Carpinteria City Council District 1 incumbent Mónica Solórzano and District 5 candidate Alexandra “Xy” VanAntwerp were well ahead of their opponents in election night results.
Three seats on the five-person council were on Tuesday’s ballot: District 1, District 5 and District 3 (uncontested).
Incumbents Solórzano and Julia Mayer (District 3) decided to run again; incumbent District 5 representative Al Clark decided not to run again after 20 years on the council.
Aja Forner ran against Solórzano, while Planning Commissioner VanAntwerp and Randy Carrasco dueled to take Clark’s place.
Mayer ran unopposed and will be sworn in for the role in early December.
No matter who ultimately secures the seats after the results are certified on Dec. 3, there are tough — and consequential — decisions ahead for the next City Council.
The city has a structural deficit and a growing Sheriff’s Office budget, opposition to a city-prompted project to build an inn, growing pavement problems and finding room for 901 new housing units mandated by the state.
The other two seats on the five-person council, occupied by Mayor Natalia Alarcon (District 2) and Councilman Wade Nomura (District 4), will be on the 2028 ballot.
District 1
Updated results in the Carpinteria City Council District 1 election had Solórzano ahead of Forner.
Solórzano had 72.7% of the vote compared with Forner’s 26.7%.
Forner said the “returns so far don’t tell the whole story” and said she is “waiting for every vote” in the race to be counted.
“Whatever the outcome, I want to thank every voter who showed up and every volunteer and supporter who gave their time. To my family and friends, thank you for standing by me,” she said. “To my husband, who picked up the slack at home so I could run: I couldn’t have done this without you. And to my kids, who put up with me being very busy, thank you for your patience and your love. I’m proud of the campaign we ran.”
Solórzano declined to provide a comment until additional results were released.
Both candidates have strong ties to Carpinteria and are heavily involved in their community.
Solórzano works in UC Santa Barbara’s Office of Research. She has served District 1 on the council for four years.
Forner is the Therapy Dogs of America program and volunteer manager.
Both have lived in Carpinteria for a little less than 20 years and have worked with nonprofit organizations and in public-facing roles. Their children are going through Carpinteria schools.
They both want to protect open space, thoughtfully placed workforce and affordable housing, sustainable city growth, responsible fiscal choices and to fix Carpinteria’s pavement problems.
Forner said in September that she decided to run because she believes the current council hasn’t protected the city from budget issues.
Solórzano said in July that she decided to run again because she felt like she still has more to offer the community.
A long list of people and organizations threw their support behind Solórzano’s campaign, including Congressman Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, state Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, and the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party, to name a few.
Forner was endorsed by Santa Barbara County First District Supervisor Roy Lee, a former Carpinteria councilman, as well as former Carpinteria mayors Brad Stein and Gregg Carty.
Read more about the candidates here.
As a member of the current council, Solórzano will consider the appeals of the Surfliner Inn project approval on Nov. 30.
District 5
The question of who will replace retiring 20-year Councilman Clark as the Carpinteria City Council District 5 representative became clearer Tuesday night.
Updated election results put VanAntwerp in the lead with 69.8% of the vote. Carrasco had 29.4% of the vote.
VanAntwerp ran her campaign on a tagline of “small, friendly, sustainable.”
To the current Carpinteria planning commissioner, that meant balancing the city’s budget and fixing its structural deficit by reprioritizing city projects; making it easier for businesses to open their doors; protecting Carpinteria’s residents from federal immigration actions, among a handful of other goals.
She collected many endorsements along the way, including Congressman Carbajal, Carpinteria Mayor Natalia Alarcon, Councilwoman Solórzano and a handful of former Carpinteria mayors.
Clark himself also endorsed her.
Her route to Tuesday was (mostly) smooth sailing. She faced some criticism — but largely support — after a Sept. 21 speech from the Planning Commission dais.
She announced she would not be voting on the controversial Surfliner Inn project because the development team had “threatened” her and the city with legal action if she voted on the project because of alleged bias. (Developer Whitt Hollis denied threatening her.)
Some lauded her for her speech; others said she misrepresented the developer’s point about bias.
No matter the public perception, if she is elected as the District 5 representative on the City Council, she will not vote on the Surfliner Inn project.
The next batch of candidates are set to be sworn in sometime in December, while the City Council is set to consider appeals against the project on Nov. 30.
District 5 candidate Randy Carrasco is a parole agent.
Carrasco declined to speak with Noozhawk in September for a breakdown of his campaign and platform points.
Measure I and District 3
Mayer, who was the only candidate running for the District 3 seat, had 94.4% of the vote in results Tuesday night.
She told Noozhawk that she is “proud” to be re-elected.
“We have a lot of work to do in Carpinteria, and it means everything that my neighbors and community trust me to get it done. I look forward to working with my fellow city councilmembers to fulfill our commitments to infrastructure, housing, and stewarding our amazing town into the future,” she said.
“And what I really hope tonight is that the next generation of Carpinteria leaders are watching and seeing that they can make a difference, too. Carpinteria is my kind of town!”
The city’s sales tax increase — Measure I — appeared to be passing in early results.
The first batch of results showed the measure had 62.8% approval.
Measure I for Carpinteria proposes a quarter-percent sales tax increase to fund street repairs and better support response for natural disasters, keeping public areas clean and improving sheriff’s services.
The current sales tax rate is 9%, and Measure I would increase the rate to 9.25%. The increase would provide the city approximately $700,000 annually.
The measure requires 50% plus one vote in order to pass.
This is a developing story. Early election results will be updated as more ballots are processed and counted. Semi-official election results are expected late Tuesday night. Final, certified results will be available by Dec. 3.
