The November ballot is set with dozens of city, school board and special district races for Santa Barbara County. 

There are four Santa Barbara City Council seats up for election this year, including the mayor, in what promises to be a competitive campaign season. 

For mayor, four of the seven candidates who filed to run have qualified for the ballot, according to the County Elections Office.

They include two current council members – Eric Friedman and Kristen Sneddon – vying for the spot currently held by Randy Rowse. 

Other candidates include Wendy Sims-Moten, the executive director of First 5 Santa Barbara County and a former Santa Barbara Unified school board member; and author Matt Kilrain.

Others who filed to run but did not qualify for the ballot include Mark G. Redmond; Michael Stilwell and Justin Joseph Kam.

Rowse isn’t running again. 

Four candidates are on the ballot for the District 4 City Council seat currently held by Sneddon. They are Devon Wardlow, Monte Lee Wilson, Genevieve Taft-Vasquez, and Jason Dominguez.

Three candidates are on the ballot for the District 5 seat, currently held by Friedman. They are James G. Zurlinden, Ian J. Baucke, and Cevin Cathell. 

Another four candidates filed to run for the District 6 seat, currently held by Meagan Harmon. They are Alexander Stoeber; Gabe Escobedo; Anabella Lehne and Jason Carlton. Harmon isn’t running again. 

Now that the final candidate filing deadline for the Santa Barbara County Elections Office passed last week, the official lists of qualified candidates are out. 

There are no off-ballot contests for any of the eight local cities. However, there are some races with only one candidate qualified for a seat, according to the County Elections Office.

Read the list of city candidates here, and the qualified candidates for on-ballot school and special district races here. 

The qualified candidates for off-ballot school and special district contests are here.

District Elections

Some school board and special district contests won’t appear on the November ballot at all because only one candidate – or no one at all – filed to run for the available seat. 

All eight cities in Santa Barbara County have moved to district elections, and so have most of the school districts and special districts such as water, fire, airport and community services agencies. 

That means candidates run for a specific seat representing the area they live in within the city or service district, and are elected by voters within that same district.

Before the switch to district elections, most seats were decided at-large, with citywide voters considering all candidates and the top vote-getters being elected.

The transition was made to diversify representation on city councils and other boards, and was prompted by California Voting Rights Act lawsuits.

In Santa Barbara, district elections caused immediate change to representation on the City Council in terms of ethnicity, age, gender and neighborhood. 

In another change, the city shifted to even-year elections starting in 2024, after decades of being the odd one out with off-cycle elections. Advocates hoped that would help increase voter turnout, as it did for the city of Ventura. 

Candidates for City Council Races

Here are the qualified candidates for city council races across Santa Barbara County. 

Santa Maria 

Santa Maria has three City Council seats up for election this year: District 1, District 3 and District 4. 

Three candidates are on the ballot to finish a short term for District 1, a seat made vacant when Carlos Escobedo abruptly resigned in March.

Ricardo “Richard” Batalla, Celest Sienna Mendoza and Gary Janek Michaels qualified to run for that spot, according to the County Elections Office. Batalla has been representing the district since April, when the council appointed him to fill the vacancy. 

In District 3, candidates include incumbent Gloria Soledad Soto, who is running for another term, and Corby Poulis Sr.  

In District 4, currently represented by Maribel Aguilera-Hernandez, candidates include Vincent Martinez and Tyler Barksdale. 

Aguilera-Hernandez is running for the Fifth District County Supervisor seat, and will face Ricardo Valencia in a runoff election on the Nov. 3 ballot. 

Buellton

The Buellton mayor’s race will again be a contest between David Silva, the current mayor, and Dave King, the former mayor. 

Billy Silvola and Mark Williams are running for the District 1 seat currently represented by Hudson Hornick. Carla Mead, the incumbent, is the only person who filed to run for the District 4 seat.  

Carpinteria

The city of Carpinteria has three of five City Council seats up for election this year. Incumbent Monica Solorzano and Aja Forner are on the ballot for the District 1 seat and incumbent Julia Mayer is the only person who filed to run for the District 3 seat. 

In District 5, longtime representative Al Clark has decided not to run again. Candidates Alexandra ”Xy” VanAntwerp and Randy Carrasco have filed to run for the seat. 

Goleta 

Goleta has two of five City Council seats up for election this year, and both will be contested races. 

District 1 candidates include Luz Reyes-Martín (incumbent) and Rollin Gartzke. District 2 candidates include James Kyriaco (incumbent) and Phebe Mansur.

Guadalupe 

Guadalupe’s mayor and two council seats are up for election this year. Longtime mayor Ariston Julian is running for the seat again and so is Christina Hernandez, a current council member, according to County Elections Office filings. 

Two candidates are running for the two council seats: Robert Diaz and Randy Lorne Altergott. One incumbent, Hernandez, is running for mayor and the other, Eugene Costa Jr., hasn’t filed to run again. 

Lompoc

The contested Lompoc mayor’s race will include James “Jim” Mosby, the current mayor, and Jeremy Ball, a council member. 

District 2 candidates include Victor Vega (incumbent) and Sharlameigne Segovia. 

District 3 candidates include Sarah Anne Read and Nick Gonzales. That seat is currently represented by Dirk Starbuck, who hasn’t filed to run again. 

Solvang

Solvang has the mayor’s seat and two City Council seats up for election this year. David Brown is running for re-election as mayor and will face Denise El Amin.

District 3 representative Louise Smith and District 4 incumbent Elizabeth Orona are the only candidates to file for those seats.