LATHROP – This year’s elections is still 11 months away, but the campaign has already begun.

At least, as far as the mayor position is concerned. Mayor Kristy Sayles has not made any official statement yet, but Lathrop businessman J. Chaka Santos is already taking his campaign of trying to wrest the title away from Sayles at full speed ahead.

While Sayles has not issued any official statement about seeking a third elected term of office, some people describing themselves as the mayor’s close friends are claiming she has told them she will be seeking re-election. Phone calls to the mayor seeking confirmation of those claims were not returned.

Sayles is not the only one whose term is expiring the end of the year. Two council members are also at the final stretch of their four-year term at the same time as the mayor: Robert Oliver and Sonny Dhaliwal. Both said they are not ready to make an official statement as to what they will decide to do.

“It’s too early to say what I’m going to do for next year. At this point, I don’t know what to say,” said Oliver who has also served on the council prior to his current term.

Dhaliwal said there’s still plenty of time for him to make a decision and that, for now, “I want to focus on the (city) business on hand.”

However, he firmly stated that he will not be seeking the office of mayor.

“I have a full-time job. If I can’t make the commitment, if I cannot do the job 100 percent, I won’t do it,” explained Dhaliwal who works in the transportation division of Santa Clara County. He has already passed up a job promotion so he could continue serving his community as councilman.

Dhaliwal was a planning commissioner when he was appointed to the council. After that, he ran for a full four-year term and won.

The official time to submit candidates’ applications will start sometime in June. But that has not stopped Santos to take his campaign to the council meetings at City Hall where he has openly challenged and criticized the mayor on a number of issues.

He has also positioned himself on a number of occasions to give himself more visibility in the community. During the National Night Out observance in August, for example, he surprised former mayor Bennie Gatto and his wife Joyce with a plaque of appreciation for all their contributions in the community through the years. The appreciation was made and presented under the name of his wife, Roseanna.

Santos also lent his visibility and philanthropy at the annual United Bacarreneos of America fiesta celebration in November at the Lathrop Community Center where he pressed flesh with prospective voters. The Filipino organization was the group that pushed for sister cityhood between Lathrop and the town of Bacarra in the Philippines. According to Census figures, one in ten residents in Lathrop is Filipino or of Filipino descent. At the fiesta celebration, Santos ordered a tub full of bottled water and ice saying this was his donation to the event.