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City of San Pablo · Statewide General Election

San Pablo 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

San Pablo elects its 5-member City Council entirely at-large to staggered 4-year terms: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor and another as Vice Mayor -- the titles rotate among sitting councilmembers rather than being elected separately. Two seats are up this cycle.

Four candidates are running for San Pablo's two at-large City Council seats: incumbents Vice Mayor Rita Xavier and Mayor Elizabeth Pabon-Alvarado, both first elected in 2018, challenged by first-time candidates Caden Cotton-Blake and Anna M. Villalobos.

San Pablo's City Council has five members, all elected at-large to staggered 4-year terms. The Council sets city ordinances, the budget, and land-use policy; an appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. San Pablo's Mayor and Vice Mayor are not elected to those titles directly -- the council assigns them among its own members, which is why the city's own Notice of Offices and Nominations lists both Xavier's and Pabon-Alvarado's seats simply as "City Councilmember." Only two of the five seats are up this cycle; the other three (Abel Pineda, Patricia Ponce, Arturo Cruz) run through November 2028.

This is a direct plurality election with no primary and no runoff -- the two candidates who receive the most votes on November 3 win the two seats outright.

Rita Xavier

The incumbent Vice Mayor, seeking a third council term; first elected in 2018. A San Pablo resident since 1991, she chairs the council's Public Safety Standing Committee and an ad hoc subcommittee on the city's new police department headquarters, and represents San Pablo on several regional bodies: the League of California Cities' East Bay Division, the Association of Bay Area Governments, the West Contra Costa Transportation Commission, the West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority, and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, which she has previously chaired. Earlier city roles include chairing the Planning Commission and the Advisory Committee on Aging. She also serves as Treasurer of the Lao Family Community Development Inc. board and was formerly president of the League of Women Voters of West Contra Costa County.

Strengths

Eight years of council experience, chairing the city's public-safety committee and a range of regional transportation and waste-management bodies.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent (non-official) reporting evaluating her most recent term -- what's documented here comes from the city's own page, not outside scrutiny.

Keep in mind

Her regional-agency workload is unusually broad even among San Pablo's councilmembers; voters weighing her against a first-time challenger are weighing incumbency and institutional reach against the possibility of a fresh perspective.

Elizabeth Pabon-Alvarado

The incumbent Mayor, seeking a third council term (Mayor is a title the council assigns among its own members, not a separately elected office); first elected to the council in 2018. A San Pablo resident for 29 years with over 20 years' experience in accounting, payroll, and HR leadership, she holds an MBA from Golden Gate University (2014) and is bilingual in English and Spanish. She previously served as San Pablo's City Clerk and as board treasurer of the city's Economic Development Corporation, and currently chairs the Manzanillo-San Pablo Sister City Committee and sits on the council's Budget, Fiscal & Legislative standing committee.

Strengths

A finance and HR background relevant to the council's budget work, plus prior hands-on experience in city government as a former City Clerk.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent (non-official) reporting evaluating her most recent term as Mayor -- what's documented here comes from the city's own page, not outside scrutiny.

Keep in mind

Having previously held the City Clerk post she now oversees as a councilmember gives her an unusual degree of institutional familiarity with the city bureaucracy, for better or worse depending on a voter's view of long civic careers concentrated in one city hall.

Caden Cotton-Blake

A first-time candidate and, by his own campaign site, a lifelong San Pablo resident who works as a community engagement manager and youth/civic organizer. His platform rests on three stated pillars -- investing in families, strengthening neighborhoods, and creating opportunity -- with a focus on affordable housing, public safety, and economic opportunity. He is the only 2026 San Pablo candidate, for any of the city's three offices, to open a real fundraising committee (an FPPC Form 410) rather than file the short form used by candidates who expect to stay under $2,000; see Financial info below.

Strengths

A real, active fundraising campaign (the only one among San Pablo's 2026 candidates) with a stated three-part platform.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed public office; this dataset found no independent (non-campaign) news coverage of his candidacy despite a real search.

Keep in mind

This is a documented sourcing gap, not evidence against him -- a small city's first-time council challenger often draws little outside press regardless of the merits of the campaign.

Anna M. Villalobos

A first-time candidate. Her own Statement of Economic Interests (FPPC Form 700) lists her occupation as Records Secretary for the American Postal Workers Union. This dataset's real, multi-method search -- the city's own site, Ballotpedia, TheBallotBook, and general web and news search -- found no campaign website, independent news coverage, or further biographical detail beyond what her own official filings state.

Strengths

not established in the sourcing found for this race.

Trade-offs

As a first-time candidate with no located public record beyond her filed occupation, voters have little more than her name and union role to go on.

Keep in mind

This is a documented sourcing gap, not evidence against her -- several search methods turned up nothing further. She has not filed a campaign-finance statement of any kind as of this retrieval, unlike the other three candidates.

Source review: Strong (83/100) · 8 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Caden Cotton-Blake for San Pablo City Council -- his own campaign site: occupation, three-pillar platform, and stated priorities. may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Positions Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": the only county-section contest in the document is County Board of Education Areas 2, 4, and 5 (under Schools) -- no Board of Supervisors, row office, or Superior Court seat appears anywhere, consistent with both Supervisor seats up this cycle (Districts 1 and 4) having been decided outright in the June 2026 primary
  • sanpabloca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of San Pablo -- "Notice of Offices and Nominations" (signed Aug. 6, 2026 by Deputy City Clerk Casey Erlenheim, under Elections Code Sec. 10224.5): confirms three offices on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot -- Two (2) Members of the City Council, One (1) City Clerk, One (1) City Treasurer, each a 4-year term -- and names the four incumbents furnished nomination papers: Rita Xavier and Elizabeth Pabon-Alvarado (each listed as "City Councilmember," not Mayor), Dorothy Gantt (City Clerk), and Viviana Toledo (City Treasurer)
  • sanpabloca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of San Pablo -- "Notice of Election" (City Clerk Dorothy Gantt, published July 1, 2026): independently confirms the same three offices -- Two (2) City Councilmembers, One (1) Treasurer, One (1) City Clerk, each a 4-year term -- for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Municipal Election, plus the nomination period (July 13-Aug. 6, 2026) and Elections Code Sec. 10229 uncontested-office procedure
  • sanpabloca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of San Pablo -- "2026 Campaign Docs Combined" (45-page PDF bundle of every 2026 candidate's FPPC filings, linked from the city's own Elections page; several pages are scanned images read visually, no extractable text layer): the only source found with an actual candidate roster. Shows a four-candidate City Council field -- incumbents Rita Xavier (Form 501 filed July 17, 2026) and Elizabeth Pabon-Alvarado (Form 501 filed Aug. 5, 2026), plus challengers Caden Cotton-Blake (Form 501 filed March 10, 2026; Form 410 committee opened March 2026, amended July 2026, reporting $2,896 in contributions and $566 in expenditures for Jan.-June 2026 on his Form 460) and Anna M. Villalobos (Form 501 filed May 28, 2026; her Form 700 lists her occupation as Records Secretary, American Postal Workers Union) -- and confirms City Clerk Dorothy Gantt (Form 501 Aug. 3, 2026; Form 470) and City Treasurer Viviana Toledo (Form 501 July 29, 2026; Form 470; Form 700 disclosing real property in Yuba City) each drew no opponent
  • sanpabloca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of San Pablo -- official City Council page: names the sitting council (Mayor Elizabeth Pabon-Alvarado, Vice Mayor Rita Xavier, Councilmembers Abel Pineda, Patricia Ponce, Arturo Cruz) with each member's term-expiration date, confirming Pabon-Alvarado's and Xavier's seats both expire November 2026
  • sanpabloca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of San Pablo -- official biography page for Vice Mayor Rita Xavier: elected Nov. 2018, a San Pablo resident since 1991, her regional-agency assignments (League of California Cities/East Bay Division, ABAG, West Contra Costa Transportation Commission, West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority, Contra Costa Transportation Authority), prior service chairing the Planning Commission and Advisory Committee on Aging, and community roles including Treasurer of the Lao Family Community Development Inc. Board and former President of the League of Women Voters West Contra Costa County
  • sanpabloca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of San Pablo -- official biography page for Mayor Elizabeth Pabon-Alvarado: elected Nov. 2018, a San Pablo resident for 29 years, over 20 years' experience in accounting, payroll, and HR leadership, an MBA from Golden Gate University (2014), bilingual English/Spanish, prior service as San Pablo City Clerk and Board Treasurer of the Economic Development Corporation, and current chair of the Manzanillo-San Pablo Sister City Committee
  • cadenforsanpablo.com (opens in a new tab)Caden Cotton-Blake for San Pablo City Council -- his own campaign site: describes him as a lifelong San Pablo resident and Community Engagement Manager/youth and civic organizer, running on a three-pillar platform (Invest in Families, Strengthen Neighborhoods, Create Opportunity) centered on affordable housing, public safety, and economic opportunity

Last updated September 1, 2026.