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City of Berkeley · Statewide General Election

Berkeley City Council, District 1

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person would hold one of eight district seats on the Berkeley City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Alameda County city of about 124,000, for a 4-year term. Half the Council's district seats (2, 3, 5, 6) are elected on the presidential cycle; this one is elected, along with the Auditor, on the same cycle as the Governor. Decided by ranked-choice voting.

Five candidates are running for Berkeley's open District 1 seat (Northwest Berkeley), vacated by two-term Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani, who is not seeking reelection -- the most crowded council race of the cycle.

This person would hold one of eight district seats on the Berkeley City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Alameda County city of about 124,000, for a 4-year term. Half the Council's district seats (2, 3, 5, 6) are elected on the presidential cycle; District 1 is elected, along with the Auditor and Districts 4, 7, and 8, on the same cycle as the Governor.

This election is decided by ranked-choice voting: you may rank up to five candidates in order of preference. If no candidate has a majority of first choices, the last-place candidate is eliminated and those ballots count for their next choice, repeating until one candidate has a majority.

Laura Babitt

Laura Babitt is a former member of the Berkeley Unified school board, where she served as vice president. Her ballot designation is Auditor/Operations Director. Ka'Dijah Brown, the sitting BUSD board president, has publicly credited Babitt's "hands-on experience as an educator" as valuable input to the board's decisions.

Strengths

A prior elected term on a different Berkeley public body gives her direct experience with public deliberation and budgets, plus on-record praise from a sitting former colleague.

Trade-offs

No Form 460 was on file for her council committee at retrieval, so no fundraising total exists to compare -- though her filings show active use of the city's public matching-funds program.

Keep in mind

Her BUSD board service is school governance, not city government -- relevant experience with a different public body, not a direct preview of council work.

Ross Bernet

Ross Bernet works as a senior program manager on carbon-removal and environmental initiatives at Microsoft; his ballot designation is Environmental Program Manager. His committee, Ross Bernet for Council 2026, reported $4,449 in monetary contributions for the first half of 2026, the second-largest total among the five District 1 candidates.

Strengths

A tech-sector environmental-program background and a fundraising total near the top of a five-candidate field.

Trade-offs

No news coverage of his candidacy beyond Berkeleyside's own roundup was found in this pass.

Keep in mind

His corporate title (Microsoft program manager) is a different kind of "environmental" work than direct climate-policy or land-use experience -- worth weighing against what District 1's own priorities are, not assuming it maps directly onto council work.

Moni Gangopadhyay

Moni Gangopadhyay works as a policy coordinator for energy efficiency at the California Public Utilities Commission, per Berkeleyside's own reporting; her ballot designation is Consumer Protection Investigator. Her committee, Gangopadhyay for City Council 2026, reported $3,307 in total contributions (including $500 nonmonetary) and $2,163 in expenditures for the first half of 2026.

Strengths

State-agency policy experience directly in energy and utility regulation, an area that intersects with city land-use and climate work.

Trade-offs

Her reported day job (CPUC energy coordinator) and her filed designation (Consumer Protection Investigator) name two facets of what may be one job -- both presented as reported, not resolved.

Keep in mind

State regulatory experience is not the same as city council experience; her platform specifics were not independently found in this pass beyond her own campaign materials.

Steve Kromer

Steve Kromer works as an energy efficiency consultant, per Berkeleyside's own reporting; his ballot designation matches, Energy Efficiency Engineer. No 2026 campaign committee was located for him on Berkeley's NetFile portal under that name -- the only close match returned by the portal's own candidate search is a different person, "Kromer, John."

Strengths

A subject-matter background (energy efficiency) directly relevant to Berkeley's climate and building-decarbonization work.

Trade-offs

No located campaign committee means no fundraising signal at all to compare against the other four candidates in this pass.

Keep in mind

The absence of a NetFile committee could mean self-funding below the state's filing threshold, a very recent filing, or simply a name-search miss -- this dataset did not find independent confirmation either way.

Daria Wrubel

Daria Wrubel is a child and young adult therapist, self-employed at Grounded Therapy in Albany; her ballot designation is Youth Therapist. Her own committee, Daria Wrubel for City Council 2026, reported just $120 in contributions and no expenditures for the first half of 2026 -- the smallest campaign-finance footprint in the race. Campaign-finance records show she separately made a $60 contribution to District 4 incumbent Igor Tregub's committee in June 2026.

Strengths

A clinical, youth-facing professional background distinct from the rest of the field.

Trade-offs

The smallest fundraising total of the five District 1 candidates by a wide margin, which may reflect a late campaign start rather than a lack of support.

Keep in mind

Her contribution to a different district's incumbent (Tregub) is a real, filed campaign-finance record, not evidence of any endorsement between the two -- disclosed here as exactly what the filing shows.

Source review: Very strong (92/100) · 9 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • berkeleyca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Berkeley -- City Clerk Mark Numainville's signed "Nominees for Public Office" notice for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Municipal Election (dated Aug. 19, 2026): lists all 23 candidates across all seven Berkeley races in ballot order with their exact ballot designations -- Auditor, Council Districts 1/4/7/8, Rent Stabilization Board Commissioner, and School Board Director.
  • alamedacountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Alameda County Registrar of Voters -- own JSON API behind its "Candidate List" web app (electionId 260 = General Election - 11/03/2026, Official): the candidatelist/260 endpoint returns every race category countywide with no County category at all (zero Board of Supervisors/row-office/judicial seats on the Nov. 2026 general), and the racelist/260/600 endpoint names all 46 City-category races countywide, including the exact seven Berkeley races (four Council districts, Auditor, Rent Stabilization Board, School Directors) with their raceIds and vote-for-N seat counts -- confirming Alameda County publishes a unified countywide candidate document, unlike Santa Clara County.
  • alamedacountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Alameda County Registrar of Voters -- the same candidatelist app's per-race candidate-detail view (POST to /rov_app/candidatelist/ with electionId=260 and each Berkeley raceId), queried directly for all seven Berkeley races: returns each candidate's exact ballot designation, filing agency, and on-ballot status -- the same roster as the City Clerk's own Notice of Candidates, independently confirming all 23 names and designations.
  • berkeleyca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Berkeley -- "Candidate Information" elections page: states which offices are elected on the presidential cycle (Mayor; Council Districts 2, 3, 5, 6) versus the gubernatorial cycle (Auditor; Council Districts 1, 4, 7, 8) -- both alongside Rent Board and School Board, which are elected every cycle -- and states the vote-threshold rule: Mayor/Auditor/Council require ranked-choice majority; Rent Board/School Board are decided by plurality.
  • berkeleyca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Berkeley -- "Voting Information" elections page: states in full how Berkeley's ranked-choice voting works for Mayor, City Council, and Auditor (voters may rank up to five choices; last-place elimination repeats until one candidate has a majority) and that Rent Stabilization Board and School Board are decided by plurality vote instead, "typically multiple candidates elected at each election."
  • berkeleyside.org (opens in a new tab)Berkeleyside -- "Election 2026: Who's running for Berkeley City Council, school board and more" (originally published Aug. 14, 2026, updated Aug. 19, 2026 to report Fred Feller's withdrawal from the District 8 race), read in full: profiles every 2026 candidate across all seven Berkeley races by name, occupation, and background; reports incumbent Rashi Kesarwani (D1), Cecilia Lunaparra (D7), and Lori Droste's since-2022 successor context are not seeking reelection; and reports Rent Board incumbent Vanessa Marrero's disqualification from the ballot over a signature shortfall and her stated plan to challenge it.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)City of Berkeley's own NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (aid=BRK), queried directly via its own QuickNameSearch and filings/byCandidate JSON API for all 23 2026 candidates, with each candidate's most recent 2026 FPPC Form 460 (the Jan. 1-June 30, 2026 semi-annual statement) downloaded directly via the portal's own CampaignDocuments/download endpoint and read for its actual reported totals. Real H1 2026 totals (monetary contributions raised / total expenditures / public-financing matching funds received, where applicable): Jenny Wong (Auditor) $6,916 / $1,109; Laura Babitt (D1) no 2026 committee Form 460 on file yet, only a Form 410/501 -- her filings show active participation in the city's public-financing matching-funds program; Ross Bernet (D1) $4,449 / $209; Moni Gangopadhyay (D1) $3,307 (incl. $500 nonmonetary) / $2,163; Steve Kromer (D1) no committee located; Daria Wrubel (D1) $120 / $0; Igor Tregub (D4) $10,287 / $3,405, plus $20,670 in public matching funds; Majdi "Gaith" Abuhamdieh (D4) no Form 460 on file, only a Form 410/501; Aidan Hill (D7) $1,102 / $257 on his current District 7 committee (a separate, older "Aidan Hill for Berkeley City Council 2022" committee also remains on file from a prior run, not further researched here); Syrak Micael (D7) $5,698 / $4,444, plus $12,600 in public matching funds; Mark Humbert (D8) $1,630 / $56; Michael Wallman and Fred Feller (D8) no Form 460 on file, only a Form 410/501 each; Mari Mendonca (D8) an active committee reporting $0 contributions and $0 expenditures this period; Carole Marasovic (Rent Board) an active committee reporting $0 contributions and $0 expenditures this period; Avery Arbaugh (Rent Board) no 2026 Form 460 on file, only records from an unsuccessful 2024 Rent Board run; Ida Martinac (Rent Board) no 2026 Form 460 on file yet, only a Form 410/501; Nathan Mizell (Rent Board) an interim Jan. 1-May 10, 2026 report showing $0 contributions and $0 expenditures; Vylma Ortiz and Derek Rodriguez (Rent Board) no Form 460 on file, only a Form 410/501 each; Sandy Park (School Board) $1,860 / $138; Jennifer Shanoski (School Board) $5,410 / $662, plus $19,140 in public matching funds; Ka'Dijah Brown (School Board) filed her new 2026 committee's organizing paperwork July 23, 2026, after the H1 reporting window closed, so no H1 2026 Form 460 exists for it yet.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's Berkeley, California article -- 2020 census population (124,321), the 4th-largest city in Alameda County.
  • berkeleyside.org (opens in a new tab)Berkeleyside -- "At 30, Ka'Dijah Brown is Berkeley school board's youngest president -- and its only teacher" (by Ally Markovich, March 2, 2022), read in full: Brown grew up in Berkeley and attended Berkeley public schools through Berkeley High (class of 2009), teaches fifth grade at a Richmond charter school, was first elected to the board in 2018, and was chosen by her fellow directors as board president in December 2021 after a year as vice president.

Last updated September 1, 2026.