# Mayor of Costa Mesa

Compare records and positions simply between Mike Buley or Loren Gameros for Mayor of Costa Mesa at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person presides over City Council meetings and represents Costa Mesa publicly. The Mayor also votes as one of seven council members. The other six members represent districts, but the Mayor is elected citywide. The council votes on the budget and city laws. The term is two years, with a limit of two terms in a row.

- 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-mayor
- 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: 79 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

- **Mike Buley**
- **Loren Gameros**

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

Two sitting councilmembers are running against each other for Costa Mesa's open Mayor's seat: Mike Buley (District 1) and Loren Gameros (District 2). Mayor John Stephens is term-limited and cannot run again. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff.

Costa Mesa's mayor runs City Council meetings and speaks for the city in public. But the mayor is one of seven votes on the budget and city ordinances. The other six are district councilmembers. Day-to-day city government runs through an appointed city manager. This is the only council seat elected citywide rather than by district. The term is two years. It is capped at two straight terms.

Neither candidate is defending this seat. So the race turns on each man's record in his own district. It also turns on how he would apply that record citywide. Buley is an attorney elected to District 1 in 2024. He campaigns on business permitting, public safety staffing, and fiscal restraint. Gameros was elected to District 2 in 2020 and reelected unopposed in 2024. He campaigns on a 'boots on the ground' record. He says it includes opening the city's permanent Bridge Shelter for homelessness services. He also cites wider public access to Luke Davis Field. Costa Mesa First is a local growth-policy PAC. It notes that Gameros backed those council actions. It also flags that critics see his visible work for residents as focused in his own Halecrest neighborhood. That is a characterization from an advocacy group, not a judgment made here.

## Mike Buley

A civil litigation trial attorney and law-firm owner of more than 30 years, elected to City Council District 1 in November 2024 -- his council seat isn't up this cycle, so he's giving it up to run for mayor if he wins. His campaign centers on streamlining business permits to attract investment and jobs, keeping police and fire fully staffed, and continuing to fund youth sports, recreation, and neighborhood events. He says he wants to expand resident involvement through new financial-oversight and city-planning committees. On the council, Costa Mesa First's tracking says he has supported Flock public-safety cameras and opposed updating the Fairview Park Master Plan.

**Strengths:** A law career built around civil litigation gives him direct familiarity with contracts and regulation, which he frames as an asset for cutting permitting delays.

**Trade-offs:** Only about two years of council experience by the time voters decide this race, the shortest tenure of the two candidates.

**Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for his campaign in this pass -- the state's filer-search tool was unreachable throughout the research window -- see Financial info.

## Loren Gameros

An instructor and building-inspection trades coordinator, elected to City Council District 2 in November 2020 and reelected unopposed in 2024 -- like Buley, his own council seat isn't up this cycle. He describes his approach as 'boots on the ground,' built around being personally present in neighborhoods. His platform centers on public safety, expanding youth and family recreation, maintaining roads and parks, and balancing growth with neighborhood character and local business support. He points to supporting the opening of the city's permanent Bridge Shelter (2021), increased city staffing (2022), and public access to Luke Davis Field (2023) as council-term accomplishments.

**Strengths:** Roughly six years of council experience by election day, the longest tenure of the two candidates, with specific homelessness-services and recreation-access actions he can point to.

**Trade-offs:** A local PAC says some Mesa North residents report less visible engagement from him than his home neighborhood, Halecrest -- an advocacy source's critique, not this dataset's own finding.

**Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for his campaign in this pass -- the state's filer-search tool was unreachable throughout the research window -- see Financial info.

## Review notes

- Mike Buley's own campaign site ("Mike Buley For Mayor"): his own framing of his District 1 council record and mayoral platform (business support, public safety, community investment), Loren Gameros's own campaign site ("Loren for Mayor"): his own framing of his District 2 council record and mayoral platform (public safety, youth & family, infrastructure, fiscal responsibility), and Costa Mesa First (FPPC #1332564, a registered PAC operating savecostamesa.com) -- Candidates for Mayor page: ages, prior council-vote positions (Flock cameras, Fairview Park Master Plan), and neighborhood-engagement critique for Buley and Gameros; the group describes itself as openly opinionated about candidates, cited here only for independently-checkable factual detail beyond each campaign's own site 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. [City of Costa Mesa News (the city's own municipal news site) — "Costa Mesa voters re-elect Stephens and Gameros and add new council members Buley and Pettis": recap of the Nov. 2024 election, sworn in Dec. 5, 2024 -- Stephens's second 2-year mayoral term, Gameros re-elected unopposed to D2, Buley newly elected D1, Pettis newly elected D6, Manuel Chavez chosen Mayor Pro Tem](https://www.cityofcostamesanews.com/costa-mesa-voters-re-elect-stephens-and-gameros-and-add-new-council-members-buley-and-pettis/)
5. [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/)
6. [Mike Buley's own campaign site ("Mike Buley For Mayor"): his own framing of his District 1 council record and mayoral platform (business support, public safety, community investment)](https://www.buley4costamesa.com/)
7. [Loren Gameros's own campaign site ("Loren for Mayor"): his own framing of his District 2 council record and mayoral platform (public safety, youth & family, infrastructure, fiscal responsibility)](https://loren4mayor.com)
8. [Costa Mesa First (FPPC #1332564, a registered PAC operating savecostamesa.com) — Candidates for Mayor page: ages, prior council-vote positions (Flock cameras, Fairview Park Master Plan), and endorsements for Buley and Gameros; the group describes itself as openly opinionated about candidates, cited here only for independently-checkable factual detail beyond each campaign's own site](https://www.savecostamesa.com/candidates)

## The rest of the ballot

Mayor of Costa Mesa 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, "Mayor of Costa Mesa — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/costa-mesa-mayor (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026).

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