Skip to main content

City of Vista · Statewide General Election

Vista City Council, District 4

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 holds your district's seat on Vista's 5-member City Council, alongside the citywide-elected mayor: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. A 4-year term.

Incumbent Dan O'Donnell faces challenger Josh Davis for Vista City Council, District 4. Whichever candidate receives the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there is no runoff.

This person holds District 4's seat on Vista's 5-member City Council, alongside the citywide-elected mayor: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. District 4 lies south of State Route 78 and includes the city's Shadowridge development. A 4-year term.

O'Donnell, first elected in 2022, is seeking a second term. Davis, a first-time candidate, filed his nomination papers on Aug. 3, 2026 -- near the end of the filing window -- and, because his campaign had not yet spent or received more than $2,000 as of this retrieval, was not yet required to file a campaign-finance disclosure statement.

Dan O'Donnell

Incumbent Dan O'Donnell is seeking a second term representing District 4. According to his city conflict-of-interest disclosure, he is a client relationship manager for Boarshead Brands, a Florida-based company, and serves on several governing boards including the League of California Cities and the Vista Communities Development Association. His most recent campaign filing shows a $10,510 cash balance as of June 30, 2026.

Strengths

A full term of incumbency in this district, plus board seats on the League of California Cities and the Vista Communities Development Association.

Trade-offs

His day job is with an out-of-state company, not unusual for a part-time seat but worth knowing; his board seats mean weighing expertise against divided attention.

Keep in mind

No Cal-Access filer-search confirmation was completed for him in this pass -- see Financial info.

Josh Davis

Josh Davis is a software product manager for Motorola Solutions. According to his conflict-of-interest disclosure, he is also a co-founder of Butter People, a company that manufactures "premium butter and compound butter." His ballot designation is Public Safety Technologist. He filed his nomination papers on Aug. 3, 2026, and had not yet crossed the $2,000 threshold requiring a campaign-finance disclosure statement as of this retrieval.

Strengths

A technology-sector career -- software product management at a public-safety-adjacent company, per his ballot designation -- a different lens than the incumbent's.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed government experience; he filed late in the window, and no finance figure is available yet since his fundraising hasn't crossed the reporting threshold.

Keep in mind

See Financial info for why no dollar figure is available for him yet.

Source review: Very strong (93/100) · 4 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • sdvote.com (opens in a new tab)San Diego County Registrar of Voters -- Candidate List, November 3, 2026 General Election (current through the 8/24/2026 2:44pm snapshot): confirms Mayor, City Council Districts 1 and 3, City Clerk, and City Treasurer as Carlsbad's five November 2026 races, and Mayor plus City Council Districts 1 and 3 as Poway's three November 2026 races, each Vote for 1
  • sandiegouniontribune.com (opens in a new tab)San Diego Union-Tribune (Paul Sisson) -- "Vista Mayor Franklin's departure puts two challengers in the spotlight": independent, bylined reporting on all three Vista races -- occupations, endorsements, and each candidate's own mid-2026 campaign-finance disclosure (period ending June 30, 2026)
  • thecoastnews.com (opens in a new tab)The Coast News Group (staff) -- "Election 2026: A guide to North County races": for San Marcos, confirms the final three-race field, including Thomas Gabriele's later filing against Nunez in District 1 -- the correction to the May 2026 "unopposed" reporting; for Vista, corroborates Mayor Franklin's departure and his June 2026 County Supervisor District 5 primary loss, and the District 1/District 4 incumbents-vs-challengers framing, and names two additional mayoral filers, Gabriel Chance and Alexandra Garcia Guzman, not present on the county's own certified, post-deadline qualified candidate list -- treated as filed-but-not-qualified, not part of the November ballot
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- Vista, California: confirms Vista became a charter city June 13, 2007, that the mayor is elected at-large while the other four council seats have been elected by district since 2017, and names the current (pre-election) council -- cited only for general government-structure context, never a candidate-specific claim

Last updated August 31, 2026.