Activist Wes White bows out of Salinas mayor's race, leaving two contenders.

Wes White is a familiar figure in public meetings, not because he's on the dais, but in the audience, usually behind a camera. He describes himself as a “longtime community enthusiast" and has a habit of videotaping public meetings, particularly those that are not otherwise recorded. He's also been a prominent advocate for the homeless community.

White was poised to run for a seat at table and put his hat in the ring for mayor, challenging Mayor Joe Gunter and businessman Amit Pandya. 

But in a YouTube video posted on Sunday, White announced he is withdrawing from the race, and instead endorsing Pandya for mayor.

"The reason I am running is I want to see a more authoritative government," White says in the video. "Right now we have a more authoritarian government.

"Amit Pandya has been my friend for years," he adds. "There's just too many people in this race right now. We need a unified, stronger voice." 

Pandya, a small businessman, also ran against Gunter, a retired Salinas police detective and private investigator, in 2016, when Pandya lost with 34 percent of the vote. 

Since then, when his primary issue was public safety, Pandya says the city has taken a positive turn on policing, and compliments the work of the current police chief, Adele Fresé. 

"It takes a while to turn the ship around," Pandya says. "It doesn’t turn on a dime like a small business. I think she’s putting a right direction in place."

Now, Pandya's platform calls for a few changes. One, he says is transparency and what he calls a problem with closed-door decision-making. He also says he'll be watchful of spending public funds. "I think this administration has totally betrayed the working-class men and women of this city," Pandya says.

Gunter and Pandya have a lot of common ground when it comes to several major issues in Salinas, including revitalizing Oldtown; addressing homelessness; economic development including from the emerging cannabis industry; and relocating the dump out of city limits. 

Gunter ticks off a list of successes, many of them in progress or planned for the near future: New apartments on East Rossi Street, more units slated for Chinatown and elsewhere, and a 60-percent reduction in youth violence.

He says the city's focus on ag tech is also starting to pay off, and just last week he met with businesspeople from Australia and New Zealand looking at property in Salinas. 

"Whether you like Steve Forbes or not, we are starting to see a change in perception," Gunter says. 

One of Pandya's primary critiques is that action has been too slow. "Housing is needed now," he says. "We have built about 240; the need is at 14,000. When jobs and companies come, people need to live somewhere."

And while Pandya largely agrees with the city's direction on tackling homelessness, including going in with the county on a long-term shelter on Natividad Road, he says progress has been too slow, noting the mayor has been in office for six years: "Why just now try to figure it out and do something?" 

The deadline for candidates to officially withdraw from a race passed about a month ago, meaning that White's name will still appear on ballots this Nov. 6.