# Costa Mesa City Council, District 3 Compare records and positions simply between Cara Stewart or Daniel Morgan for Costa Mesa City Council, District 3 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Costa Mesa's 6-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the citywide-elected mayor. The term is four years, capped at two consecutive terms. - Jurisdiction: City of Costa Mesa - 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/costa-mesa-council-3 - 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: 80 out of 100 (Strong), across 6 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Cara Stewart** - **Daniel Morgan** A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Cara Stewart and Daniel Morgan are running for Costa Mesa City Council District 3's open seat -- incumbent Andrea Marr is term-limited and can't run again. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff. This person holds District 3's seat on Costa Mesa's 6-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. They serve alongside the mayor, who is elected citywide. The term is four years. It is capped at two terms in a row. Both candidates already sit on city advisory committees. Both campaign on similar priorities. Those are public safety, fiscal responsibility, and support for local business. Their professional backgrounds differ. Stewart's is communications and consulting. Morgan's is real estate and finance. Morgan also opposes the Fairview Developmental Center Specific Plan. He cites traffic and emergency response concerns. No comparable position from Stewart on that plan was found. ## Cara Stewart Founder and CEO of WunderMarx, a strategy consulting firm, with more than 30 years across government, business, media, and nonprofit work; she previously worked as a reporter for the Orange County Register. She chairs the city's Animal Services Committee, is Vice Chair of the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen board, and serves on the Golden West College Foundation board. Her campaign centers on transparency, fiscal responsibility, and community engagement. "As a journalist, I learned that accountability protects people, and that asking the right questions matters," she says of her approach, describing herself as a 'connector' among government, business, nonprofit, and resident stakeholders. **Strengths:** A journalism background paired with three decades of consulting work gives her both an investigative habit and hands-on experience translating policy into practice across sectors. **Trade-offs:** No prior elected office; her public track record is committee and nonprofit-board service rather than a voting record. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for her campaign in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Daniel Morgan Managing Principal of Marterra Real Estate and Marterra Properties, a Costa Mesa real-estate firm; a husband and father of two daughters in local schools. He serves on the city's Finance and Pension Advisory Committee and previously served as an Orange County Planning Commissioner. His campaign emphasizes reducing barriers for new local businesses, strengthening neighborhood quality of life, and responsible city budgeting without added resident fees. He opposes the Fairview Developmental Center Specific Plan, citing traffic delays and potential impacts on emergency-response times. "Local government works best when it listens before it lectures," he says. **Strengths:** A finance-committee seat and a prior county planning-commission appointment give him direct exposure to both budgeting and land-use review before running for council. **Trade-offs:** No prior elected office; his real-estate business could be read either as relevant housing-market expertise or as a potential conflict of interest on development votes, depending on a voter's view. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for his campaign in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Review notes - Cara Stewart's own campaign site ("Cara Stewart for City Council"): her own framing of her District 3 candidacy, background, and platform and Daniel Morgan's own campaign site ("Morgan for Costa Mesa"): his own framing of his District 3 candidacy, background, and platform may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [OC Registrar of Voters — Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 (169 contests, 430 candidates filed)](https://ocvote.gov/fileadmin/user_upload/data/candlog/GEN2026/candlog.pdf) 2. [City of Costa Mesa — Mayor & City Council page: term limits (Mayor, 2-year terms, 2-term cap; Council, 4-year terms, 2-term cap) and the sitting roster (Mayor John Stephens; Council Members Mike Buley D1, Loren Gameros D2, Andrea Marr D3, Manuel Chavez D4/Mayor Pro Tem, Arlis Reynolds D5, Jeff Pettis D6)](https://www.costamesaca.gov/government/mayor-city-council) 3. [LA Times/Daily Pilot — "Costa Mesa Council race will see 8 candidates square off for 4 open seats, including mayor": confirms 4 council members terming out in December and 8 total candidates across the 4 open seats, all already serving in city civic roles; retrieved as search-engine snippets, latimes.com itself is not directly fetchable in this pass](https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/story/2026-08-14/costa-mesa-city-council-race-will-see-8-square-off-for-4-open-seats) 4. [Orange County Register — "Candidate fields take shape for city council elections in Orange County": names Mike Buley and Loren Gameros for Costa Mesa Mayor and Cara Stewart and Daniel Morgan for the open District 3 seat; retrieved as a search-engine snippet, ocregister.com itself is not directly fetchable in this pass](https://www.ocregister.com/2026/08/14/candidate-fields-take-shape-for-city-council-elections-in-orange-county/) 5. [Cara Stewart's own campaign site ("Cara Stewart for City Council"): her own framing of her District 3 candidacy, background, and platform](https://caraforcostamesa.com/about-cara-stewart) 6. [Daniel Morgan's own campaign site ("Morgan for Costa Mesa"): his own framing of his District 3 candidacy, background, and platform](https://www.morganforcostamesa.com/meet-daniel) ## The rest of the ballot Costa Mesa City Council, District 3 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, "Costa Mesa City Council, District 3 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/costa-mesa-council-3 (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026). 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