# Aliso Viejo City Council, District 3 (Short Term) Compare records and positions simply between Garrett Dwyer or Marie Tsaasan for Aliso Viejo City Council, District 3 (Short Term) at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Aliso Viejo's five-member City Council. Members vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Aliso Viejo has no separately elected Mayor. Instead, the council picks a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem each year. Both come from the council's own members. This term is short. The winner finishes a departed member's term instead of serving a full four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Aliso Viejo - 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/aliso-viejo-council-3-short-term - 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: August 31, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 3 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Garrett Dwyer** — Appointed Incumbent · Incumbent - **Marie Tsaasan** — Teacher/Mother A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Appointed incumbent Garrett Dwyer is running to keep their District 3 seat against challenger Marie Tsaasan. This is a short-term seat: the winner finishes the balance of elected incumbent Richard Hurt's unexpired term, not a full new 4-year term. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff. This person holds District 3's seat on Aliso Viejo's 5-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. An appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. Aliso Viejo is a general-law city. It has no separately elected citywide Mayor. The council picks a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem from its own members each year. This term is short, as the note below explains. The winner finishes the rest of a departed councilmember's term. That is less than a full 4 years. Richard Hurt was elected to this seat in 2024. He left it before his term ended. The council appointed Garrett Dwyer to fill the vacancy in October 2025. This November's short-term election lets voters decide who finishes that term. It is their first chance to do so. Dwyer has their own city bio, and Tsaasan has their filed occupation. Beyond those, no campaign site, news coverage, or other source was found for either candidate. A real search effort was made. That gap is set out below rather than filled in with guesses. ## Garrett Dwyer Appointed to the District 3 council seat in October 2025 to fill the vacancy left by Richard Hurt, Dwyer is now running to keep it through the short remainder of the term. Their own city bio describes 23 years working as a residential mortgage loan officer serving clients throughout California; they relocated to Aliso Viejo in 2004 to raise their family. Their listed community service spans PTA treasurer, youth soccer coach, AYSO board member, a church substitute-instructor role, an HOA board seat, and YMCA Adventure Guides; they also play in a Southern California adult hardball league. Their bio emphasizes valuing the city's schools, parks, and street safety, but does not lay out specific policy priorities for their campaign. **Strengths:** Roughly a year of hands-on incumbency already, having served on the council since their October 2025 appointment. **Trade-offs:** Dwyer has not yet faced Aliso Viejo voters directly -- their only route onto the council so far has been appointment, not election. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for their campaign in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Marie Tsaasan Filed their candidacy under the ballot designation "Teacher/Mother." No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing their background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort. **Strengths:** A teaching background suggests direct, professional familiarity with local schools and youth services; running as a parent gives Tsaasan a direct stake in family-facing city services. **Trade-offs:** No campaign statement or platform was found in this pass beyond their listed occupation, and no prior public service was found for them. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for their campaign in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Sources 1. [OC Registrar of Voters -- Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 -- City of Aliso Viejo section (pages 71-73 of 188): confirms City Council District 2 (2 qualified candidates) and District 3, Short Term (2 qualified candidates) as the city's two November 2026 races, each Vote for 1, plus every candidate's filed ballot designation and, for District 3, the outgoing incumbent of record (Richard Hurt)](https://ocvote.gov/fileadmin/user_upload/data/candlog/GEN2026/candlog.pdf) 2. [City of Aliso Viejo -- City Council page: the sitting 5-member roster (Mayor Max Duncan, Mayor Pro Tem Mike Munzing, Councilmembers Tiffany Ackley, Garrett Dwyer, and Tim Zandbergen), confirms the city moved to by-district elections starting in 2024, and confirms the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem are chosen annually by the council rather than directly elected](https://www.avcity.org/222/City-Council) 3. [City of Aliso Viejo -- Councilmember Garrett Dwyer's official bio: confirms his October 2025 appointment to the District 3 seat, term expiring November 2026, plus his occupational and community-service background](https://www.avcity.org/295/Councilmember-Garrett-Dwyer) ## The rest of the ballot Aliso Viejo City Council, District 3 (Short Term) 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, "Aliso Viejo City Council, District 3 (Short Term) — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/aliso-viejo-council-3-short-term (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.