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City of Los Altos · Statewide General Election

Los Altos City Council, District 4

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person would hold one of Los Altos's five City Council seats: city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Santa Clara County city of about 31,600, alongside four other Councilmembers who together select one of their own as Mayor and Vice Mayor each December. November 2026 is the city's first district-based council election -- this seat represents this district specifically, not the whole city as in past cycles. A 4-year term, term-limited to two terms.

Only one candidate is running for this seat. Sitting Vice Mayor Larry Lang, elected to the council at-large in 2024, is the sole qualified candidate for District 4 — so this contest looks settled and your vote here is unlikely to change the outcome.

This is Los Altos's first district-based City Council election, forced by a 2024 notice alleging the city's old at-large system violated the California Voting Rights Act. District 4 (the Los Altos High School and downtown area) and District 2 vote this November; Districts 1, 3, and 5 follow in 2028. Each of the city's five Councilmembers serves a 4-year term and is term-limited to two terms; the council selects one of its own as Mayor and Vice Mayor each December. Los Altos has about 31,600 residents.

Because the city sequenced District 4 to vote first, Lang — elected at-large just two years ago, in Nov. 2024, to what would ordinarily be a term running to 2028 — is on the ballot again already. Neither the city's own reporting nor its elections materials spell out a term-shortening mechanism beyond the council's Oct. 2024 sequencing vote; this dataset states the fact of his 2026 candidacy without asserting a legal theory this pass could not independently confirm, beyond noting that state law's transition process for these situations (Elections Code Section 10010) generally permits exactly this kind of accelerated first district election.

Larry Lang

Larry Lang is an electrical engineer, technologist, and investor who began volunteering with the city on the Los Altos Historical Commission and had just finished a term as president of the Los Altos History Museum's board when he first ran for council. He announced that first run in June 2024, backed by an eight-member group of former Los Altos mayors, and placed third of five candidates for three open at-large seats that November (6,737 votes, 20.81%) — ahead of fourth-place finisher Ibrahim Bashir, who Town Crier reporting says outspent him with "record campaign contributions totaling more than $75,000." The council chose him as Vice Mayor, a one-year, council-selected title. His stated 2024 priorities included pedestrian safety, safe routes to school, and helping new residents feel they belong; more recently, in Aug. 2026, he has spoken out against Measure D, a downtown-parking-plaza citizens' initiative, warning it could complicate the city's state-mandated housing planning and expose it to litigation, while saying he personally has not decided whether the city should build a downtown park.

Strengths

Two years of council experience already, a citywide mandate from 2024, a Vice Mayor turn, civic experience via the Historical Commission and History Museum board, and a clear position on Measure D.

Trade-offs

No opponent qualified, so no comparison is possible; this pass found no independent reporting on his council votes beyond his 2024 campaign and recent remarks on Measure D and the downtown park.

Keep in mind

Lang was elected in 2024 to what would ordinarily be a term running to 2028; District 4's accelerated 2026 election puts his seat up for a vote two years early, a consequence of the city's court-driven shift to district elections, not of anything Lang did.

Source review: Strong (82/100) · 8 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Larry Lang's own campaign site (losaltoslarry.org): read in full. Self-describes as "Vice Mayor and Councilmember At Large," elected Nov. 2024, now running for Councilmember District 4; references his opposition to Measure D ("No on Measure D -- Los Altos") but otherwise carries little independent platform detail. may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • losaltosca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Los Altos -- City Clerk's Elections page: fetched and read in full (not just a cache snippet). A candidate-by-candidate filing table for both District 2 and District 4 gives each candidate's nomination-papers-issued, -filed, and qualified-on-the-ballot dates and links directly to each candidate's scanned FPPC Form 700/410/497 filings, hosted on the city's own DocumentCenter. Names Anky van Deursen and Lynette Lee Eng as the only two District 2 filers and Larry Lang as the only District 4 filer, as of the Aug. 7, 2026 nomination-period close.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Los Altos, California": 2020 census population 31,625 and council-manager form of government (a Mayor selected by the council from among its own members, not directly elected). Cited only for population and government structure -- this snapshot's own listed Mayor and Vice Mayor (Pete Dailey, Neysa Fligor) are stale relative to the city's own current roster page and are not relied on here.
  • losaltosonline.com (opens in a new tab)Los Altos Town Crier -- "Los Altos moves to district-based elections this November: Is your district up for election?" (by Giovanni Albanese Jr.): read in full. Confirms Districts 2 and 4 vote first, in 2026, with Districts 1, 3, and 5 following in 2028, and gives the geography of all five districts (District 1 the Highlands, District 2 Grant Park, District 3 Covington/Almond, District 4 the high school and downtown area, District 5 northmost Los Altos). Also reports that the final map (F2a) was approved in Oct. 2024 by then-Councilmember Lynette Lee Eng, then-Mayor Jonathan Weinberg, and now-Mayor Sally Meadows, over the objections of Pete Dailey and Neysa Fligor.
  • losaltosca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Los Altos -- City Council roster page: fetched and read in full. Names the sitting council as of retrieval: Mayor Sally Meadows, Vice Mayor Larry Lang, and Councilmembers Pete Dailey and Jonathan D. Weinberg (a fifth seat is also on the roster page but is not independently relevant to either Los Altos contest in this dataset). Independent confirmation of Lang's sitting Vice Mayor title, apart from his own campaign site.
  • losaltoslarry.org (opens in a new tab)Larry Lang's own campaign site (losaltoslarry.org): read in full. Self-describes as "Vice Mayor and Councilmember At Large," elected Nov. 2024, now running for Councilmember District 4; references his opposition to Measure D ("No on Measure D -- Los Altos") but otherwise carries little independent platform detail.
  • losaltosonline.com (opens in a new tab)Los Altos Town Crier -- "We've got another runner: Lang announces bid for Los Altos City Council" (by Bruce Barton, Jun. 11, 2024): read in full. Reports Lang's June 6, 2024 campaign kickoff at Rustic House, attended by current and former council members; describes him as "an electrical engineer, technologist and investor" who began volunteering on the Los Altos Historical Commission and was finishing a term as president of the Los Altos History Museum's board; reports an eight-member group of former Los Altos mayors endorsed him, and quotes his stated priorities (pedestrian safety and safe routes to school, helping new residents feel they belong).
  • losaltosonline.com (opens in a new tab)Los Altos Town Crier -- "Lang warns parking initiative could reshape downtown" (by Julia Baum, Aug. 17, 2026): read in full. Reports Lang, speaking as a private citizen at a Los Altos Community Coalition meeting, urged voters to reject Measure D (a citizens' initiative restricting use of downtown parking plazas), warning it could constrain the city's ability to meet state housing requirements and expose it to litigation; also reports he had not personally decided whether the city should convert a parking plaza into a downtown park, a separate, longer-running planning question.
  • losaltosonline.com (opens in a new tab)Los Altos Town Crier -- Nov. 2024 election-results roundup ("Updated election results: local returns favoring incumbents with one Los Altos exception"): read in full. Reports the Los Altos City Council at-large results (Sally Meadows 8,504 votes/26.27%, Jonathan Weinberg 7,644/23.62%, Larry Lang 6,737/20.81%, Ibrahim Bashir 6,161/19.03% despite "record campaign contributions totaling more than $75,000," Eric Steinle 3,323/10.27%, for three open seats) and the El Camino Healthcare District results (incumbents Carol Ann Somersille, Julia Miller, and John Zoglin all ahead of Lynette Lee Eng, who placed fourth with 21,556 votes/16.15%).

Last updated August 31, 2026.