# San Ramon City Council, District 2

Compare records and positions simply between Chirag Kathrani or Richard J. Adler for San Ramon City Council, District 2 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold one of San Ramon's four district-elected City Council seats. A separately, citywide-elected Mayor also sits on the five-member council. An appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. San Ramon has about 84,600 residents. The term is four years. Whichever candidate gets the most votes wins. San Ramon does not use ranked-choice voting.

- Jurisdiction: City of San Ramon
- 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/san-ramon-council-2
- 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: September 7, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 92 out of 100 (Very strong), across 11 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Chirag Kathrani** — Founder/Entrepreneur
- **Richard J. Adler** — Appointed Incumbent · Incumbent

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

Appointed incumbent Richard Adler faces Chirag Kathrani for the District 2 City Council seat. Kathrani is a repeat San Ramon and State Assembly candidate. This is his third bid for local office in three cycles.

This person would hold one of San Ramon's four district-elected City Council seats, alongside a separately, citywide-elected Mayor, on a 5-member council with an appointed City Manager who runs day-to-day operations. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use for a city of about 84,600 residents (2020 census). The term is four years. Whichever candidate gets the most votes wins -- no ranked-choice voting is documented for San Ramon.

District 2's seat changed hands mid-term: Armstrong left it for the Mayor's office in 2024, the City Council chose Adler to fill it by appointment in 2025, and this November is the first time voters -- rather than the council -- decide who holds it. Adler's opponent, Kathrani, has run for three different San Ramon-area offices since 2024 without winning any of them.

District 2 covers the southwest portion of San Ramon and a swath of the Dougherty Hills. The seat became vacant when then-District 2 Councilmember Mark Armstrong was elected Mayor in November 2024; the City Council interviewed four finalists, including Kathrani, and appointed Adler in January 2025. San Ramon's City Council set this year's voluntary campaign-expenditure limit for Districts 2 and 4 at $2.75 per registered voter -- $39,938 for District 2 -- up from $2.50 per voter in 2024, with council members noting actual spending in recent city elections has generally run well below either cap.

## Richard J. Adler

Adler is the appointed incumbent, seeking his first election to the seat. His filed ballot designation is "Appointed Incumbent." He is a UC Berkeley political science graduate with a JD from the former Peninsula University College of Law. He worked for State Farm Insurance for 30 years, mostly in auto claims and litigation, before retiring. He has lived in San Ramon since 1997. He has served on his HOA board and chaired the city's Senior Advisory committee in 2024. He is the 2024-25 president of the Dougherty Valley San Ramon Rotary Club. He applied for and was appointed to the vacant District 2 seat in January 2025. His campaign centers on public safety staffing. It also centers on mental-health resources for youth affected by social media. He points to long-term fiscal planning amid the city's budget deficit. That includes his vote to establish the council's Sustainability Advisory Committee.

**Strengths:** roughly a year and a half of hands-on council experience already. He also has a deep local volunteer record on the HOA board, as Senior Advisory chair, and as Rotary Club president.

**Trade-offs:** this is his first campaign for elected office. He reached the council by appointment rather than a vote. No independent reporting on his tenure was found beyond routine meeting coverage.

**Keep in mind:** no confirmed 2026 campaign-finance figures are on file here. DanvilleSanRamon reported his campaign site and materials were still "forthcoming" as of Aug. 27, 2026. No CAL-ACCESS or city disclosure filing was found for him.

## Chirag Kathrani

Kathrani is a repeat candidate. His filed ballot designation is "Founder/Entrepreneur." He first ran for San Ramon Mayor in 2024 as a political newcomer. He lost to Mark Armstrong roughly 70% to 30%. He then applied for the council's own appointment to the District 2 seat Armstrong vacated. The council chose Adler instead. He also ran for State Assembly District 16 in the June 2026 primary. He ran as a no-party-preference candidate against incumbent Rebecca Bauer-Kahan. He did not advance out of that race. He is a 20-year San Ramon resident and longtime entrepreneur. Kathrani has led several companies over two decades. More recently he founded Lead4Earth, a sustainability nonprofit. He also founded the Open Governance Initiative. It is a government-transparency watchdog site using technology to track government operations.

**Strengths:** two decades of business leadership. He also has two prior campaigns' worth of name recognition and platform development in San Ramon and Assembly District 16 races.

**Trade-offs:** he has not yet won elected office across three campaigns since 2024. His own campaign material frames his losses as evidence of a persistent track record. It does not address them directly.

**Keep in mind:** no confirmed 2026 campaign-finance figures are on file here for his council run. No CAL-ACCESS or city disclosure filing was found.

## Sources

1. [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](https://www.contracostavote.gov/wp-content/uploads/26Nov03_PositionsUpForElection.pdf)
2. [Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Contest/Candidate Proof List" (8-27-26_candidatelist_detail_final.pdf), the county's post-certification ballot-order-proofing export: shows Area 2 as a 3-candidate contest (Sarah Butler, incumbent; Pamela West; Sibyl Minighini) with each candidate's filed ballot designation and qualification date -- this export omits single-filer contests entirely, which is why Areas 4 and 5 do not appear in it (see cc-candidate-summary-2026)](https://www.contracostavote.gov/wp-content/uploads/8-27-26_candidatelist_detail_final.pdf)
3. [Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Candidate List" (8-14-26_candidatelist_summary_final.pdf), the county's complete qualified-candidate roster including single-filer contests: confirms Area 2 (Sarah Butler, Pamela West, Sibyl Minighini), Area 4 (Mike Maxwell, sole qualified candidate), and Area 5 (Clyde Henry Lewis, Jr., sole qualified candidate)](https://www.contracostavote.gov/wp-content/uploads/8-14-26_candidatelist_summary_final.pdf)
4. [City of San Ramon — City Clerk's Elections page: confirms the Nov. 3, 2026 local election date and vote-by-mail logistics; the city's own City Council roster page (read the same session) names the sitting 5-member council — Mayor Mark Armstrong, Vice Mayor Marisol Rubio, and Councilmembers Robert Jweinat, Richard Adler, and Sridhar Verose.](https://www.sanramon.ca.gov/our_city/departments_and_divisions/city_clerk/Elections/)
5. [Wikipedia's San Ramon, California article — 2020 census population 84,605; incorporated July 1, 1983.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Ramon,_California)
6. [DanvilleSanRamon — "San Ramon Valley candidates finalized for November ballot" (2026-08-14): confirms the final San Ramon Valley-wide candidate roster after the non-incumbent filing extension closed, with no further changes to the three San Ramon city races.](https://www.danvillesanramon.com/news/2026/08/14/san-ramon-valley-candidates-finalized-for-november-ballot/)
7. [City of San Ramon — Councilmember Richard Adler's official City Council bio page (first-person): a San Ramon resident since 1997, UC Berkeley political science graduate and JD, 30-year State Farm claims/litigation employee, applied for and was appointed to the vacant District 2 seat in January 2025 after Armstrong's election as Mayor.](https://www.sanramon.ca.gov/our_city/city_council/councilmember_richard_adler)
8. [DanvilleSanRamon — "Incumbent Adler seeks to defend District 2 seat on San Ramon council" (2026-08-27): Adler's campaign profile — his January 2025 appointment to the seat vacated by Armstrong, his focus on public safety and the city's Measure N (a temporary 1% sales-tax increase addressing a structural budget deficit), and confirmation that this is a rematch of sorts with Chirag Kathrani, who had also sought this same council appointment before Adler was chosen.](https://www.danvillesanramon.com/san-ramon/2026/08/27/incumbent-adler-seeks-to-defend-district-2-seat-on-san-ramon-council/)
9. [DanvilleSanRamon (Embarcadero Media) — "Contested elections for San Ramon, Danville councils; one SRVUSD incumbent faces challenge" (2026-08-07): the county filing-deadline roundup naming all three San Ramon city races as contested — Armstrong vs. Ntatsos vs. Chigbu for Mayor, Adler vs. Kathrani for District 2, Rubio vs. Joh for District 4 — and noting a fourth mayoral prospect (Brian Swanson) and a third District 4 prospect (Nick Harvey) each pulled papers but did not qualify.](https://www.danvillesanramon.com/city-politics/2026/08/07/contested-elections-for-san-ramon-danville-councils-one-srvusd-incumbent-faces-challenge/)
10. [DanvilleSanRamon — "Bauer-Kahan facing two challengers in race for Assembly District 16" (2026-05-21): profiles Chirag Kathrani's June 2026 Assembly District 16 primary run (a no-party-preference candidacy) alongside incumbent Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and Joe Rubay, with real biographical depth — a 20-year entrepreneur who founded sustainability nonprofit Lead4Earth and the Open Governance Initiative — and confirms Kathrani's 2024 San Ramon mayoral run against Armstrong, launched after Armstrong initially appeared to be running unopposed.](https://www.danvillesanramon.com/election/2026/05/21/bauer-kahan-facing-two-challengers-in-race-for-assembly-district-16/)
11. [DanvilleSanRamon — "San Ramon council raises campaign expenditure limits for upcoming general election" (2026-06-15): the city council's June 9, 2026 vote setting this cycle's voluntary campaign-expenditure limits at $91,453 for Mayor and $39,938 / $36,597 for Council Districts 2 and 4 respectively — the ceiling, not a report of what any 2026 candidate actually raised.](https://www.danvillesanramon.com/city-government/2026/06/15/san-ramon-council-raises-campaign-expenditure-limits-for-upcoming-general-election/)

## The rest of the ballot

San Ramon City Council, District 2 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, "San Ramon City Council, District 2 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/san-ramon-council-2 (sources last retrieved September 7, 2026).

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