streets and infrastructure kept a priority.

**Strengths:** Over 20 years as a business owner and mortgage professional and vice chair of the Budget Engagement Commission, by his own account; advanced to the runoff.

**Trade-offs:** His opposition to new warehouses near homes and schools limits one kind of development, a cost if you weigh the jobs such sites bring more heavily.

**Keep in mind:** His background and the door-knocking count are his own account, not independent reporting.

## Sources

1. [City of Riverside City Clerk -- "Elections" page: states directly that the Nov. 3, 2026 General Municipal Runoff Election is for City Council Wards 2 and 4 only ("no candidate received a majority of the vote in either ward during the June 2, 2026 Primary Election"; Ward 6 was decided in the primary), and that the city's next General Municipal Election -- Mayor plus Wards 1, 3, 5, 7 -- is not until March 7, 2028. Links the county's certified June 2, 2026 results PDF and the city's own Laserfiche-hosted candidate-statement PDF (the latter returned only a "cookies not enabled" error on every retrieval attempt in this pass).](https://www.riversideca.gov/cityclerk/elections)
2. [Riverside County Registrar of Voters -- "Election Summary Report, Final Certified Election Results" for the June 2, 2026 Statewide Direct Primary Election (the same PDF the City of Riverside's own Elections page links as its "Certified June 2, 2026 Election Results"): gives, by raw vote and percent, Riverside City Council Ward 2 (Torres 3,047/37.99%, Ayra 2,865/35.72%, Vahl 1,808/22.54%, Montero 300/3.74%; 8,020 total), Ward 4 (Conder 5,966/45.63%, Vandenberg 3,705/28.34%, Qattawi 3,403/26.03%; 13,074 total), and Ward 6 (Hernandez 2,657/50.29% -- an outright majority, no runoff -- Puerta 28.26%, Berrellez 21.45%; 5,283 total). This section of the PDF carries the same contest-header/candidate-block shift bug already documented elsewhere in this dataset (see sources/riverside-candidates-nov2026.txt): the printed headers "Treasurer-Tax Collector" and "Riverside City Council Ward 2" each sit one candidate-block early, over the Ward 2 and Ward 4 blocks respectively, rather than their own. Candidate-to-ward assignment here relies on Ballotpedia's independently labeled results tables (below), which match these exact names and vote totals under the correct ward header, not on this PDF's own (mis)placed headers.](https://voteinfo.net/sites/g/files/aldnop371/files/ElectionResults/2026/Jun26/ElectionSummaryReportRPT_June022026_Final-Certified-Results.pdf)
3. [Ballotpedia -- "Riverside, California": city-government reference page confirming Riverside is a charter city with council-manager government, an 8-member council (7 ward-elected members plus a citywide-elected, non-voting Mayor), sourced to the Riverside City Charter and Code via Municode; also carries the current officeholder table used to confirm Ward 2 (Clarissa Cervantes, term ending 2026) and Ward 4 (Charles Conder Jr., term ending 2026) had no incumbent listed past this cycle, that Ward 6's Luis Hernandez assumed office July 7, 2026 (an outright June win, no runoff), and that Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson (in office since 2020) is not up again until 2028.](https://ballotpedia.org/Riverside,_California)
4. [Ballotpedia -- "City elections in Riverside, California (2026)": dedicated election page with certified June 2, 2026 general-election and Nov. 3, 2026 runoff voteboxes for each ward. Ward 2: "Gracie Torres and Aram Ayra advanced to a runoff. They defeated Mike Vahl and Christen Montero" (same vote totals as the county PDF, under the correct label). Ward 4: "Incumbent Charles Conder Jr. and Rich Vandenberg advanced to a runoff. They defeated Jessica Qattawi." Ward 6: "Luis Hernandez defeated Oz Puerta and Norma Berrellez" outright, no runoff. Also states the citywide filing deadline was March 6, 2026 and that this is a nonpartisan election.](https://ballotpedia.org/City_elections_in_Riverside,_California_(2026))
5. [Ballotpedia -- candidate/officeholder page for Charles Conder Jr. (Riverside City Council Ward 4, incumbent, 2026): a short biography section states he "served in the U.S. Air Force from 1978 to his retirement at the rank of major in 1998," and "became the assistant to Councilman Chris Mac Arthur in 2007." The county's own certified results print his ballot name as "CHUCK CONDER"; this page uses the fuller "Charles Conder Jr."](https://ballotpedia.org/Charles_Conder_Jr.)
6. [City of Riverside NetFile public campaign-disclosure portal — candidate and committee filing search](https://netfile.com/public/CITRIV/campaign/search-entities)
7. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Riverside City Council Member, Ward 4' race (statewide All Races list): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus answers to the League's questions -- 'If elected, what are your top 3 priorities?' and 'What background, experience and/or education qualify you for this elected office?' Answers on file from Rich Vandenberg. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/riverside-council-4.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote)

## The rest of the ballot

Riverside City Council, Ward 4 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, "Riverside City Council, Ward 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/riverside-council-4 (sources last retrieved October 6, 2026).

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