As the primary election came and went, Westside voters will now turn their attention to the Nov. 3 election, where various seats in local boards will be decided on the ballot.
From school board to city council, there’s a handful of new and incumbent candidates up for contention. Here’s a guide of who is running for boards across the Westside.
Newman City Council
Five candidates will be running for seats on the Newman City Council, with current Mayor Casey Graham and Councilmembers Scott Ball and Shane Tomlinson looking to be reelected.
Graham, who was first elected as a councilmember in 2014, will look to continue leading the city for a possible third-term as he faces a challenger in current Councilmember Matthew Harden. Harden was voted alongside Councilmember Gisel Pimentel in an at-large council race in 2024.
Ball and Tomlinson are both looking to maintain their spot on the city council against Brett C. Short in an at-large council race.
Gustine City Council
Gustine Mayor Patrick Nagy, Mayor Pro Tem Rich Ford and Councilmember Sherri Marsigli are all running to maintain their seat in the city.
Nagy was first elected to city council in 2009 to continue a term from a vacant council seat. He remained a council member through 2018, where he was later elected as mayor. Nagy has since remained in this role.
Like Nagy, Ford also has experience in public service as a council member and later as the city’s mayor three separate times. He first became a council member in 1986 and became the mayor pro tem from 1988 to 1990. In 1990, Ford was elected as the city’s mayor for two years. After that, he was again the mayor pro tem for eight years.
Ford became Gustine mayor again through two occasions, from 2002 to 2004 and from 2006 to 2010.
Prior to becoming a council member in 2022, Marsigli was on the city’s planning commission for 21 years. During those 21 years, she was the planning commission’s vice chair.
West Side Community Healthcare District
Four candidates will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot for the West Side Community Healthcare District Board of Directors.
Incumbents Sandra Walsh-Guajardo, Ashley Casteel and Debbie Lopes will look to maintain their seats against challengers William Edwin Brooks and Kevin Rapoza.
Walsh-Guajardo will face off against Brooks for the Zone 2, or Newman City, seat. After officially joining the board in December 2024, Walsh-Guajardo told the Westside Connect that she wanted to help the local community and utilized her skills as a tax preparer for the WSCHD.
Casteel is running against Rapoza to represent Zone 3, Stevinson, for the district. She joined the board in June 2025 due to a vacancy.
Casteel previously told the Westside Connect that she joined the board to help the local community within the district. She added that she’s concerned about an ambulance taking more- than 30 minutes to arrive for an emergency.
Lopes, who will run unopposed in her race for Zone 4, or Gustine City, will not appear on the ballot, according to Merced County’s qualified candidate list. The board voted for seats in Zones 2, 3 and 4 on June 22.
At the same time as Casteel, Lopes took over the board’s vice president after the resignation of then-Board Vice President Kenneth Helms.
Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District
Three candidates are in the running to serve on the Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District’s Board of Education. Board President Don Cabral is running against challenger Hugo Luna for the Area 2 board seat. Trustee Frank Rivas, who represents Area 5, is running unopposed.
Cabral was elected to the board in 2022 and nominated as its president in 2024. Rivas, a Newman native, was also elected in 2022.
Gustine Unified School District
Gustine Unified School District Board of Trustees have three candidates on the Nov. 3 ballot. According to Merced County’s candidate list, Board President Gary Silva and former trustee Evelin Gimlett are running to represent Area 1.
Loretta Rose, a former GUSD trustee, is the sole candidate to represent Area 4 for the board, but will not be on the ballot, per the Merced County’s candidate list.
In February 2025, Gimlett was nominated to the board’s Area 4 trustee following an interview held by the board. Her and Rose were finalists for the seat that became vacant after the resignation of then-recently elected trustee, at the time, Andrew Bloom.
Recently on GUSD’s website, Gimlett and board clerk Kevin Bloom seats were shown to be vacant.
Westside Connect reached out to GUSD Superintendent Bryan Ballenger for explanation on the matter, but did not receive a comment by the story’s publication.
