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City of Yucca Valley · Statewide General Election

Yucca Valley Town Council, District 5

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 District 5's seat on Yucca Valley's 5-member, fully district-elected Town Council: town ordinances, the budget, and land use for this High Desert town under a council-manager government, where an appointed Town Manager runs day-to-day operations. A 4-year term, staggered so only some districts are up in any given November -- Districts 1, 3, and 5 were formally up this cycle, but only District 5 drew a second candidate; Districts 1 and 3 will be filled without an election, since each incumbent ran unopposed. Yucca Valley has no separately elected, citywide Mayor -- the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem titles are held by two of the five district councilmembers themselves, chosen from among their own ranks.

Incumbent Rick Denison, on the council since 2014 and reappointed without opposition in 2018 and 2022, faces a real challenger this time: Dion Antic, a small-business owner. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3, 2026 wins outright -- there is no primary or runoff.

This person would hold District 5's seat on Yucca Valley's 5-member, fully district-elected Town Council: town ordinances, the budget, and land use for this High Desert town under a council-manager government, where an appointed Town Manager runs day-to-day operations. A 4-year term, staggered so only some districts are up in any given November -- Districts 1, 3, and 5 were formally up this cycle, but only District 5 drew a second candidate. Districts 1 and 3 will be filled without an election: District 1's Jim Schooler and District 3's Merl Abel (the council's current Mayor) both ran unopposed and are simply reappointed. Yucca Valley has no separately elected, citywide Mayor -- the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem titles are held by two of the five district councilmembers themselves, chosen from among their own ranks.

This is the only contested Town Council race on Yucca Valley's November ballot -- a genuine choice between an incumbent with over a decade of tenure and a first-time challenger, in a cycle where every other town office up for a vote in the Morongo Basin (two other Town Council seats, the Yucca Valley Airport District, Hi-Desert Water District, Twentynine Palms Water District, Copper Mountain Community College District, and a Morongo Unified School District seat among them) is being filled by reappointment with no ballot line at all.

Rick Denison

Rick Denison is the incumbent District 5 councilmember, filing under the ballot designation "Incumbent." He was first elected in 2014 and has twice been reappointed without opposition, in 2018 and 2022 -- this is the first time in eight years a challenger has qualified against him. No town-published biography page could be retrieved for him in this pass (yucca-valley.org returned a domain-wide access-denied error to every fetch attempt), and no independent news profile of his tenure beyond his listing as a sitting councilmember was found.

Strengths

Twelve years on the council as of this term, with two prior unopposed reappointments -- more sustained tenure in this specific seat than any challenger could claim on a first run.

Trade-offs

No independent reporting on his tenure was found, and no town biography page could be retrieved (the town's site blocked every fetch); financial info was unavailable too -- see below.

Keep in mind

This is the first contested election he has faced since first winning the seat in 2014 -- worth weighing as a fresh test of his standing after two uncontested terms.

Dion Antic

Dion Antic is a challenger for Yucca Valley Town Council District 5. The county's own candidate filing lists his occupation as "Small Business Owner." He holds no town office; no town-published biography page could be retrieved for him in this pass (yucca-valley.org returned a domain-wide access-denied error to every fetch attempt), and no independent news profile, campaign website, or platform material about him was found.

Strengths

None could be documented in this research pass beyond his filed occupation.

Trade-offs

No biographical or platform info beyond his filed occupation was found anywhere in this pass -- a documented gap, not an oversight. Financial info was likewise unavailable.

Keep in mind

He is the first candidate to challenge this seat since 2014, in a town where every other seat up this cycle drew no opposition at all -- worth noting as context for how uncommon a contested Town Council race is here, not as a claim about either candidate's merits.

Source review: Very strong (94/100) · 5 cited sources

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

  • uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- "Offices Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": lists County Board of Education Areas A, B, and D (under the School category) as the county's only expiring-term seats this cycle -- no Board of Supervisors, row office, or Superior Court seat appears anywhere in the 11-page document
  • uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- statewide "Report_CandidateList.pdf" candidate-filing report linked from the county's own November 3, 2026 candidates page: within the San Bernardino County section, only Area B carries any candidates (Rita Fernandez-Loof, Miki R. Inbody, Kimberly L. Watson); Areas A and D, both confirmed expiring this cycle by the county's own Offices Up for Election document, have no candidates anywhere in the report and will not appear on the November ballot
  • hidesertstar.com (opens in a new tab)Hi-Desert Star / Desert Trail (byline Jene Estrada) -- Morongo Basin elections roundup: "Two of the three seats up for election on the Yucca Valley Town Council will be filled without elections. In District 5, Dion Antic is challenging Rick Denison, who was first elected in 2014 and reappointed in 2018 and 2022 when no one ran against him. Jim Schooler will be reappointed to District 1 and Merl Abel, currently mayor, will remain the council member for District 3, since both ran unopposed" -- independent confirmation, and explanation, of why only District 5 appears in the county's own candidate-filing report.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Yucca Valley, California," Government/Municipal section: names the sitting Town Council as of that snapshot -- Mayor Jeff Drozd, Mayor Pro-Tem Merl Abel, and Council Members Jim Schooler, Rick Denison, and Robert Lombardo -- and describes the town as operating under a council-manager government; used only for the 5-member roster and government form, not for any 2026 election detail, which is sourced independently to the Hi-Desert Star and the county's own documents above.
  • public.netfile.com (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County -- NetFile public campaign-finance portal (aid=SBD), queried directly by name against the portal's own QuickNameSearch API for both 2026 Yucca Valley Town Council District 5 candidates (Denison, Antic): every query returned zero filers -- no candidate or committee record at all for either.

Last updated August 31, 2026.