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City of Upland · Statewide General Election

Upland City Council, District 2

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 would hold your district's seat on Upland's 4-member, fully district-elected City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, under a council-manager government where an appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. A 4-year term, staggered so only some districts are up in any given November -- District 1 next goes before voters in 2028; Districts 2, 3, and 4 are up this cycle. Upland's Mayor and City Treasurer are separately elected citywide offices, not council seats -- neither is up for election in 2026.

Incumbent James Breitling is unopposed for reelection to Upland's District 2 council seat on the November 3, 2026 ballot -- so this contest is settled and your vote here does not change the outcome.

This person holds District 2's seat on Upland's 4-member, fully district-elected City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, under a council-manager government where an appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. A 4-year term ending November 2030. Upland's Mayor (Bill Velto) and City Treasurer (Greg Bradley) are separately elected citywide offices, not council seats -- neither is up for election this November. Upland moved from at-large to by-district council elections in 2016 after a California Voting Rights Act challenge; District 2's lines were last redrawn in a 2022 post-Census redistricting.

Breitling's filed ballot designation is "Councilmember, District 2," reflecting his current seat rather than a separate occupation. With no opponent, the useful question is what he's done in office and what to watch, not who to choose -- accountability for this seat over the next four years runs through the council and the public rather than through the ballot.

James Breitling

James Breitling is Upland's incumbent District 2 councilmember, first elected in 2018 and seeking reelection unopposed. His own official bio describes over two decades in legislative politics and government-affairs consulting -- he currently directs government affairs for the Construction Industry Coalition on Water Quality and the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition, with prior roles in the State Legislature and on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors staff -- and states he is fluent in Spanish. On the council, he chairs both the Public Works Committee and the Finance Committee and also sits on the Library Board and the county's Solid Waste Task Force. Independent of his own bio, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin profiled him in December 2020 as chairman of Upland's 2020 Census Complete Count Committee, identifying him in his own words as "the political consultant" -- corroborating his stated career, not just repeating it.

Strengths

A long career in government affairs, plus committee chairmanships (Public Works, Finance) tied to his seat; independently corroborated by a 2020 newspaper profile, not just his own account.

Trade-offs

No news coverage of his 2022-2026 council term specifically, or of any contested issue during it, was found in this pass -- only the 2020 census profile, which predates this term.

Keep in mind

An uncontested seat means this term's record, not a head-to-head choice, is what's actually on the ballot here.

Source review: Very strong (92/100) · 7 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- "Offices Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": the City of Upland section lists exactly three offices -- Member, City Council, Districts 2, 3, and 4 -- each a single seat with a 4-year term, and no Mayor or Treasurer contest.
  • uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- statewide "Report_CandidateList.pdf" candidate-filing report: the City of Upland section (pages 183-186 of 249) names all three qualified 2026 candidates -- James Breitling (District 2), Carlos A. Garcia (District 3), Rudy Zuniga (District 4) -- each the sole candidate for their seat, each flagged Incumbent, and each with zero candidate statements filed.
  • uplandca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Upland -- City Clerk's "November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election" page: states that Districts 2, 3, and 4 are up this cycle, that the nomination period closed August 7, 2026, and names all three qualified candidates with qualification dates (Garcia 7/27/26, Breitling 8/4/26, Zuniga 8/6/26), stating directly that "each district has one candidate running unopposed." Also covers Measure M (a business-license reform measure, out of scope under this dataset's ballot-measures rule).
  • uplandca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Upland -- "City Council & Treasurer" page: lists all four council districts plus the separately elected citywide Mayor (Bill Velto) and City Treasurer (Greg Bradley) -- confirming James Breitling (District 2), Carlos A. Garcia (District 3), and Rudy Zuniga (District 4, Mayor Pro Tem) as sitting incumbents, and that neither the Mayor nor Treasurer office is a council seat.
  • uplandca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Upland -- Councilmember James Breitling's own official bio page: over two decades in legislative politics and government-affairs consulting, current director of government affairs for the Construction Industry Coalition on Water Quality and the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition, prior State Legislature and SB County Board of Supervisors roles, fluent in Spanish, chairs both the Public Works and Finance Committees, and founded the city's Environmental Sustainability Committee.
  • dailybulletin.com (opens in a new tab)Inland Valley Daily Bulletin -- "Upland has this man to thank for its high U.S. census response rate" (Dec. 18, 2020): profiles James Breitling as chairman of Upland's 2020 Complete Count Committee, identifying him in his own voice as a political consultant; reached via a search-engine snippet after a direct fetch of dailybulletin.com and a Wayback Machine lookup both failed to return page content in this pass, so only the headline, byline outlet, date, and the snippet's own quoted opening sentence are relied on here, not the article's full body text.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)City of Upland's own NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (aid=upl), queried by name for James Breitling: his committee ("Breitling for District 2, Upland City Council, 2026") filed an itemized FPPC Form 460 for Jan. 1-June 30, 2026 -- downloaded directly and read locally with pypdf -- showing $0 in monetary contributions, $89 in unitemized (under-$100) payments, $100 in two $50 miscellaneous cash-increase entries (annual Secretary of State fee and bank service fees), and an ending cash balance of $22.62.

Last updated August 31, 2026.