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City of Carpinteria · Statewide General Election

Carpinteria City Council, District 1

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 your district's seat on Carpinteria's 5-member City Council -- city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Santa Barbara County city of 13,264 residents (2020 Census), alongside a professional city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Carpinteria's Mayor and Vice Mayor are chosen by the Council from among its own members, not directly elected by voters. A 4-year term.

Two candidates are running for Carpinteria's District 1 City Council seat: incumbent Vice Mayor Monica Solorzano and challenger Aja Forner, a Carpinteria Library Commissioner. Whoever gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright -- no primary, no runoff.

This is one of Carpinteria's five City Council districts. Council members set city ordinances, the budget, and land-use policy for this Santa Barbara County beach town of 13,264 residents (2020 Census), while a professional city manager runs day-to-day operations. Carpinteria's Mayor and Vice Mayor aren't elected directly -- the Council chooses them from among its own members, customarily for two-year terms. This seat carries a four-year term.

Solorzano is completing her first term, during which she has also served as Vice Mayor; Forner has not held elected office but currently serves as an appointed Library Commissioner. Both candidates filed an official ballot statement with the city, and Carpinteria's own paper, Coastal View News, covered both campaigns in its roundup of the November ballot. Independent news coverage beyond that roundup is uneven: a dedicated Santa Barbara Independent feature covers Solorzano's candidacy announcement in depth, while this pass found no comparable dedicated profile of Forner -- a difference in available public record between a sitting Councilmember and a first-time challenger, not a gap this dataset chose to leave unfilled.

Monica Solorzano

Monica Solorzano is the district's incumbent and Vice Mayor; her approved ballot designation is "City Council Member District 1." She holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a master's degree from Columbia University's Teachers College, and lives in Carpinteria with her husband and two daughters. Her filed candidate statement says she has strengthened community engagement, advocated for immigrant and working families, helped launch the city's AgeWell senior-services program through an ad hoc planning committee, joined the board of the Carpinteria Arts Center, and guided long-term planning efforts; she names housing, growth, street and infrastructure improvements, coastal resilience, public safety, and environmental protection as the city's next challenges, and pledges continued focus on affordable and workforce housing, support for local families, seniors, immigrant communities, and small businesses, and accessible government. A dedicated Santa Barbara Independent profile of her candidacy adds that she has served multiple terms as President of Aliso Elementary School's PTA, completed two cycles on the school's Site Council, and serves on the boards of the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District and the Mariachi Estrellas youth music program.

Strengths

A full first term's record as sitting Councilmember and Vice Mayor to run on, plus independent news coverage (the Santa Barbara Independent) beyond her own campaign material.

Trade-offs

The specific outcomes she cites in her own statement (the AgeWell program, long-term planning) are her own account; no independent accounting of her Council votes was found this pass.

Keep in mind

As the only incumbent in this race, a vote for her is a referendum on her first term, distinct from Forner's outsider bid, and worth weighing against Forner's platform above.

Aja Forner

Aja Forner is a first-time candidate for elected office; her approved ballot designation is "Library Commissioner," an appointed post she currently holds. Her filed candidate statement describes her as a Program & Volunteer Manager with Therapy Dogs of America, coordinating volunteers, building community partnerships, and developing programs across Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. She says she will work to protect the Carpinteria Bluffs from development, rein in what she calls unnecessary spending, and prioritize repairing roads and aging infrastructure, and that Carpinteria should take an active role in shaping how state-mandated housing is planned and integrated into the community. Coastal View News' own roundup of the race describes her campaign theme as "Protecting What We Love. Planning for What We Need," emphasizing community-character preservation and fiscal transparency.

Strengths

Current appointed service on the city's Library Commission -- the closest thing to City Hall experience in the field besides Solorzano's own Council seat.

Trade-offs

No campaign website, dedicated news profile, or coverage beyond her filed statement and Coastal View's roundup was found -- a first-time challenger's shorter public record, not a shortcut taken here.

Keep in mind

Her priorities (protecting the Bluffs, fiscal restraint, infrastructure) partly overlap Solorzano's, though her "unnecessary spending" framing suggests a different starting point on some votes.

Source review: Strong (89/100) · 9 cited sources

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

  • carpinteriaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Carpinteria -- "CERTIFIED LIST OF CANDIDATES FOR CITY OF CARPINTERIA GENERAL MUNICIPAL ELECTION - NOVEMBER 3, 2026" (dated August 12, 2026; the city's website links this document under a later "WEBSITE Updated 08-28-26" filename, but its content is the same August 12 certified roster): three contests -- District 1 (Monica Solorzano vs. Aja Forner), District 3 (Julia Mayer, unopposed), and District 5 (Alexandra "Xy" VanAntwerp vs. Randy Carrasco) -- with each candidate's approved ballot designation and whether they filed a candidate statement
  • carpinteriaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Carpinteria -- "NOTICE OF OFFICES AND NOMINATIONS" (posted August 4, 2026, signed by City Clerk/Elections Official Brian C. Barrett): confirms three City Council seats -- District Nos. 1, 3, and 5, each a full four-year term -- and states the District No. 5 incumbent is not seeking re-election, extending that district's nomination window to August 12, 2026
  • carpinteriaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Carpinteria -- City Clerk / Elections page: confirms the November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election covers three Council seats (Districts 1, 3, 5), the nomination-period dates, and links the certified candidate list, notices, and district candidate-statement documents; states the City Clerk is the local filing officer for candidate campaign-disclosure reports but links no self-service filing portal, directing inquiries to the state FPPC generally
  • carpinteriaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Carpinteria -- City Council page: describes a 5-member, district-elected Council whose Mayor and Vice Mayor are "selected by their fellow Council members" and "customarily serve two-year terms" (not directly elected), and lists the current roster -- Mayor Natalia Alarcon (District 2, term ends Dec. 2028), Vice Mayor Monica Solorzano (District 1, term ends Dec. 2026), Al Clark (District 5, term ends Dec. 2026), Julia Mayer (District 3, term ends Dec. 2026), and Wade T. Nomura (District 4, term ends Dec. 2028) -- confirming which three districts are up this cycle and that Al Clark, not a certified candidate, is the retiring District 5 incumbent
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Carpinteria, California": 2020 Census population (13,264) and independently corroborates Natalia Alarcon as Mayor; used narrowly for demographic/structural facts and does not cover the 2026 election
  • coastalview.com (opens in a new tab)Coastal View News -- "November ballot set: Council races, sales tax" (Aug. 19, 2026): Carpinteria's own local paper independently confirms all three Council contests (District 1 and 5 contested, District 3 uncontested), summarizes each candidate's campaign framing, and reports a proposed quarter-cent sales-tax ballot measure (parked as a ballot measure per this dataset's measures-descoped policy, not built here)
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer searches for all five Carpinteria candidates (Solorzano, Forner, Mayer, VanAntwerp, Carrasco): every query returned no extractable content, consistent with this dataset's documented pattern of Cal-Access blocking automated queries elsewhere this session; the session's live-browser fallback was disconnected throughout, so no in-browser retry was possible either
  • carpinteriaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Carpinteria -- District 1 Candidate Statements (filed under Elections Code 13307): the filed statements of Monica Solorzano and Aja Forner, in their own words
  • independent.com (opens in a new tab)The Santa Barbara Independent -- "Monica Solorzano Announces Her Candidacy for Re-Election to the Carpinteria City Council District 1" (Aug. 5, 2026): covers her Princeton/Columbia education, first-term committee and board service (AgeWell senior-services ad hoc committee, Carpinteria Arts Center board, Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District board), and policy priorities; endorsements reported in this piece are not used, per this dataset's endorsements-descoped policy

Last updated September 1, 2026.