SANTA MONICA, CA — Incumbent City Councilmembers Lana Negrete and Caroline Torosis led the race for three seats on the Santa Monica City Council late Tuesday night, with challenger Ashley Oelsen holding a narrow lead for the third seat.
Returns released at 9:44 p.m. by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's Office showed Negrete with 9,859 votes, or 16.3%, followed by Torosis with 9,406 votes, or 15.5%, and Oelsen with 8,443 votes, or 13.9%.
Doug Trussler was fourth with 7,509 votes, trailing Oelsen by 934 votes, followed by Daniel Ivanov with 6,906 and Brett Morrow with 6,867. In the separate Rent Control Board race, Sue Himmelrich led with 13,762 votes, or 30.2%, followed by Kurt Gonska with 12,436 votes, or 27.3%, and Heather Thomason with 10,498 votes, or 23.1%.
The preliminary results included mail-in ballots processed before Election Day and early in-person votes. With ballots still outstanding, the races remain undecided.
Voters also selected representatives for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education, Santa Monica College Board of Trustees and Santa Monica Rent Control Board, while considering five municipal ballot measures covering education funding, eviction protections, rent control and hotel taxation.
Beyond Santa Monica, Californians voted for a new governor, members of Congress and state lawmakers, along with 14 statewide propositions. Control of the U.S. House of Representatives was also at stake in a midterm election unfolding against a contentious national political backdrop.
Scroll down for real-time Santa Monica and Los Angeles County election results.
Track your ballot through California's BallotTrax system.
According to the California Secretary of State's September registration report, 23,164,977 Californians were registered to vote, representing more than 85% of the state's eligible voting population. Approximately 45% were registered Democrats, compared with 25% registered Republicans.
Los Angeles County's registration rate stood at 88.84%, with nearly 51% of voters registered as Democrats and 18.55% as Republicans.
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Three four-year seats were up for election on the Santa Monica City Council, drawing a field of 12 candidates that included two incumbents, a former mayor and several challengers seeking to reshape the city's leadership.
Mayor Caroline Torosis and former Mayor Lana Negrete sought reelection, while former Mayor Phil Brock attempted to return to the council after losing his seat in 2024.
The remaining candidates were Wade Kelley, Ashley Oelsen, Ericka Lesley, Lindsay Davis, Daniel Ivanov, Eli Gill, Brett Morrow, Derrick Townsend and Doug Trussler.
The election came at a consequential moment for Santa Monica, with the city confronting budget pressures, debates over housing density and homelessness, downtown economic recovery and questions about the future of the approximately 192-acre Santa Monica Airport property.
Throughout October, Patch interviewed all 12 candidates, asking each the same questions about their backgrounds, priorities and approaches to the city's most pressing challenges.
Read Patch's Santa Monica voter guide and explore the City Council candidate profiles.
Alongside the council contest, voters considered five municipal measures that could affect public school funding, landlord-tenant regulations and the city's ability to collect hotel taxes during major events.
Measure ES proposed a $495 annual parcel tax, adjusted for inflation, to generate approximately $12 million each year for local public schools. The measure included exemptions for qualifying property owners and required a simple majority for approval.
Measure GG sought to amend the city charter by affirming just-cause eviction protections, adjusting Rent Control Board commissioner term limits and allowing changes to registration fees and rent adjustment procedures.
Measure RR proposed prohibiting evictions for nonpayment of rent when a tenant owes less than a threshold based on one month's average fair market rent for Santa Monica ZIP codes.
Measure VV would extend certain eviction protections to tenants renting single-unit homes and condominiums, while establishing additional requirements for landlords seeking to recover properties for personal occupancy.
Measure TT proposed allowing the City Council to establish special hotel tax rules for certain corporate lodging arrangements during designated major events, while maintaining existing general transient occupancy tax rates.
Read more about all five measures in Patch's Santa Monica voter guide.
Three other local governing bodies were also on the ballot, with voters choosing representatives responsible for public education, Santa Monica College and the city's rent control system.
Five candidates competed for four seats on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education: incumbents Laurie Lieberman, Stacy Rouse and Alicia Mignano, along with Harry Leshner and Robbie Staenberg.
The election came as the district continued addressing financial pressures, enrollment trends, school facilities and a proposed reorganization that could eventually separate Santa Monica and Malibu into independent school districts.
At Santa Monica College, five candidates sought four seats on the district's Board of Trustees: incumbents Tom Peters and Sion Roy, appointed incumbent Luis Barrera Castanon, former City Councilmember Oscar de la Torre and Kera Blades-Snell.
Meanwhile, five candidates competed for three seats on the Santa Monica Rent Control Board: former Mayor Sue Himmelrich, incumbent Kurt Gonska, Soledad Marcial, Zoë Muntaner and Heather Thomason.
The Rent Control Board contest took place alongside several proposed charter amendments involving tenant protections and the administration of the city's rent control law.
Across Los Angeles County, incumbent Sheriff Robert Luna faced former Sheriff Alex Villanueva in a rematch of their 2022 contest, when Luna defeated Villanueva to take control of the nation's largest sheriff's department.
County voters also considered two proposed amendments to the Los Angeles County Charter.
Measure A would establish binding arbitration for certain public safety labor disputes while prohibiting strikes by specified county employees, including certain sheriff's, fire and medical examiner personnel.
Measure E would strengthen the independence and oversight authority of the county's ethics system, including its Ethics Commission and Office of Ethics Compliance.
Follow the latest Los Angeles County election results.
California voters headed to the polls Tuesday, facing high gas and grocery prices, the effects of climate change on wildfires and rising seas amid a shortage in insurance coverage and the ever-present housing affordability crisis.
The governor's race was somewhat anticlimactic following a chaotic primary with a crowded field of candidates roiled when the frontrunner was forced to step down amid sexual assault allegations. Since then, Becerra maintained a steady lead over Hilton in the polls.
In the final days of the election, a new SurveyUSA poll showed Becerra with a 22-point lead.
Click here for real-time results in the California Governor's races.
All 52 of California's Congressional seats were on the ballot.
Congressional races across California were under intense scrutiny following voter approval of Proposition 50, a partisan redistricting measure expected to reshape the state's political map. Thanks to the redistricting, only a handful of districts were truly competitive. Democrats hoped to flip as many as five Republican House seats in a bid to overturn the GOP's slim House majority.
Democrats think they can flip as many as five seats, with four seeming very much in reach, according to the polls. Both parties are spending like control of the House is on the line.
Click here for real-time results in California's Congressional races.
There were 14 statewide propositions on the ballot this week. Arguably, the most hot-button ballot initiatives involve taxation. Proposition 40 is the highly discussed billionaire tax, while Propositions 41 and 42 aim to counter the measure. Proposition 3 also addresses taxes on the state's highest earners.
Click here for real-time results for all of California's ballot measures.
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