# Escondido City Council, District 1 Compare records and positions simply between Tanner Horsley or Vanessa Valenzuela for Escondido City Council, District 1 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Escondido's 5-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the citywide-elected mayor. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Escondido - 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/escondido-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: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Tanner Horsley** - **Vanessa Valenzuela** A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Tanner Horsley and Vanessa Valenzuela are running for an open seat on Escondido City Council, District 1. Incumbent Consuelo Martinez chose not to seek reelection. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright. There is no runoff. This person holds District 1's seat on Escondido's 5-member City Council, alongside the citywide-elected mayor. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions. The term is four years. With Martinez stepping aside after two terms, this is a genuinely open race between two Escondido residents with different professional backgrounds: Horsley brings a military and defense-industry career and centers his campaign on public safety and first-responder pay, while Valenzuela brings two decades of nonprofit finance experience and centers hers on housing affordability. ## Tanner Horsley A Marine Corps veteran on active service since 2006, stationed at Miramar Air Station. He has also worked at Qualcomm and the U.S. Department of Defense. He is a first-time candidate for elected office. He is campaigning on competitive pay for first responders, a balanced approach to homelessness, and smart-growth housing policy. **Strengths:** A military and defense and technology-sector career distinct from Valenzuela's nonprofit-finance background. His platform is focused on public safety to match. **Trade-offs:** No prior elected or appointed government experience to point to. **Keep in mind:** He has an ACTIVE Cal-Access committee for 2026. See Financial info. ## Vanessa Valenzuela A lifelong Escondido resident with about 20 years of financial experience. She is currently finance director at the nonprofit I Love A Clean San Diego. The county's own candidate list lists her occupation as "Director of Finance." She ran previously for City Council in 2018. She is campaigning primarily on housing affordability. She says "Escondido deserves leadership who will work for progress." **Strengths:** Two decades of finance experience, most recently in the nonprofit sector. A prior council campaign also gives her some name recognition in the district. **Trade-offs:** Her 2018 council run did not result in election. That is context for a second attempt. **Keep in mind:** Her only Cal-Access committee on record is a TERMINATED one from that 2018 run. No 2026-specific filing was found under her name. See Financial info. ## Review notes - Consuelo Martinez's own campaign/officeholder site: "I have decided not to seek re-election beyond 2026. My final day in office as your Councilmember will be December 9, 2026" may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [County of San Diego Registrar of Voters — Candidate List, November 3, 2026 General Election (current through the 8/24/2026 2:44pm snapshot): confirms Mayor, City Council District 1, and City Council District 2 as Escondido's three November 2026 races, each Vote for 1 Candidate, and gives each candidate's stated ballot occupation](https://www.sdvote.com/content/dam/rov/en/election/nov-3-2026-gubernatorial-general-election/candidate-list.pdf) 2. [City of Escondido — Elections: names all six qualified candidates across Mayor, District 1, and District 2 for the November 3, 2026 General Election, and states outright that Districts 3 and 4 plus the City Treasurer are not on this ballot -- those seats run on a staggered 4-year cycle and are next up in 2028](https://escondido.gov/188/Elections) 3. [City of Escondido — City Council: an elected mayor plus four district-elected council members; names Mayor Dane White, Councilmember Consuelo Martinez (District One), Deputy Mayor Joe Garcia (District Two), Councilmember Christian Garcia (District Three), and Councilmember Judy Fitzgerald (District Four)](https://www.escondido.gov/776/City-Council) 4. [Consuelo Martinez's own campaign/officeholder site: "I have decided not to seek re-election beyond 2026. My final day in office as your Councilmember will be December 9, 2026"](https://www.consuelomartinez.com) 5. [The Coast News Group — "Election 2026: Escondido City Council": candidate backgrounds, priorities, and platform quotes largely in their own words for all six qualified candidates across Mayor, District 1, and District 2, plus one additional District 1 hopeful (Alisa Nicholson Rice) who does not appear on the county's later certified list or the Times-Advocate's Aug. 13 final-field roundup](https://thecoastnews.com/election-2026-escondido-city-council/) 6. [San Diego Union-Tribune (Paul Sisson) — "White seeks second term as Escondido mayor": confirms three positions on the November ballot and frames District 1 as wide open following Consuelo Martinez's departure; the full article is paywalled beyond its opening paragraphs as retrieved](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/08/24/white-seeks-second-term-as-escondido-mayor/) 7. [Escondido Times-Advocate (David Ross) — "It's a two-man mayor's race": reports Kathie Phillips' withdrawal ahead of the Aug. 7 filing deadline and lists the final, complete six-candidate field across Mayor, District 1, and District 2 -- matching the county's own certified Candidate List exactly](https://www.times-advocate.com/articles/its-a-two-man-mayors-race/) 8. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS — filer search: an ACTIVE "Horsley for City Council 2026; Tanner" committee; Vanessa Valenzuela's own record carries only a TERMINATED 2018 council-run committee, no 2026-specific filing found](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Tanner%20Horsley) ## The rest of the ballot Escondido 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, "Escondido City Council, District 1 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/escondido-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.