Only one of five active candidates running for three Stockton City Council seats showed up Thursday night for a forum intended to give voters a chance to hear directly from the people seeking to represent them.
District 3 Councilmember Michael Blower was the lone Stockton council candidate to participate in the Sept. 3 candidate forum at Greater Christ Temple Church, hosted by the Stockton/San Joaquin County NAACP and El Concilio California.
The sparse City Council showing stood out during a broader evening of forums that also featured candidates for Congress and the state Assembly, who were questioned on voting rights, education, health care, criminal justice and economic opportunity.
Organizers said all candidates were invited and that they offered accommodations when scheduling conflicts arose, including virtual participation. The U.S. Congress District 9 race was the only forum in which both candidates participated.
Rep. Josh Harder, D-Tracy, joined his congressional forum by Zoom because Congress was in session, while Blower’s portion of the event was moved to the beginning of the evening to accommodate a personal commitment. Republican John McBride showed up in person. One candidate appeared for the State Assembly District 9 and 13 races, and no one showed up for Congessional District 13.
Neither candidate in Stockton’s District 1 race attended. Councilmember Michele Padilla had intended to participate but later said she would be unable to attend, according to organizers. Challenger Tamica Small said she could not make it but did not provide a reason.
In District 3, Jessica Toccoli, a teacher, told organizers that work prevented her from attending. District 5 candidate Brando Villapudua said he was under the weather.
Desiree Lynch, who had advanced to the District 5 runoff against Villapudua, withdrew from the race Aug. 24 after her arrest on election-related felony charges. Her name will remain on the November ballot.
Stocktonia reached out to the absent City Council candidates asking why they did not attend the forum. None responded by publication time.
Bobby Bivens of the NAACP said hearing candidates answer questions is critical for voters trying to decide whom to support.
“It is critical for the education of the voters that they hear from the candidates and get to make a decision based on what they say,” Bivens said.
For incumbents, Bivens said voters should be able to judge “what they have done, what they plan to do.” Challengers, he said, should explain how they would improve representation and what policies they would bring to office.
Blower raised the absences before moderators asked their first question.
“I think these events are important, and I think it’s very important to show up,” Blower said. “So I’m disappointed that of the, I guess now you’d say five people running for City Council, only one of them showed up.”
Blower, who is seeking another term representing District 3, spent much of his forum criticizing turmoil at City Hall.
Asked how he would strengthen ethical governance and public trust, Blower pointed to turnover involving Stockton’s city manager, city auditor, city attorney and most recently City Clerk Katherine Roland.
“It’s been a very turbulent go on the Stockton City Council,” Blower said. “I can say that my first two years were a lot different than the last year and a half.”
His concerns echo findings from the San Joaquin County Civil Grand Jury’s 2025-26 report, which described Stockton City Hall as being in “governance in turmoil.” The report found that public infighting, leadership instability and interference by councilmembers with city staff had weakened city government and public trust.
It also criticized the council for failing to fully address recommendations from previous grand jury investigations.
He also called for the city to restore something similar to its former Office of Data Analytics so residents and council members could better measure whether programs are working and where public money is going.
On jobs, Blower praised City Manager Johnny Ford’s move to separate homelessness from the city’s economic development work and said Stockton should continue supporting labor and pre-apprenticeship programs.
Harder, McBride split on voting, schools and health care
Unlike the Stockton council races, both candidates for California’s 9th Congressional District participated.
Republican John McBride appeared in person, while Harder joined remotely.
The candidates offered sharply different answers when asked about the SAVE Act, federal legislation that would require people registering to vote in federal elections to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship. Acceptable documents under the proposal include a U.S. passport, certain REAL IDs that indicate citizenship, military records or other government-issued identification paired with proof of citizenship.
McBride said he supports the proposal, arguing that identification requirements would help address concerns about election integrity.
“As long as there are people who perceive that there’s any lack of integrity in our elections, if they perceive a lack of integrity, that needs to be fixed,” McBride said.
Harder said he has consistently voted against the measure. He said he could support some form of voter identification but argued the SAVE Act could create new barriers to voting, including for married women whose current names differ from those on their birth certificates.
“We absolutely need to secure our elections,” Harder said. “This isn’t it.”
Their differences continued when moderators asked about education and health disparities.
McBride advocated for school choice and said parents should have more opportunities to send their children to alternatives to traditional public schools. He also supported merit-based raises for teachers and argued that too much education funding is lost to bureaucracy rather than reaching classrooms.
Harder emphasized protecting funding for schools serving low-income students and opposed reductions to Medi-Cal, which he said would disproportionately affect Black and Latino residents in San Joaquin County.
Asked specifically about racial disparities in maternal mortality and health care, McBride focused on income, family structure, personal health choices and the cost of insurance. He criticized the Affordable Care Act and said more health care dollars should go to patients instead of insurance companies.
Harder said reducing maternal mortality requires affordable prenatal care, continued health coverage and a medical workforce that better reflects the communities it serves.
He pointed to efforts involving University of the Pacific and St. Joseph’s Medical Center to establish a medical school in Stockton.
“We’re going to train doctors from Stockton who look like Stockton and who know Stockton,” Harder said.
On the economy, McBride focused on reducing federal debt and unnecessary spending and said he supports tariffs when implemented properly. Harder blamed tariffs for increasing household costs and called for measures including suspending the gas tax and cracking down on price gouging.
McBride said he would have preferred if he and Harder had shared the stage.
“I’m glad (Harder) is here, Zoom or not, when others are not,” McBride said. “But I would have preferred that we went head-to-head on each answer. They listened to me answer all the questions and he answered the questions. But you don’t get the same head-to-head comparison.”
Assembly candidates talk voting, criminal justice and jobs
The Assembly forums again featured empty seats.
Matthew Adams, a Democrat running in Assembly District 9, participated without his opponent, incumbent Assemblymember Heath Flora. Organizers said Flora told he would not participate.
Adams, a former middle school math and science teacher and community organizer, called for expanding voting access and protecting California’s mail-in voting system.
“We shouldn’t be changing our voter base to look more like our politicians,” Adams said. “We should be changing our politicians to look more like our voter base.”
Asked about criminal justice reform, Adams said the state should emphasize rehabilitation and rethink how law enforcement responds to situations such as mental health crises.
“It’s not even about taking any money away or defunding anything,” Adams said. “It’s about being smart, being responsible, and making sure that we can actually suit the needs of our community.”
He also called for more career and technical education and on-the-job training in high schools and said he supports a Medicare-for-all-style health care system.
Former San Joaquin County Supervisor Tom Patti was the lone participant in the Assembly District 13 forum.
His opponent, Rhodesia Ransom, did not attend. Organizers said Ransom had two or three other events scheduled that evening and that they offered to include a prerecorded video response from her. Time did not allow for that arrangement, and organizers said they ultimately learned she would not participate in the forum.
Patti focused heavily on vocational education as both an economic and public safety strategy.
Asked about criminal justice reform, Patti said he would rather prevent people from entering the criminal justice system by expanding vocational training, counseling and other programs than focus exclusively on punishment after someone commits a crime.
On education, he said California should reduce administrative costs and direct more money into classrooms and teacher salaries. He also supported tying some teacher compensation to performance.
Patti said he supports keeping California’s independent redistricting commission and likes mail-in voting but also favors identification requirements for voters.
“We want access,” Patti said. “We want to have an honest, fair election, and I do not believe that’s too much to ask.”
Patti also used his closing statement to point to his opponent’s absence, while Addams similarly told the audience that he regularly attends candidate forums because he considers them an important part of running for office.
Voters urged to make a plan
The evening also included information from Anabel Alonzo of the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters about the Nov. 3 general election.
The county is scheduled to begin mailing vote-by-mail ballots Sept. 29. Alonzo advised voters who have not received theirs by the second week of October to contact the Registrar of Voters and confirm their registration and address information.
The regular voter registration deadline is Oct. 19, although eligible residents who miss it can use California’s conditional voter registration process to register and vote afterward, including on Election Day.
San Joaquin County is preparing 158 polling locations and 27 secure ballot drop boxes. Early voting at the Registrar of Voters office and ballot drop boxes are scheduled to begin Oct. 5.
Alonzo encouraged voters to check their registration before Election Day and decide ahead of time whether they plan to vote by mail, at a drop box or in person.
“Don’t delay, vote today,” Alonzo said.