July17,2018-
Council members Steve Nelsen and Greg Collins have decided to run again for another 4-year term on the Visalia City Council this November. This week marks the calendar for nominations to open for Tulare County elections.
Meanwhile fellow incumbent Warren Gubler says he will not run again, in the process of retiring from his law practice and still recovering from a close but unsuccessful Assembly campaign earlier this year.
The District 26 State Assembly race in November will feature incumbent Devon Mathis (R-Visalia) and Jose Sigala, a Democrat council member from Tulare after the GOP fielded three candidates in the June primary including Gubler.
Gubler, failed to make the runoff, edged out of second place by 29.8% to 28% of the district vote although he beat out Sigla in Tulare County.
Left to right: Collins, Nelsen and Gubler
Gubler currently serves as mayor of Visalia since 2016. He was first elected to the council in 2009.
With Gubler out the running, voters in his district (3) will look for a new face to represent them.That covers the western part of town.
With district elections, each candidate runs only in his or her district rather than ‘at-large.’
Meanwhile Greg Collins will be throwing his hat in the ring again after years of service. Collins has served on the Visalia City Council from 1975 to 1991 – first elected right out of college.
From 1987 to 1991 he served as mayor. After a 15-year hiatus, he was elected to the Visalia City Council in 2005, and again in 2011. He represents District 4 in the midsection of the city. He is known as champion of concentric growth.
Collins is opposed to the proposed location for a Valley Children’s clinic on Hwy 99 at Caldwell, in the county, saying the site is not in Visalia’s interest.”Its a good project- but a bad location.”
”Visalia has been able to avoid the urban sprawl that has infected our urban counterparts up and down the Valley, like Bakersfield and Fresno.” He vows to fight the plan.
District 5 is represented be Steve Nelsen, covering the eastern part of Visalia. This would be Nelsen’s third run for council, the first under the district election structure.
“There are still plenty of things I want to work on” says Nelsen, including water issues and the homeless problem. Nelsen says conversion to district elections is ” a minus” but he says he hopes to continue a more “global view” at the city council.