The place settings are on the table now all that’s left is to..place your bets?
The Chula Vista City Clerk recently finalized the candidate list for the upcoming 2026 elections.
Primary and runoff contests, if needed, are set for the office of mayor, City Council District 1, City Council District 2 and City Attorney.
In the City Attorney’s race incumbent Marco Verdugo would have to make Herculean efforts to lose his competition. He is running unopposed.
For City Council District 2 current council member Jose Preciado is facing three people who want to oust him from office: Angelica Martinez, Russ Hall and Jesse Navarro.
In Council District 1 incumbent Carolina Chavez has four opponents: Joy Emmanuel, Chuck Sanfilippo, Gregory Martinez, and Sergio C. Vargas.
And in the race to be the face of the city, current mayor John McCann will not be running unopposed. The longtime politician will have to fend off Francisco Tamayo and Yair Gersten if he wants to keep his job.
Elections, while we have them, are as American as muscle cars and missiles. When it comes to being loud, fast and blowing things up it is hard to imagine the USA coming in second to anywhere else.
Almost equally American is the willingness and ability to make a buck anyway you can. Including gambling.
A portion of our national economy is based on a sort gambling, with stock market predictions creating and destroying personal fortunes in the time it takes to guess whether or not a business venture will prosper and for how long.
Recently that desire to roll the dice and win big bucks was extended into the political realm. In 2024 a U.S. federal court cleared the way for legalized gambling on the outcome of elections, just in time for the presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. According to CBS News, a French man won $28 million by betting Trump would win the election.
That’s serious money. Serious enough to warrant meddling or tip the scales in your favor? I don’t know. But I do know that gamblers like a “sure thing.”
Will that sort of gambling and money ever make its way to Chula Vista elections? I would not bet on it. But somebody might and depending on the odds they could win big while everyone else loses.
