December Mono County Democrats Updates
- monocountydemocrat
- Dec 31, 2025
- 8 min read
In this newsletter:
Dear Fellow Dems:
Let me begin this newsletter by wishing everyone happy holidays, and all the best for a wonderful – and Democratic – 2026. I am going to use this newsletter to try to wrap up 2025, and to talk a little about 2026, and what lies ahead.
It is clear that people are angry and want to do something to stop the egregious actions being taken by the Trump administration. With Prop 50 behind us, the question many are asking is what comes next? Unfortunately, I do not have an answer to that question yet. There was so much momentum behind getting Prop 50 passed that it eclipsed all other issues.
That said, there are already discussions within the CD 3 Regional Organizing Council (ROC) about next steps, including broadening from what was just CD 3 to a Sierra Regional Organizing Council that can work to ensure that even in “safe” districts, Democrats are elected. And of course, there are other races going on at all levels, from the state to local contests. We have seen the damage that a school board can do when it tries to ban books or take over a curriculum. So, we still have work to do. Right now, however, I am not clear on what form the next set of actions will take – but stay tuned, and I will let you know. We will continue to need your help with contested Congressional races as well as local races.
We, as Democrats, have to look out for and protect that which is in the common good. We can do that if we work together!
-Joyce Kaufman
Mono County Democratic Central Committee Chair
Chair: Joyce P. Kaufman (June Lake) jpkaufman70@gmail.com
Vice chair: Urs Willimann (Bridgeport) willimann.urs@gmail.com
Comptroller: OJ Zeleny (Mammoth Lakes) ojz@mac.com
Recording Secretary, Rosemarie Willimann (Bridgeport) rawillimann@yahoo.com
2025 Wrap Up
Mono County Politics
As everyone knows by now, we ended 2025 with a number of major victories, starting here in California with the passage of Proposition 50 by an overwhelming margin. Although the Republicans have filed a lawsuit to stop the redistricting, that is unlikely to succeed, so the new maps will be in place for the 2026 Congressional election. That means that those of us in Mono and Inyo Counties will be moved to CD 5, a seat currently held by Tom McClintock. As I mentioned in my last newsletter, new CD 5 will be heavily Republican (by about 20 points), with little chance that a Democrat can win. Nonetheless, there are currently three Democrats who have stepped forward to challenge McClintock in the new district.
But this is where the unknowns come into play. What will Kevin Kiley do? Will he stay and run in the newly redistricted CD 3, which will now have a Democratic advantage of about 8 percentage points, thereby virtually ensuring he will not win, no matter how much he runs to the center? Or will he choose to move to a different, more Republican-friendly district, such as ours (CD 5)? If that proves to be the case, he would have to either enter the primary against Tom McClintock or perhaps cut a side deal with McClintock, persuading him not to run. Remember that California has a “jungle primary,” where the top two vote getters in the primary go on to run in the general election in November, even if that would be two people from the same party (e.g., McClintock versus Kiley). The filing deadline for Congressional candidates is March 6, and the candidate will have to have met the requirement of submitting a petition with signatures of more than 2,000 registered voters in the district, or pay the filing fee of about $1,345.
There is also some speculation that Kiley will enter the race for Governor. This would be the same filing deadline of March 6, with a requirement for signatures or a filing fee. Kiley has been after the Governor’s position for some time, and was one of the people behind the recall of Gavin Newsom in 2021, an effort that failed spectacularly. But it also led to speculation that Kiley wants to be governor. The way the votes play out in California, it would be virtually impossible for a Republican to be elected; the last Republican governor of California was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who served from November 2003 to January 2011, after Democrat Gray Davis was ousted in a special election in 2003. But the demographics and voter registrations have changed since then. Of course, Kiley is a clever politician who might decide to throw his hat into the ring and see what happens in the primary.
Of the three Democratic candidates who are running in CD 5, one, Michael Masuda, attended our last MCDCC meeting, and another one, Kate Sills, plans to introduce herself at our Mono Dems meeting on January 12 and respond to questions. The third person, Mike Barkley, also plans to attend our meeting on January 12, but only as a guest; he is not on our agenda.
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, we have also had a number of candidates for various offices meet with our Committee. We were joined at our December meeting by Nichelle Henderson, candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, as well as Michael Masuda. We will be joined at our January meeting by Patrick Wolff, candidate for Insurance Commissioner, as well as by Kate Sills, as noted above. Prior to this, we had the following candidates at our meetings: Janelle Kellman, candidate for Lt. Governor (in August); Josh Newman and Al Muratsuchi, both candidates for State Superintendent of Public Instruction (October 13 and November 10, respectively); Jaron Brandon, candidate for State Senate District 4 (June 27 and 28); and Josh Engel, candidate for Assembly District 8 (October 13). And State Senator Ben Allen, also a candidate for Insurance Commissioner, reached out to me specifically to learn more about our insurance challenges in Mono County.
The State Party (CADEM) will be holding a pre-endorsement meeting in January that will require candidates for any office to receive 70 percent of the votes from delegates. The Mono Dems will decide at our meeting on January 12 whether we plan to endorse any candidate, which we are not required to do. The actual endorsing convention will be held February 20-22 in San Francisco. Chris Bubser and I will be there as delegates, and we will be joined by Urs and Rosemarie Willimann, who will be serving as proxies for our delegates, Doug and Lou Stewart. Any candidate CADEM endorses at the convention becomes the candidate officially endorsed by the Mono Dems as well. At the convention, in cases where there is a contested election among Democrats, such as for governor, getting the endorsement will require a vote of 50 percent of the delegates. In the event that no candidate gets that number, then there is no officially endorsed candidate going into the primary. I will, of course, report back on the outcome of the convention and what we learn.
Other News from 2025
The other big election news from 2025 came from the democratic successes for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, along with other Democratic victories in smaller local elections in Georgia. And the special election for a House seat in Tennessee was won by a Republican, but by a far smaller margin than Trump had during the last Congressional election in the district. All this bodes well for Democrats in 2026.
It is also important to note that even though Proposition 50 passed by a large margin, there will be at least four contested races here in California. Those include two endangered Democrats, Adam Gray (CD 13) and Derek Tran (CD 45). In 2024, Gray won his district by about 150 votes, and we know that Republicans will be targeting both these races. On the Republican side, Dems are targeting David Valadao (CD 22) and Darryl Issa (CD 48). If we are to take the House, we need to keep every seat and take some additional ones, and even though Prop 50 was designed to give Dems an extra 5 seats, we need to fight to keep Gray and Tran’s seats, and flip Valadao and Issa’s seats. As I get more information about what we can do to help in those contested races, I will let you know and also reach out for help.
Looking Ahead to 2026
The election cycle will start in California, leading up to the primary on June 2, 2026. Especially in races where there are multiple candidates, like the governor, that will be critical, and we will certainly know more after the primary results are in.
Obviously, the next big thing coming up in 2026 will be the Congressional elections. As noted above, there will be four contested seats in California, but several other critical races throughout the country. For example, although Texas started the redistricting frenzy by gerrymandering to try to get five new Republican seats, with the apparent shifting of Hispanic voters away from Trump and the Republicans, one or perhaps two of those seats could swing Democratic. And there are going to be other close races in other parts of the country where we can help, especially by phone banking. That is one of the most effective and efficient ways to reach voters, and I know from experience it is not nearly as difficult or scary as it might appear to be. More details on places where help will be needed as I get that information.
CADEM Chair Rusty Hicks always says that the road to taking the House runs through California, and he is correct. That will be especially true in 2026 with Trump desperately trying to hold on to the slim Republican majority, which is looking less and less likely. But it is by no means guaranteed, and we still have work to do. Be sure to let me know if you are interested in helping in any way, and I will let you know how to do so.
How We Take Action
Contest Every Race
The State Party is overseeing a program called “Contest Every Race.” Led by Organizing Director Sue Hilderbrand, the goal is to identify those races that are likely to have open seats in 2026 and match them with Democrats who might be willing to run for office. We are now in the process of identifying those races and will pass that information on to Sue. The goal is for CADEM to reach out to Dems and see whether anyone might be interested in running for local office. And lest you think that that would be too daunting, the State Party will also be doing training for candidates. And if 2026 is not the right time for you, you can still get your name on the list and get ready to do something in 2028.
The Republicans have been very effective at building a bench by working from the local level and up. The Dems are now trying to do so as well, and Contest Every Race is a way to identify possible candidates. So, if you are interested in possibly running for office at some point, please get in touch with me or Chris Bubser (chris@chrisbubser.com). Chris is also working with another organization, called SPAN (Sierra Protection Action Network), which is broader in its outreach than the Mono Dems by working with environmental, labor, and other non-partisan, like-minded groups. They also do excellent training and will be ramping up for candidate training prior to 2026. Please get in touch with Sue if you are interested.
Coalition Mammoth
Coalition Mammoth is a relatively new organization in Mammoth, spearheaded by a group of young women. They are the driving force behind organizing the rallies that many of us have attended. In one of our Mono Dems meetings, we decided that it will be important for Coalition Mammoth and the Mono Dems to learn more about each other and to work together since we have many of the same goals and values. As a result of that discussion, I reached out to Emily Markstein, one of the founders of Coalition Mammoth, to invite her and some of her colleagues to join us at our January meeting. That followed a conversation that Chris Bubser and I had with Emily about finding ways to collaborate. The meeting in January will be an important next step. As always, that meeting and all our meetings are open, and please reach out to me if you would like to attend.
The Coalition team has also been hosting family community dinners to bring everyone together - join us for the next one on January 7th!
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