# Claremont City Council, District 4 Compare records and positions simply between Aundre Johnson, Anna Jacobsen, or Lawrence Mueller for Claremont City Council, District 4 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Claremont's 5-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. - Jurisdiction: City of Claremont - 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/claremont-council-4 - 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: 78 out of 100 (Mixed), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Aundre Johnson** - **Anna Jacobsen** - **Lawrence Mueller** A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. District 4 is an open seat. Two-term incumbent Jed Leano did not file for re-election. Three new candidates are on the ballot for his spot. Aundre Johnson is a police commissioner making a second run at the seat. Anna Jacobsen is a parks-policy advocate. Lawrence Mueller is 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. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The term is four years. 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 He is a member of Claremont's Police Commission. He is also a television and film industry director and producer. He is making his second run for the District 4 seat. He lost to incumbent Jed Leano in 2022. He is campaigning on public safety and new city revenue ideas. Those include a proposed Claremont film festival. He has no elected record. He does have four years of appointed service on the commission that oversees resident-police relations. **Strengths:** A returning candidate with 2022 name recognition. He also has four years of appointed service on the city's Police Commission. That is direct public-safety experience, though unelected. **Trade-offs:** He has no elected record to run on. His 2022 loss to Leano is the only electoral data point on how District 4 voters have responded to him. **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 Jacobsen is a Claremont parent who founded Better Claremont Playgrounds. That resident group pushed the city to end its like-for-like playground-replacement policy. It also pushed the city to reshape park planning around community input. They are campaigning on the same collaborative, community-driven approach for city government generally. They cite nearly two decades of professional experience working in and alongside cities. They have no prior elected office. They do have 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. That is not just advocacy. It is a documented playground-planning policy outcome. **Trade-offs:** Their professional experience working in and alongside cities is not detailed beyond their own campaign material. Organizing is also not the same as casting budget votes. **Keep in mind:** They are one of three first-time candidates for this seat. Weigh their playground campaign against Johnson's commission seat and Mueller's door-to-door platform. There is no incumbent's record here. ## Lawrence Mueller Mueller is a software engineer running a self-funded, door-to-door campaign. They have no donors, no committee, and no mailers. Their stated priorities are rent stabilization and reading city contracts and budgets closely before voting. They also want to remove the city's six Flock Safety license-plate cameras over privacy concerns. They have no prior elected or appointed city record. Their campaign had logged more than 700 doors knocked. **Strengths:** A specific, itemized platform built from their own door-to-door canvassing log. Their campaign is self-funded, with no donor base to weigh against their future votes. **Trade-offs:** They have no elected or appointed city record of any kind. Self-funding also means a smaller campaign footprint than their two opponents, with fewer volunteers and no mailers. **Keep in mind:** Their camera-privacy and rent positions are more concrete than most first-time platforms. Read their own cited evidence rather than taking the summary alone. ## Review notes - 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. ## Sources 1. [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)](https://www.claremontca.gov/Government/Elections/November-3-2026-General-Election) 2. [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)](https://www.claremontca.gov/files/assets/public/v/1/city-clerk/documents/elections/candidate-filing-status-final-in-order-of-appearance-on-ballot.pdf) 3. [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](https://claremontcourier.com/latest-news/candidates-corner-4-89862/) 4. [TheBallotBook — City of Claremont, City Council District 4 candidates (independent candidate-tracking roster: Anna Jacobsen, Aundre Johnson, Lawrence Mueller)](https://theballotbook.com/jurisdictions/1339/candidates) 5. [Johnson for Claremont — "About Aundre" (candidate's own campaign site: biography, career, and Police Commission service)](https://www.johnsonforclaremont.com/about-aundre) 6. [Anna for Claremont (candidate's own campaign site: biography and the Better Claremont Playgrounds advocacy record)](https://www.annaforclaremont.com) 7. [Lawrence Mueller for Claremont City Council, District 4 (candidate's own campaign site: self-funded platform, door-to-door canvassing log, and stated priorities)](https://lawrenceforclaremont.com/) 8. [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](https://www.dailybulletin.com/2022/11/08/claremont-voters-weigh-3-council-seats-and-cannabis-tax-on-election-day/) ## The rest of the ballot Claremont City Council, District 4 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, "Claremont City Council, District 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/claremont-council-4 (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.