# Vista City Council, District 4 Compare records and positions simply between Dan O'Donnell or Josh Davis for Vista City Council, District 4 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Vista's 5-member City Council, alongside the citywide-elected mayor. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Vista - 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/vista-council-4 - 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: 93 out of 100 (Very strong), across 4 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Dan O'Donnell** — Vista City Council Member Dist. 4 · Incumbent - **Josh Davis** — Public Safety Technologist A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. 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. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. District 4 lies south of State Route 78 and includes the city's Shadowridge development. The term is four years. 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 their city conflict-of-interest disclosure, they are a client relationship manager for Boarshead Brands, a Florida-based company, and serve on several governing boards including the League of California Cities and the Vista Communities Development Association. Their 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:** Their day job is with an out-of-state company, not unusual for a part-time seat but worth knowing; their board seats mean weighing expertise against divided attention. **Keep in mind:** No Cal-Access filer-search confirmation was completed for them 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. ## Sources 1. [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](https://www.sdvote.com/content/dam/rov/en/election/nov-3-2026-gubernatorial-general-election/candidate-list.pdf) 2. [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)](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/08/21/vista-mayor-franklins-departure-puts-two-challengers-in-the-spotlight/) 3. [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](https://thecoastnews.com/election-2026-a-guide-to-north-county-races/) 4. [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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vista,_California) ## The rest of the ballot Vista City Council, District 4 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, "Vista City Council, District 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/vista-council-4 (sources last retrieved September 7, 2026). 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