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City of San Jacinto · Statewide General Election

San Jacinto City Council

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

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

On the ballot

This person holds one of two at-large seats up this cycle on San Jacinto's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use citywide, with day-to-day operations run by an appointed city manager. The council doesn't elect its Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem by separate citywide vote -- each year, the council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor and one to serve as Mayor Pro Tem. A 4-year term.

Four candidates are running for two at-large seats on the San Jacinto City Council: incumbents Alonso Ledezma and Valerie Vandever face two first-time challengers, Susan Acevedo and Brian E. Hawkins. Vote for up to two -- there's no primary or runoff.

Winners join San Jacinto's 5-member City Council, which sets city ordinances, adopts the budget, and decides land use citywide, with day-to-day operations run by an appointed city manager. San Jacinto doesn't elect its Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem by separate citywide vote -- the city's own City Clerk page describes both as "ceremonial" titles the council selects annually from among its own members, typically for a calendar year. Terms on the council itself run four years, staggered so that two or three seats come up every two years; this cycle it's the two seats Ledezma and Vandever currently hold.

Both incumbents have long council tenures to run on, each with a specific record of committee and regional-agency service described on the city's own site; neither challenger has a comparable public record that surfaced in this pass, and the city's own promised link to each candidate's filed statement and ballot designation is dead on the page itself, so there is less to compare Acevedo and Hawkins against than a typical contested race.

Alonso L. Ledezma

Alonso Ledezma is a real estate broker with San Jacinto Realty -- Ledezma & Associates, first elected to the City Council in November 2010. Per the city's own official bio, he has represented San Jacinto on several regional bodies: the Western Riverside Council of Governments, the Riverside County Transportation Commission, the Riverside Transit Agency, and the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority. The bio credits his real-estate work with building relationships across the city that shaped his decision to run for office.

Strengths

Roughly a decade and a half on the council with a specific list of regional-agency appointments (transportation, transit, conservation) beyond city hall itself.

Trade-offs

The source for all of this is the city's own official bio page for him, not an independent profile or his own campaign statement -- no outside reporting on his tenure was reachable in this pass.

Keep in mind

He has previously held the rotating Mayor title (per past city-council-page photo captions from 2023), giving him more citywide visibility than a typical incumbent councilmember.

Valerie Vandever

Valerie Vandever is the council's other incumbent on this ballot. Per the city's own official bio, she is a "Community Service Advocate" involved with Rotary, Kiwanis, Soroptimist, the American Legion Auxiliary, and the Greater San Jacinto Valley Chamber of Commerce, and has volunteered with local food drives and veterans' causes. The bio describes her as a resident of the San Jacinto Valley for more than 50 years, married for 35 years, with one son.

Strengths

A very long personal history in the valley (50-plus years) plus an extensive record of civic-organization involvement named specifically in her own bio.

Trade-offs

The only source found for her background is the city's own bio page -- it names no specific council votes or accomplishments from her current term.

Keep in mind

Her bio emphasizes community-organization ties (Rotary, Kiwanis, Soroptimist, the Chamber of Commerce) rather than a specific policy platform for this campaign.

Susan Acevedo

Susan Acevedo is a qualified candidate for San Jacinto City Council, named on the city's own list of 2026 candidates. No campaign statement, official bio, campaign site, or independent news coverage for her was found in this pass -- a genuine, documented gap, not a claim that no such material exists.

Strengths

Not established beyond qualifying as a declared, ballot-eligible candidate.

Trade-offs

No statement, platform, occupation, or independent coverage to weigh against either incumbent's documented record.

Keep in mind

She is on the ballot and fully eligible to win one of the two seats; the absence of material here reflects what this pass could confirm, not anything about her candidacy itself.

Brian E. Hawkins

Brian E. Hawkins is a qualified candidate for San Jacinto City Council, named on the city's own list of 2026 candidates. No campaign statement, official bio, campaign site, or independent news coverage for him was found in this pass -- a genuine, documented gap, not a claim that no such material exists.

Strengths

Not established beyond qualifying as a declared, ballot-eligible candidate.

Trade-offs

No statement, platform, occupation, or independent coverage to weigh against either incumbent's documented record.

Keep in mind

He is on the ballot and fully eligible to win one of the two seats; the absence of material here reflects what this pass could confirm, not anything about his candidacy itself.

Source review: Very strong (91/100) · 5 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • sanjacintoca.hosted.civiclive.com (opens in a new tab)City of San Jacinto -- City Clerk "Elections" page: states "the next general municipal election for the City of San Jacinto will be held on November 3, 2026, for two council seats," that council members are elected at large to staggered 4-year terms and the Mayor/Mayor Pro Tem are ceremonial, council-selected positions, and names the full qualified 2026 field: Brian E. Hawkins, Susan Acevedo, Alonso L. Ledezma, Valerie Vandever
  • sanjacintoca.hosted.civiclive.com (opens in a new tab)City of San Jacinto -- City Council page: current officeholder roster (Mayor Crystal Ruiz, Mayor Pro Tem Clarisa Sanchez, Councilmembers Phil Ayala, Valerie Vandever, and Alonso Ledezma), confirming Vandever and Ledezma are the two sitting members whose terms expire this cycle and are therefore this race's two incumbents
  • voteinfo.net (opens in a new tab)Riverside County Registrar of Voters — 2026 Annual Election Calendar (lists every November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election office by city, including "City of Cathedral City: City Council District 3 / District 4 / District 5 / City Treasurer")
  • sanjacintoca.hosted.civiclive.com (opens in a new tab)City of San Jacinto -- official councilmember bio page for Alonso Ledezma: describes him as a real estate broker (San Jacinto Realty -- Ledezma & Associates) first elected to the City Council in November 2010, who has served on the Western Riverside Council of Governments, the Riverside County Transportation Commission, the Riverside Transit Agency, and the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority
  • sanjacintoca.hosted.civiclive.com (opens in a new tab)City of San Jacinto -- official councilmember bio page for Valerie Vandever: describes her as a "Community Service Advocate" active with Rotary, Kiwanis, Soroptimist, the American Legion Auxiliary, and the Greater San Jacinto Valley Chamber of Commerce, and a resident of the valley for more than 50 years

Last updated August 31, 2026.