Morro Bay might have the busiest local ballot as the mayor and two council seats are up for election
Local registered voters can potentially see some familiar names, as well as newcomers, on their November Presidential Election ballots, as the official nomination period is well underway.
County Clerk Elaina Cano, announced on July 10 that the nomination period for local races would open July 15, with the deadline to return nomination papers Friday, Aug. 9. And if an incumbent office holder for a particular race — be it school board, city council, or community services district — does not file to run for re-election, the deadline extends for five days to Aug. 14.
“Contests on the November ballot include the top-2 Federal and State candidates from the March 5, 2024, Presidential Primary; open seats on 15 local school boards; 14 community service districts; and five special districts; and, city offices throughout the County,” reads a news release from the County Elections Office.
Morro Bay will have perhaps the busiest local ballot as the mayor and two council seats are up for election, and it doesn’t look like the two incumbent councilwomen plan to run again.
If that happens, it will be the first time two Morro Bay Council seats were wide open in at least the past 30 years.
Mayor Carla Wixom told Morro Bay Life (MBL) over a month ago that she intends to run. MBL’s deadline for the August issue came at the start of the nomination period, so it remains unconfirmed, but no matter what the mayor or any other officer holder might say, until they turn in nomination papers, they won’t be on the ballot.
Incumbent City Councilmembers Laurel Barton and Jen Ford have reportedly said that they do not plan to run again, and two local businessmen have told MBL they do plan on running.
Former House of Jerky store owner Jeff Eckles, and Bill Luffee, both of whom have spent considerable time on the Harbor Advisory Board, have said they will be running for City Council.
As of July 15, no others had stepped up, but as the city clerk said, nothing matters until they turn in their nominating petitions and signatures are verified.
Petition signers must be registered voters living in Morro Bay.
Luffee turned in his Form 501 last January and Eckles on May 30. That, in essence, announced their intentions to run and allowed them to begin accepting campaign donations.
Depending on whom else throws in, it could be the end of Morro Bay’s historic, all-woman City Council, which has been the case for the past two years.
Morro Bay City Clerk Dana Swanson said she would post updates on the election nominations on the city website at morrobayca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/19410/Nomination-Updates_2024, should MBL readers wish to keep tables on the races.
The county’s political offices — sheriff, district attorney, clerk-recorder, treasurer/tax collector and assessor — are not up for election.
County supervisor seats contested in 2024 were all decided at the March Primary Election, and the other office holders are in midterm.
District 1 Supervisor John Peschong, and District 3’s Dawn Ortiz-Legg both ran unopposed in March; however, Ortiz-Legg did face a weak, write-in opponent.
She ran for the second time since being appointed to the seat by Gov. Gavin Newsom after the 2020 suicide death of Adam Hill, who died just months after winning a third term but before taking the oath of office.
Ortiz-Legg, under State Election Law, had to face voters at the first available election, which was in 2022. She won that contest (primary and general elections) and remained in the seat. District 3 was up for a full term in 2024 and Ortiz-Legg won her first four-year term.
District 5 was also open after two-term Supervisor Debbie Arnold decided to retire. Atascadero Mayor Heather Moreno won on March in a two-person race against another A-Town councilwoman, Susan Funk. Supervisor-Elect Moreno will be sworn in after the November Election is certified, until then, Arnold continues to serve out her term.
Three Superior Court judges were also unopposed last March, as Judges Crystal Tindell Seiler, Catherine J. Swysen, and Michael C. Kelley won in walkovers.
In 2026, all of the elected officers, plus District 2 and 4 supervisors will be up for election again.
California has a top-two primary election, so an election is almost never decided in the primary (unless one runs unopposed). Under the state’s system, the top two vote-getters in the primary run again in November to settle the matter. This applies to state and federal offices. So the races for U.S. Senate, Congress, State Senate, and State Legislature, will be on the ballot in November.
Hollywood Congressman Adam Schiff and former Major League Baseball All-Star Steve Garvey (of Dodgers and Padres fame), will face off in two Senate contests.
One will be for just a few weeks to finish out the late Sen. Diane Feinstein’s remaining term. The other contest is for a full 6-year term, which could make for some awkwardness in the Capitol.
California could have two different people fill these terms, one of which would be perhaps the shortest serving Senator ever, at just a few weeks.
Incumbent Congressman Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara), will run against challenger Thomas Cole. Carbajal is looking to win his fourth term.
District 17 State Sen. John Laird, who won in March by some 25 percent, will face challenger Tony Virrueta.
In the race for State Senate’s District 21, Elijah Mack will go against incumbenet S. Monique Limón. The two were separated by a 3 percent margin last March.
Local State Assemblywoman Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) will run against Dalila Epperson. Addis won the District 30 race by over 9 percent last March. District 30 includes most of SLO County, plus Coastal Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.
Also on the ballot in Morro Bay is Measure A-24, a citizen’s initiative aimed at a proposed Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project being planned for the old power plant property.
A-24 would reaffirm the current zoning on the west side of the Embarcadero from Beach Street out to Morro Rock.
That includes the old power plant property, which was re-zoned “commercial/visitor-serving” when the General Plan and Zoning Ordinance were updated a few years ago, and before plant owner Vistra Energy submitted the BESS application.
A-24 requires the city to seek voter approval in order to change the zoning in that specific area. While not directly targeting the BESS Project, the clear intent is to turn the decision-making over to voters, who would in theory vote it down.
That BESS Project, which is currently under environmental review by the City Planning Department, who must re-zone the property to “industrial” to have the BESS Project approved.
The Cayucos Sanitary District has three seats up for election. Board President Robert Enns is up for election for another term on a board he’s been serving on since 1991.
Other directors up for re-election are Hannah Miller and Michael Shopshear.
The Sanitary District collects and treats the town’s wastewater, and nothing else. It is responsible for building Cayucos’ new, state-of-the-art wastewater treatment and water recycling facility on farmland located up Toro Creek Road, about a mile off Highway 1.
Two seats are open in the Cayucos Elementary School District Board of Trustees and once again they must come from specific areas in town.
The school district has Trustee Areas 4 and 5 on the county list of races.
The current Area 4 trustee is Susan Brownell and Area 5 is Val Wright. As with the LOCSD, anyone wishing to run for these offices must go through the County Clerk’s Office.
The Coast Union School District has three seats up for election in November, including the trustee who representsCayucos, Samuel Shalhoub.
The Coast Union School District is a vast taxing area that raises money to support Coast Union High School in Cambria. Coast Union is the high school that Cayucos’ elementary and secondary school kids used to have to attend, but several years ago, the CUSD and San Luis Coastal School Districts signed an agreement that allows Cayucos’ teens to attend Morro Bay High, bringing their property tax dollars with them. Both Coast Union and San Luis Coastal are basic-aid districts, meaning their main source of revenues comes from local property taxes, and not the State General Fund.
The Area 5 trustee ‘s district starts in Cambria and runs down the coast to include Harmony and all of Downtown Cayucos.
The San Luis Coastal Unified School District has three trustee seats up for election, each representing a specific area of the district. SLCUSD district includes Morro Bay, Los Osos, SLO, Avila Beach, and the areas in between.
Chris Ungar, the trustee for Area 3 is up for re-election. Area 6’s Eve Hinton and Area 7’s Brian Clausen are also up for re-election.
Ungar’s district includes parts of Los Osos and rural Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo.
Candidates for all CSDs, school districts, and special districts must get nomination papers at the County Government Center.
According to the Elections Office, “The Elections Division of the County Clerk-Recorder’s Office, located at 1055 Monterey St., Ste. D-120, San Luis Obispo, urges interested candidates to call our office at (805) 781-5228 to make an appointment and obtain the Declaration of Candidacy.”
See the September issue of Morro Bay Life for an update on the Nov. 5 election.
