# Mayor of Alameda

Compare records and positions simply between Tracy Jensen, Tony Daysog, or Malia Vella for Mayor of Alameda at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. Alameda's Mayor chairs the 5-member City Council (the Mayor plus four at-large Councilmembers) and represents the city publicly, in this roughly 78,000-resident Alameda County city under a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager. The term is four years, limited to two consecutive terms by the City Charter. Decided by plurality vote, not ranked-choice -- unlike Berkeley, San Leandro, or Oakland, Alameda County's three ranked-choice charter cities.

- Jurisdiction: City of Alameda
- Election: November 3, 2026 California general election
- Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements.
- Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/alameda-city-mayor
- Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/
- Sources last retrieved: September 1, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 6 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Tracy Jensen** — Councilmember/Nonprofit Director
- **Tony Daysog** — Councilmember/Urban Planner
- **Malia Vella** — Businesswoman/Educator

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

Three current or former Alameda City Councilmembers are running to succeed term-limited Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft: Tony Daysog, Tracy Jensen, and Malia Vella.

Alameda's Mayor chairs the 5-member City Council. That is the Mayor plus four at-large Councilmembers. The Mayor also represents the city publicly. Alameda is an Alameda County city of roughly 78,000 residents. It runs under a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager. The term is four years. The seat is decided by plurality vote, not ranked-choice. Berkeley, San Leandro, and Oakland are Alameda County's three ranked-choice charter cities.

City Charter Section 2-14 bars anyone from serving more than two complete consecutive terms in the same office. Mayor Ashcraft was first elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. She has served two consecutive terms, so she is not on the ballot. All three candidates below hold or once held a Council seat.

## Tony Daysog

Tony Daysog has served on the Alameda City Council across three stretches -- 1996 to 2006, 2012 to 2016, and 2018 to now -- and holds a master's degree in urban planning from UC Berkeley. He ran for California's 12th Congressional District in 2024 but did not advance past the March primary. His ballot designation is Councilmember/Urban Planner. At the Aug. 22 Democratic Club candidate forum, he tied affordability to transportation subsidies and a lower real-estate transfer tax for first-time homebuyers, called for closer Council-property owner collaboration on vacant storefronts, and pointed to his own role establishing a 25% affordable-housing requirement at Alameda Point in the early 2000s. He is the only Mayoral candidate opposing Measure L, the city's $300 million infrastructure bond -- he wants a specific project list before that much borrowing -- and was the most supportive of Flock Safety license-plate cameras, comparing them to insurance that pays off when police need to locate a specific vehicle.

**Strengths:** Three separate Council stretches since 1996, nearly three decades in all, plus a professional planning background.

**Trade-offs:** He is the only Mayoral candidate opposing the infrastructure bond the rest of the ballot supports. Bond-focused voters should note that.

**Keep in mind:** No FPPC Form 460 is on file for his 2026 campaign, only initial Form 410 paperwork. That is true of all three Mayoral candidates alike.

## Tracy Jensen

Tracy Jensen was elected to the Council in 2022, after two terms on the Board of Education and two more on the Alameda Healthcare District board. She holds a bachelor's degree from CSU East Bay and a Master of Public Health and MBA from Emory University, and spent over 20 years as a Senior Services Administrator for the Oakland Human Services Department. Her ballot designation is Councilmember/Nonprofit Director. She did not file to seek a second Council term -- a decision that forced the county to extend Alameda's Aug. 7 nomination deadline to Aug. 12. At the Aug. 22 forum, she framed affordability around tenant protections and attracting jobs, backed the vacancy tax and facade grants while calling for lower fees for women- and minority-owned businesses, and cited developer partnerships like Bayport (which helped fund Ruby Bridges Elementary School) as a housing model. She supports Measure L but criticized the process that put it on the ballot, saying residents got only one option. On Flock cameras, she supports continuing them with privacy safeguards, citing a 2025 carjacking she said the cameras helped police solve.

**Strengths:** Current Council experience plus eight years across two other elected boards. That is the broadest range of city service among the three.

**Trade-offs:** She supports Measure L in substance while publicly criticizing how the Council placed it on the ballot. That is a real tension to weigh.

**Keep in mind:** No Form 460 is on file for her 2026 committee, organized Dec. 2025, only an initial Form 410. That is true of all three Mayoral candidates alike.

## Malia Vella

Malia Vella served two Council terms from 2016 to 2024 -- the first Alameda Councilmember to give birth while in office, twice. She holds a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College and a law degree from Santa Clara University, is a licensed California attorney, and previously worked as Deputy Superintendent at the California Department of Education. Her ballot designation is Businesswoman/Educator. At the Aug. 22 forum, she cited rising childcare costs -- including the city's subsidized Tiny Tots preschool program -- and proposed expanding social housing (permanently affordable, publicly or nonprofit-controlled) along with a closer relationship between the city and the Alameda Housing Authority on rental vouchers. She supports Measure L, citing seismic retrofits, seawalls, and sea-level-rise protection. She is the only Mayoral candidate opposing continued use of Flock cameras, saying she helped establish privacy protections when the city first contracted for them but now questions their effectiveness and prefers investing in prevention and alternatives like the city's CARE Team.

**Strengths:** Two full Council terms plus a law degree and executive experience at the state education department. Both bear directly on city governance.

**Trade-offs:** She is the lone Mayoral candidate opposing Flock cameras. That puts her at odds with both rivals on a public safety question likely to matter to some voters.

**Keep in mind:** No 2026 committee for Vella was found in the county's NetFile portal at all. Not even an initial Form 410 turned up, unlike her two rivals.

## Sources

1. [Alameda County Registrar of Voters -- own JSON API behind its "Candidate List" web app (electionId 260 = General Election - 11/03/2026, Official): the racelist/260/600 endpoint names all 46 City-category races countywide, including the exact two City of Alameda races -- Mayor (raceId 89) and Members of City Council (raceId 90) -- with their raceIds and vote-for-1/vote-for-2 seat counts.](https://www.alamedacountyca.gov/rov_app/racelist/260/600)
2. [Alameda County Registrar of Voters -- the same candidatelist app's per-race candidate-detail view (POST to /rov_app/candidatelist/ with electionId=260, categoryId=600, and raceId 89 or 90, raceStatus/candidateStatus left blank), queried directly for both City of Alameda races: returns each candidate's exact filed ballot designation, filing agency, and incumbent flag -- Tony Daysog (Councilmember/Urban Planner), Tracy Jensen (Councilmember/Nonprofit Director), and Malia Vella (Businesswoman/Educator) for Mayor; Thushan Amarasiriwardena (Software Product Manager), Maria L. Bondonno (Public Service Attorney), Marcie Johnson (Social Worker), Tyler Savage (Technology Partner Manager), Steve Slauson (Small Business Owner), and Amos White (Environmental Nonprofit Executive) for Council -- the same nine-candidate roster independently confirmed by the Alameda Post's own reporting.](https://www.alamedacountyca.gov/rov_app/candidatelist/)
3. [The Alameda Post -- "UPDATED: Alameda's November Ballot Lineup Taking Shape" (published Aug. 7, 2026; updated Aug. 12, 2026 after the nomination period closed), read in full with a named byline (Editor and Publisher Adam Gillitt): quotes City Charter Section 2-14's two-consecutive-term limit and states Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft is ineligible to run again; profiles all three Mayoral candidates (Daysog, Jensen, Vella) and all six qualified Council candidates (Amarasiriwardena, Bondonno, Johnson, Savage, Slauson, White) with biographical detail; states the nomination period was extended from Aug. 7 to Aug. 12 because incumbent Councilmember Tracy Jensen had not filed to retain her seat; and confirms Zac Bowling pulled papers but did not qualify for the Council ballot.](https://alamedapost.com/news/alamedas-november-ballot-lineup-taking-shape/)
4. [The Alameda Post -- "Alameda Candidates Outline Differences on Affordability, Housing, Infrastructure, Public Safety" (published Aug. 31, 2026), read in full with a named byline (contributing writer Karin K. Jensen): reports on an Aug. 22, 2026 City of Alameda Democratic Club candidate forum attended by all three Mayoral candidates and five of six Council candidates (Steve Slauson, identified as the field's only non-Democrat, did not attend), with each candidate's own stated position on affordability, vacant storefronts, housing, the $300 million Measure L infrastructure bond, and Flock Safety license-plate cameras, plus a candidate-by-candidate summary table. An editor's note discloses that Amarasiriwardena is a former Alameda Post board member who resigned earlier in 2026.](https://alamedapost.com/news/alameda-candidates-outline-differences-on-affordability-housing-infrastructure-public-safety/)
5. [The County of Alameda's own NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (agency code COA, confirmed via NetFile's own public agency directory -- the City of Alameda has no NetFile portal of its own), queried directly via its own QuickNameSearch and filings/byCandidate JSON API for all nine 2026 City of Alameda candidates. No candidate has an FPPC Form 460 on file as of this retrieval: Daysog, Jensen, Amarasiriwardena, Johnson, and Savage have each filed only an initial Form 410 (Statement of Organization) for a 2026 committee; Vella, Bondonno, Slauson, and White have no 2026 committee on file under this search at all. A uniform, documented absence, not a search failure or a claim any candidate is non-compliant -- consistent with committees organized after the Jan.-June 2026 semi-annual reporting period closed having no Form 460 due until the pre-election filing in October.](https://netfile.com/public/COA/campaign)
6. [Wikipedia's Alameda, California article -- states the 5-member City Council (Mayor plus four members) is elected entirely at-large, not by district; 2020 census population (78,280); council-manager government with an appointed City Manager.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alameda,_California)

## The rest of the ballot

Mayor of Alameda is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/

## How to cite this page

Vote or Else, "Mayor of Alameda — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/alameda-city-mayor (sources last retrieved September 1, 2026).

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