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City of Claremont · Statewide General Election

Claremont City Council, District 4

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 holds your district's seat on Claremont's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use.

District 4 is an open seat: two-term incumbent Jed Leano did not file for re-election, so three new candidates are on the ballot for his spot — Aundre Johnson, a police commissioner making a second run at the seat; Anna Jacobsen, a parks-policy advocate; and Lawrence Mueller, a self-funded first-time candidate. Claremont's council elections run directly in November with no primary.

The winner holds one of five district seats on the Claremont City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. A four-year term.

With no incumbent running, the choice is a clean read on each candidate's own record rather than a referendum on the last term: an appointed public-safety commissioner making a second bid, a first-time neighborhood organizer with a documented policy win, and a self-funded independent built around door-to-door canvassing.

Aundre Johnson

A member of Claremont's Police Commission and a television and film industry director and producer, making his second run for the District 4 seat after losing to incumbent Jed Leano in 2022. He is campaigning on public safety and new city revenue ideas, including a proposed Claremont film festival. He has no elected record, but four years of appointed service on the commission that oversees resident-police relations.

Strengths

A returning candidate with 2022 name recognition and four years of appointed service on the city's Police Commission — direct, if unelected, public-safety experience.

Trade-offs

No elected record to run on, and his 2022 loss to Leano is the only electoral data point available for how District 4 voters have responded to him before.

Keep in mind

His proposed film-festival revenue idea is untested — ask what it would cost the city to run before crediting it with what it might earn back.

Anna Jacobsen

A Claremont parent who founded Better Claremont Playgrounds, a resident group that pushed the city to end its like-for-like playground-replacement policy and reshape park planning around community input. She is campaigning on the same collaborative, community-driven approach for city government generally, citing nearly two decades of professional experience working in and alongside cities. She has no prior elected office, but a documented record of organizing a multi-year policy campaign inside Claremont's own process.

Strengths

A concrete, multi-year record of organizing residents to change a specific city policy — not just advocacy, but a documented playground-planning policy outcome.

Trade-offs

Her professional "working in and alongside cities" experience is not detailed beyond her own campaign material, and organizing is not the same as casting budget votes.

Keep in mind

She is one of three first-time candidates for this seat — weigh her playground campaign against Johnson's commission seat and Mueller's door-to-door platform, not an incumbent's record.

Lawrence Mueller

A software engineer running a self-funded, door-to-door campaign with no donors, no committee, and no mailers. His stated priorities are rent stabilization, removing the city's six Flock Safety license-plate cameras over privacy concerns, and reading city contracts and budgets closely before voting. He has no prior elected or appointed city record; his campaign had logged more than 700 doors knocked as of this retrieval.

Strengths

A specific, itemized platform built from his own door-to-door canvassing log, and a self-funded campaign with no donor base to weigh against his future votes.

Trade-offs

No elected or appointed city record of any kind, and self-funding means a smaller campaign footprint — fewer volunteers, no mailers — than his two opponents.

Keep in mind

His camera-privacy and rent positions are more concrete than most first-time platforms — read his own cited evidence rather than taking the summary alone.

Source review: Mixed (78/100) · 8 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Anna for Claremont (candidate's own campaign site: biography and the Better Claremont Playgrounds advocacy record), Johnson for Claremont, and Lawrence Mueller for Claremont City Council, District 4 (candidate's own campaign site: self-funded platform, door-to-door canvassing log, and stated priorities) may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • claremontca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Claremont — "November 3, 2026 General Election" (City Clerk's own page: offices to be filled, nomination-period dates, and the ballot-order candidate roster for Districts 2, 3, and 4, retrieved via a live browser session after automated fetches were blocked)
  • claremontca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Claremont — "Candidate Filing Status Final (in order of appearance on ballot)" (City Clerk's certified roster for Districts 2, 3, and 4 with each candidate's incumbent flag and nomination-paper dates)
  • claremontcourier.com (opens in a new tab)Claremont Courier — "Candidates' corner" (Aug. 20 and Aug. 27, 2026 editions): Jennifer Stark's re-election campaign, Sonja Stump's District 3 candidacy and kickoff fundraiser, and District 4 candidate Anna Jacobsen's campaign kickoff and meet-and-greet events
  • theballotbook.com (opens in a new tab)TheBallotBook — City of Claremont, City Council District 4 candidates (independent candidate-tracking roster: Anna Jacobsen, Aundre Johnson, Lawrence Mueller)
  • johnsonforclaremont.com (opens in a new tab)Johnson for Claremont — "About Aundre" (candidate's own campaign site: biography, career, and Police Commission service)
  • annaforclaremont.com (opens in a new tab)Anna for Claremont (candidate's own campaign site: biography and the Better Claremont Playgrounds advocacy record)
  • lawrenceforclaremont.com (opens in a new tab)Lawrence Mueller for Claremont City Council, District 4 (candidate's own campaign site: self-funded platform, door-to-door canvassing log, and stated priorities)
  • dailybulletin.com (opens in a new tab)Daily Bulletin — "Claremont voters weigh 3 council seats and cannabis tax on Election Day" (Nov. 8, 2022): names Jed Leano's District 4 challenger as Aundre Johnson

Last updated August 31, 2026.