# Duarte City Council, District 1 Compare records and positions simply between Luz Yesenia Paez or Margaret Finlay for Duarte City Council, District 1 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds District 1's seat on Duarte's 7-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Duarte - 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/duarte-council-1 - 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 - **Luz Yesenia Paez** - **Margaret Finlay** — Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Seven-term Mayor Margaret Finlay, who has represented Duarte's District 1 for 34 years, faces a second challenge from Luz Yesenia Paez, the city's Planning and Economic Development Commission chair who ran for the same seat in 2022. Duarte elects its seven-member City Council directly each November, one district at a time, with no primary. The winner holds one of Duarte's seven district seats on the City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The term is four years. The council appoints the city manager who runs the day to day work. The council also sits as the legislative body for the city's redevelopment successor agency. It does the same for the housing authority. Finlay's three decade tenure comes with a long list of regional posts. Voters weigh those against her incumbency. Paez's record is shorter and more recent. It comes from Duarte's own appointed commissions, not elected office. The choice is between extending an entrenched incumbency and handing the seat to Paez. Their public credentials are four years of city commission service. ## Margaret Finlay The incumbent District 1 councilmember, on the Duarte City Council for 34 years and chosen by her colleagues as Mayor seven times, most recently in the current term. She has built a parallel career in regional government, chairing the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority's executive committee since 2020 and serving as the Southern California Association of Governments' 2017-18 president. She holds a Master's in Public Administration from Cal State Long Beach and sits as an elected commissioner on LA County's Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). **Strengths:** Three-plus decades of institutional memory and a regional network built through SCAG, the National League of Cities, and Cal JPIA. **Trade-offs:** Thirty-four years in the same seat is also thirty-four years without a change in District 1's representation. **Keep in mind:** Her campaign material leans on accomplishments dating to the 1990s; weigh what she's delivered recently against what a fourth decade would still promise. ## Luz Yesenia Paez A Public Utility Analyst for the City of Azusa, making their second run at the District 1 seat after falling short in 2022. Since that loss they have served as Duarte's Traffic and Safety Commissioner and, since 2024, on the Planning and Economic Development Commission, which they have chaired since 2025. They hold a Master's in Public Administration from the University of La Verne and was named the local state Assemblymember's 2026 Woman of the Year in Public Service. **Strengths:** Four years of appointed commission service since their 2022 loss, capped by chairing Planning and Economic Development since 2025. **Trade-offs:** No elected record of any kind, and a commission chair does not cast council budget votes or set citywide policy. **Keep in mind:** Paez frames this run as picking up where 2022 left off — weigh four years of commission work against three decades of Finlay's council record. ## Review notes - Margaret Finlay for Duarte City Council and Luz Yesenia Paez for Duarte City Council may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [City of Duarte — Mayor & City Council (official roster of all seven district officeholders; council structure, terms, and general-municipal-election rules)](https://www.cityofduarte.ca.gov/government/mayor-city-council) 2. [City of Duarte — Councilmember Margaret Finlay, District 1 (official biography: seven terms as Mayor, 34 years on the council, education, and regional-government experience)](https://www.cityofduarte.ca.gov/government/mayor-city-council/margaret-finlay) 3. [City of Duarte — NetFile Public Portal for Campaign Finance Disclosure (committee search confirming active 2026 filers 'Finlay for Duarte City Council 2026' and 'Luz Yesenia Paez Campaign for Duarte City Council 2026,' each with a mid-year Form 460; all filings on record are scanned paper documents, not e-filed transactions)](https://ssl.netfile.com/pub2/?aid=COD) 4. [The Ballot Book — City of Duarte, District 1 candidates ('1 office, 2 candidates': Luz Yesenia Paez, Margaret E. Finlay), independent corroboration of the two-candidate field](https://theballotbook.com/jurisdictions/1359/candidates) 5. [Margaret Finlay for Duarte City Council — campaign site (Accomplishments and Goals page: three-decade record and stated priorities for a new term)](https://margaretfinlay.com/accomplishments-and-goals) 6. [Luz Yesenia Paez for Duarte City Council — campaign site ('Meet Luz Yesenia' biography and 'Key Priorities' platform pages)](https://luzyeseniapaez.com/meet_luz_yesenia) ## The rest of the ballot Duarte City Council, District 1 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, "Duarte City Council, District 1 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/duarte-council-1 (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.