City of St Helena · Statewide General Election

St. Helena Mayor

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

On the ballot

Patrick Kenealy — Venture Capitalist
Bonnie Schoch — Accountant

St. Helena's directly elected, citywide Mayor: presides at City Council meetings and votes as a full member of the 5-person council that sets city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Napa County city of about 6,000 residents. A 2-year term -- shorter than the 4-year terms the four Council Members serve.

Bonnie Schoch, a former St. Helena Councilmember and winery CFO, faces Patrick Kenealy, a former tech-publishing CEO who briefly served on the council in 2024, for the seat outgoing Mayor Paul Dohring is leaving open.

St. Helena's Mayor is one of five council seats but the only one elected on its own, citywide, to a 2-year term -- the four Council Members serve staggered 4-year terms instead. The Mayor presides at meetings and signs official documents but otherwise votes as one member of five; day-to-day city operations run through an appointed City Manager.

Dohring, first elected to the council in 2014 and 2018 before winning the mayoralty in 2022 and 2024 (beating back a challenge from then-Councilmember Billy Summers in his last race), announced in July 2026 he would not seek a third term. Because there was no incumbent to challenge, the city's own Notice of Election extended the filing deadline for this seat from Aug. 7 to Aug. 12 -- and Schoch looked set to run unopposed until Kenealy filed in the final days.

Bonnie Schoch

Schoch's county ballot designation this year is "Accountant." She served on the St. Helena City Council from 2003 to 2010, after seven years on the St. Helena school board (1996-2003) -- a total of roughly a decade and a half in local elected office before this race, though not recently: her last term on the council ended in 2010, meaning this campaign asks voters to weigh a return after a 16-year gap alongside her financial background.

Strengths

A long record in city government -- both the council and the school board -- plus a CFO background relevant to a council focused on its own budget overhaul.

Trade-offs

Her most recent council term ended in 2010; this dataset found no 2026 platform statement or campaign site laying out what she'd prioritize now, sixteen years later.

Keep in mind

She was the only mayoral candidate to file for most of the nomination period -- Kenealy entered only in the final days before the extended deadline, so this race came together late.

Patrick Kenealy

Kenealy's county ballot designation this year is "Venture Capitalist." He is a former CEO of the International Data Group, the publisher of PC World magazine and the "For Dummies" how-to book series, with a wider background in media and venture capital. The council appointed him in February 2024 to serve the final nine months of Lester Hardy's term after Hardy's resignation, but he did not run that fall to keep the seat for a full term -- this mayoral bid is his return to elected office two years later.

Strengths

Prior hands-on council experience (a partial 2024 term) plus a corporate-executive and venture-capital background distinct from Schoch's accounting résumé.

Trade-offs

Filed only in the closing days of an already-extended deadline; this dataset found no campaign site or 2026 platform statement from him either.

Keep in mind

He served under nine months on the council in 2024 and chose not to seek a full term at the time -- worth weighing against why he's seeking the top seat now.

Source review: Strong (87/100) · 9 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

napacounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Napa County Registrar of Voters (John Tuteur) -- "Roster of Candidates, Qualified Candidates Only" (CFMR037), General Election 11/3/2026, print date 2026-08-13: Contest 5100 (Mayor, City of St Helena) lists two qualified candidates, Bonnie Schoch ("Accountant") and Patrick Kenealy ("Venture Capitalist"), both "On Ballot: Yes" with a candidate statement filed. Contest 5120 (City Council, City of St Helena, Vote for 2) lists five qualified candidates -- Kate Spadarotto ("Appointed Incumbent"), Joshua Parke ("Business Owner/Parent"), Daniel Hale ("Designer"), John Pedersen ("Father"), and Scott Diaz ("Appointed Incumbent") -- also "On Ballot: Yes."
cityofsthelena.gov (opens in a new tab)City of St. Helena -- "Unofficial Council Candidate Status (November 3, 2026)" page, last updated Aug. 11, 2026: the City Clerk's own pre-certification tracker, confirming "Two (2) City Council seats, for four-year terms expiring December 2030 and one (1) Mayor, for a two-year term expiring December 2028," and each candidate's nomination-paper and qualification status. Names John Shields as having pulled papers but never returned them.
cityofsthelena.gov (opens in a new tab)City of St. Helena -- official "Notice of Election," signed by City Clerk/Elections Official Andrew Bradley, dated June 24, 2026 (published in the St. Helena Star July 1, 2026): confirms the Mayor (2-year term) and two City Council seats (4-year terms) up for election, the nomination-period dates (July 13-Aug 7, 2026, extended to Aug 12 for the Mayor's seat since the incumbent was not running), and the standard Elections Code Section 10229 boilerplate.
cityofsthelena.gov (opens in a new tab)City of St. Helena -- official "City Council" page: confirms the 5-seat at-large (no-district) structure, that Council Members serve staggered 4-year terms while the Mayor serves a 2-year term, and lists the outgoing council -- Mayor Paul Dohring, Vice Mayor Michelle Deasy, and Council Members Aaron Barak, Kate Spadarotto, and Scott Diaz.
napavalleyregister.com (opens in a new tab)Napa Valley Register/St. Helena Star (byline Jesse Duarte) -- "St. Helena Mayor Paul Dohring won't seek reelection" (published July 21, 2026): reports Dohring's decision, that he was elected to Council in 2014 and 2018 before winning the mayoralty in 2022 and 2024, and that his exit extends the mayoral filing deadline to Aug. 12; independently names the early candidate fields for both races.
napavalleyregister.com (opens in a new tab)Napa Valley Register/St. Helena Star (byline Jesse Duarte) -- "Bonnie Schoch still sole candidate for St. Helena mayor" (published Aug. 5, 2026): profiles Schoch as a former winery CFO who served on the City Council from 2003 to 2010 after serving on the St. Helena school board from 1996 to 2003, and tracks the Council race's filing status as of that week.
napavalleyregister.com (opens in a new tab)Napa Valley Register/St. Helena Star -- "Patrick Kenealy joins St. Helena mayoral race": reports Kenealy entered the mayoral race in the final days before the Aug. 12 filing deadline, describes him as a businessman with a media/venture-capital background who served a partial council term in 2024, and confirms the final 5-candidate Council field.
napavalleyregister.com (opens in a new tab)Napa Valley Register -- "This year's Napa County elections, at a glance" (staff-reported, byline credit spanning Howard Yune, Keith Cousins, Barry Eberling, Jennifer Huffman, and Brett Marsh): a countywide roundup independently corroborating the St. Helena Mayor race (Schoch; Kenealy, a former CEO for the International Data Group, publisher of PC World and the "For Dummies" series) and the 5-candidate Council field.
netfile.com (opens in a new tab)A negative-result access attempt: St. Helena's own campaign-finance portal (netfile.com/public/CSH/campaign, linked from the city's own Elections page) is a client-rendered single-page app returning no static filer data to this session's fetch tooling, with no discoverable public REST endpoint. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source for Schoch or Kenealy, not either candidate's actual finances.

Last updated September 2, 2026.