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City of Del Rey Oaks · Statewide General Election

Mayor of Del Rey Oaks

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On the ballot

This person is Del Rey Oaks's directly elected Mayor -- one seat on a five-member City Council (the Mayor plus four at-large councilmembers) that sets the budget, land use, and city ordinances for this Monterey County city of 1,592 residents (2020 Census), while an appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. The Mayor serves a 4-year term, elected citywide rather than chosen by the Council.

Del Rey Oaks Mayor Scott Donaldson is running unopposed for a second term. He is the only candidate who qualified for the November 3, 2026 ballot.

Del Rey Oaks's Mayor is one seat on a five-member City Council -- the Mayor plus four at-large councilmembers -- that sets the budget, land use, and city ordinances for this Monterey County city of 1,592 residents (2020 Census), while an appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. Unlike the four council seats, the Mayor is elected citywide and directly by voters, not chosen by the Council. The seat carries a 4-year term.

Donaldson filed for reelection by the regular Aug. 7, 2026 nomination deadline and drew no challenger -- confirmed by the King City Rustler's own list of Monterey County offices needing an extended filing period, which does not include Del Rey Oaks Mayor. Voters still cast a ballot to formally elect him to a second term.

Scott Donaldson

Scott Donaldson is Del Rey Oaks's incumbent Mayor, first elected in November 2022 after previously serving as a City Councilmember, with two years remaining on his council term when he won the mayoral race. Monterey County Weekly's community calendar independently confirms he was still serving as Mayor as of August 2026, when he and City Manager John Guertin hosted the city's State of the City event. No campaign website, filed candidate statement, or dedicated news profile of his 2026 campaign was found this pass.

Strengths

A full first term as sitting Mayor, plus prior service as a Councilmember, to run on.

Trade-offs

No campaign website, filed statement, or 2026 campaign profile was found this pass -- no account of his priorities beyond the fact of his candidacy and incumbency.

Keep in mind

With no opponent, this is a referendum on Donaldson's first term rather than a choice between platforms, though this pass found limited independent reporting on that record.

Source review: Strong (88/100) · 6 cited sources

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

  • countyofmonterey.gov (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Elections -- official "Candidate List" page for the November 3, 2026 General Election, reached via a Wayback Machine snapshot (captured 2026-08-23) after the live page 403'd on every direct fetch attempted this pass: within the City section, exactly two Del Rey Oaks rows appear -- "Mayor, Vote for One" (Scott Donaldson, ballot designation "Mayor of Del Rey Oaks") and "Member, City Council, Vote for no more than 2" (Cheryl Parker, "Civil Engineer"; Jeremy Hallock, "Incumbent"; Shelley Cabanillas, "Community Volunteer") -- unlike the office-titles-only DOM this dataset's county-level Monterey shard encountered on the same page, this snapshot rendered the full per-candidate roster.
  • kingcityrustler.com (opens in a new tab)The King City Rustler -- "Extended filing period opens for unfilled seats in Monterey County" (Staff Report, Aug. 10, 2026): lists every Monterey County office where an eligible incumbent did not file for reelection by the regular Aug. 7 deadline. Del Rey Oaks Mayor does not appear on the list, confirming Donaldson filed and qualified by the regular deadline (ruling out a Section 10229 cancellation for that seat). The article's own "Full list of offices with extended filing" table does carry "City of Del Rey Oaks -- Two City Council members," confirming the council race alone needed the Aug. 7-12 extended window to draw a full field.
  • montereycountynow.com (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Weekly -- "With a four-person council, the process to fill a vacant seat in Del Rey Oaks might get interesting" (David Schmalz, Jan. 12, 2023): confirms the city's five-member City Council structure (a directly elected Mayor, chosen citywide rather than by the Council, plus four at-large councilmembers), reports Scott Donaldson won the Nov. 2022 mayoral election after serving as a councilmember, and reports Jeremy Hallock was newly elected to the Council in that same Nov. 2022 election -- independently corroborating both men's incumbency this cycle. Also documents Hallock declining to support a direct council appointment to fill a different 2023 vacancy without first opening an application process.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Del Rey Oaks, California": 2020 Census population (1,592); used narrowly to corroborate a directly elected Mayor. Not used for the 2026 election itself.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer searches for Scott Donaldson, Cheryl Parker, Jeremy Hallock, and Shelley Cabanillas: every query hit the same Incapsula bot-block already documented elsewhere in this dataset for Cal-Access; no live-browser fallback was available this session either.
  • montereycountynow.com (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Weekly -- "Public Citizen" community-calendar roundup (Jul. 30, 2026 issue): "Del Rey Oaks Mayor Scott Donaldson and City Manager John Guertin host the State of the City" (event on Aug. 5, 2026) -- independently confirms Donaldson is still the sitting Mayor as of this cycle.

Last updated September 2, 2026.