Local candidates can begin process to get on ballot Monday

All three Tuolumne County Superior Court judges who are up for reelection in March will be running unopposed, while candidates for the county Board of Supervisors and Sonora City Council can start the process of getting on the ballot Monday.

The declaration of candidacy and nomination period for all local offices that will be decided in the March 5 presidential primary election begins Monday and ends Dec. 8, during which candidates must gather the required amount of voter signatures and pay any necessary fees to get their names on the ballot.

If an incumbent does not run in a particular race, then the nomination period deadline will be extended to Dec. 13 for that race.

Judicial candidates were also required to file a declaration of intention between Oct. 30 and Wednesday.

County Auditor-controller and Clerk Debi Bautista, who serves as registrar of voters, said on Thursday that the only judicial candidates who filed declarations of intention before the deadline were the three incumbents: Presiding Judge Kevin Seibert, Judge Hallie Gorman Campbell, and Judge David Beyersdorf.

Campbell and Beyersdorf were each appointed in the past year to fill vacancies left by the retirements of judges Donald Segerstrom and Kate Powell Segerstrom, which required them to run for a full six-year term in the upcoming election.

Seibert was appointed by former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2015 and last ran for reelection unopposed in June 2018.

The only thing left for the three incumbents to do to secure their additional six-year terms now is file their nomination papers with 20 to 40 valid signatures of registered voters in the county by the Dec. 8 deadline.

There will be three seats up for grabs on the county Board of Supervisors in districts 1, 4 and 5.

Incumbent District 1 Supervisor David Goldemberg and incumbent District 4 Supervisor Kathleen Haff have

provided statements to The Union Democrat stating that they have decided to not seek reelection.

In District 5, incumbent County Supervisor Jaron Brandon shared a statement earlier this year announcing he will run for another four years on the board. The district includes the communities of Columbia, Jamestown, Stent, Tuttletown, and Rawhide.

Haff, Goldemberg and Brandon were all elected to the board in 2020.

Sonora City Councilman Matt Hawkins and Sonora High School District Trustee Mike Holland are the only candidates who have provided statements to The Union Democrat announcing their plans to run for the District 1 seat. The district includes the City of Sonora and surrounding areas.

The City Council will have three seats up for election that are currently held by Hawkins, Mayor Mark Plummer and Mayor Pro-tem Ann Segerstrom.