# Stockton City Council, District 3

Compare records and positions simply between Michael Blower or Jessica Toccoli for Stockton City Council, District 3 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold your district's seat on Stockton's City Council. The council has seven members. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Stockton also has a directly elected Mayor. An appointed City Manager runs day to day operations. The term is four years, with a two term limit. This cycle covers only Districts 1, 3, and 5. Stockton's Mayor was elected in November 2024. The Mayor is not on this ballot.

- Jurisdiction: City of Stockton
- 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/stockton-council-3
- 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: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 12 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Michael Blower** — Councilmember/Business Owner · Incumbent
- **Jessica Toccoli** — Educator

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

Incumbent Michael Blower, a second-term councilmember and lifelong Stockton resident, faces Jessica Toccoli, whose campaign a local columnist has accused of running mailers with a doctored newspaper article, in a runoff after neither cleared a majority in the June 2 primary.

Stockton's City Council has seven voting members. Six are elected by district. The Mayor is elected citywide. All serve 4-year terms with a 2-term limit. Stockton uses a council-manager form of government. An appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. Only Districts 1, 3, and 5 are on this ballot. Their winners serve January 2027 through December 2030. Districts 2, 4, and 6 are not up this cycle. Mayor Christina Fugazi was elected citywide in November 2024. She is in her first term as Mayor. She is not up for reelection until 2028. That is why no Mayor's race appears on this ballot.

Blower led the four-candidate June 2 primary with 4,192 votes, or 48.24%. That was short of a majority. Toccoli followed with 3,145 votes, or 36.19%. Joey Veltri took 10.02% and Stefanie Alfaro took 5.55%. Both were eliminated. No candidate cleared 50%, so Blower and Toccoli advance to a November 3 runoff. Whoever gets more votes wins outright. There is no further round.

## Michael Blower

The incumbent, elected to this District 3 seat in 2022 and sworn in January 2023; his filed ballot designation is "Councilmember/Business Owner." A lifelong Stockton resident, he earlier served a brief term representing District 4 from February to December 2016. He is active with the Rotary Club of Stockton, sits on the Stockton Police Chaplaincy board, and volunteers at the Stockton Emergency Food Bank; his stated priorities are homelessness, neighborhood safety, better-paying jobs, and fiscal accountability. In August 2024, Blower joined Councilmember Brando Villapudua (himself a candidate this cycle in District 5) in filing the complaint that led the Council to censure colleague Michele Padilla (District 1, also a candidate this cycle) for misusing city discretionary funds on a 2024 political event.

**Strengths:** A full term's Council experience, plus a brief 2016 stint. He also has deep civic roots in the Rotary, the police chaplaincy, and the food bank.

**Trade-offs:** No independent evaluation of his policy votes was found beyond the Padilla complaint.

**Keep in mind:** Filing that complaint puts him at odds with a colleague. Voters may be weighing that colleague elsewhere on this same ballot.

## Jessica Toccoli

A challenger whose filed ballot designation is "Educator." Stocktonia opinion columnist Michael Fitzgerald has raised several specific, sourced concerns about her campaign: mailers he says contain disputed claims about Blower's record (including on drag performers in libraries and addiction-recovery facilities); at least one mailer that appears to reproduce a doctored Stockton Record article, with its headline altered from "compassionate city" to "sanctuary city" and its photos swapped; an unfiled campaign-finance disclosure (Form 460) as of the column's May 2026 publication; her avoidance of public candidate forums and of his own questions about her campaign; and voter records showing she moved into District 3 from a District 4 address shortly before the filing deadline. These are Fitzgerald's own reported findings and opinion, not our independent confirmation. A same-period Stockton Record news article covering similar ground ("Toccoli questioned over mailers, outreach in Stockton City Council race," June 1, 2026) was not available to us.

**Strengths:** Not established in the sourcing found for this race. No independent profile of her background was found beyond her filed occupation.

**Trade-offs:** A local columnist alleges doctored mailers, an unfiled finance disclosure, and a recent move into the district. He also says she avoided public questions. Those claims are serious if accurate.

**Keep in mind:** These are one columnist's findings, not a court or Council finding, and they could not be checked against Stockton's finance portal.

## Sources

1. [San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters -- official "Offices Up for Election" document for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Election: lists the City of Stockton's three offices -- Member of City Council, Districts 1, 3, and 5, each a 4-year term, elected by district -- under the "MUNICIPAL OFFICES -- ADVANCED FROM PRIMARY" heading, with no separate Mayor line, confirming all three are June-to-November runoffs and the Mayor is not up this cycle.](https://www.sjgov.org/docs/default-source/registrar-of-voters-documents/elections/gubernatorial-general-election-2026/candidate-services/offices-up-for-2026-general-election.pdf)
2. [San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters -- official "Candidate List" (report CFMR009), Qualified Candidates Only, printed 8/20/2026: confirms exactly two qualified candidates per Stockton district, each "On Ballot: Yes" -- District 1 (Tamica Small, Michele Padilla), District 3 (Michael Blower, Jessica Toccoli), District 5 (Brando Villapudua, Desiree Lynch) -- with each candidate's filed ballot designation.](https://www.sjgov.org/docs/default-source/registrar-of-voters-documents/elections/gubernatorial-general-election-2026/candidate-services/candidate-roster-(35).pdf)
3. [San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters -- official, certified "Statement of Votes Cast," Statewide Direct Primary, June 2, 2026 (certified by Registrar of Voters Olivia Hale, 6/25/2026): its District Results section gives exact per-candidate vote totals and percentages for all three Stockton City Council contests, establishing that no candidate cleared a majority in any district -- Padilla 49.11% (Small 27.60%, Sanchez 11.41%, Nguyen 9.52%, Hollis 2.36%) in D1; Blower 48.24% (Toccoli 36.19%, Veltri 10.02%, Alfaro 5.55%) in D3; Villapudua 34.04% (Lynch 30.59%, Elizabeth 16.40%, Beas 12.83%, Harper 5.51%, write-in Carpenter 0.64%) in D5.](https://www.sjgov.org/docs/default-source/registrar-of-voters-documents/statements-of-votes-cast/2026-june---statewide-direct-primary-election/june-2-2026-statement-of-votes-cast.pdf)
4. [City of Stockton -- official "Elections" page (City Clerk): independently confirms the same three November 2026 Council contests and the same six qualified candidates as the county's own lists, states the majority-or-runoff mechanic directly, and gives the Jan. 1, 2027-Dec. 31, 2030 term for the winners.](https://www.stocktonca.gov/government/city_clerk/elections.php)
5. [City of Stockton -- official "City Council" index page: confirms the Council's 7-member structure (six district-elected Councilmembers plus a citywide-elected Mayor), 4-year terms with a 2-term limit, and a council-manager form of government.](https://www.stocktonca.gov/government/city_council/index.php)
6. [City of Stockton -- official biography page for Mayor Christina Fugazi: confirms she was elected Mayor citywide in November 2024 (her first term as Mayor, after two prior Council terms beginning 2014), explaining why no Mayor's race appears on this cycle's ballot.](https://www.stocktonca.gov/government/city_council/mayor.php)
7. [City of Stockton -- official biography page for Councilmember Michael Blower (District 3): confirms his current term began January 2023, an earlier brief term representing District 4 (Feb.-Dec. 2016), and his civic affiliations.](https://www.stocktonca.gov/government/city_council/district_3.php)
8. [Stocktonia -- "Stockton City Council moves ahead with censure investigation of Michele Padilla": reports Councilmembers Michael Blower and Brando Villapudua's Aug. 2024 complaint against Padilla for using roughly $10,000 in city discretionary funds on a July 2024 community barbecue at which political candidates gave campaign speeches.](https://stocktonia.org/news/local-government/2024/08/21/stockton-city-council-moves-ahead-with-censure-investigation-of-michelle-padilla/)
9. [Stocktonia -- Mike Fitzgerald opinion column, "The strangely familiar 'ghost' campaign of Jessica Toccoli" (the paper's own opinion vertical, not straight news): reports disputed claims in Toccoli's mailers about incumbent Michael Blower's record, an apparently doctored Stockton Record article reproduced in a mailer, an unfiled Form 460 as of publication, her avoidance of public forums, and voter records showing a move into District 3 from a District 4 address shortly before the filing deadline.](https://stocktonia.org/news/local-government/2026/05/22/mike-fitzgerald-the-strangely-familiar-ghost-campaign-of-jessica-toccoli/)
10. [Stocktonia -- "'Record time' ballot counting in San Joaquin County shows all three Stockton City Council incumbents could be heading into November runoffs": a June 11, 2026 recap of the semi-final count independently corroborating the same top-two pairing and near-identical percentages in all three districts, later confirmed by the county's certified final Statement of Votes Cast.](https://stocktonia.org/news/local-government/2026/06/11/record-time-ballot-counting-in-san-joaquin-county-shows-all-three-stockton-city-council-incumbents-could-be-heading-into-november-runoffs/)
11. [City of Stockton -- official "Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC)" page (City Clerk): links the same NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (netfile.com/public/SJC/campaign) the county uses countywide -- a negative-result citation, since the portal is a client-rendered single-page application that returned no readable content to this pass's fetch tooling.](https://www.stocktonca.gov/government/city_clerk/fair_political_practices_commission_(fppc).php)
12. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Stockton City Council District 3' race (statewide All Races list): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus answers to the League's questions -- top three priorities; qualifying background, experience and education. No answers were on file at capture. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/stockton-council-3.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote)

## The rest of the ballot

Stockton City Council, District 3 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

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