# Los Altos City Council, District 4

Larry Lang is running uncontested for Los Altos City Council, District 4. Full ballot at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold one of Los Altos's five City Council seats. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Los Altos is a Santa Clara County city of about 31,600 people. The five Councilmembers together pick one of their own as Mayor each December. They also pick a Vice Mayor. 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. The term is four years, with a two-term limit.

- Jurisdiction: City of Los Altos
- 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/los-altos-council-district-4
- 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: 82 out of 100 (Strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Larry Lang** — Incumbent

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

Only one candidate is running for this seat. Sitting Vice Mayor Larry Lang is the sole qualified candidate for District 4. He was elected to the council at-large in 2024. So this contest looks settled. 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. He began volunteering with the city on the Los Altos Historical Commission. He had just finished a term as president of the Los Altos History Museum's board. That was when he first ran for council. He announced that first run in June 2024. An eight-member group of former Los Altos mayors backed him. He placed third of five candidates for three open at-large seats that November. He took 6,737 votes, or 20.81%. That put him ahead of fourth-place finisher Ibrahim Bashir. Town Crier reporting says Bashir outspent him with "record campaign contributions totaling more than $75,000." The council then chose him as Vice Mayor. That is a one-year, council-selected title. His stated 2024 priorities included pedestrian safety and safe routes to school. He also wanted to help new residents feel they belong. In Aug. 2026 he spoke out against Measure D. That is a downtown-parking-plaza citizens' initiative. He warned it could complicate the city's state-mandated housing planning. He said it could also expose the city to litigation. He says he personally has not decided whether the city should build a downtown park.

**Strengths:** Two years on the council, a citywide mandate from 2024, and a Vice Mayor turn. Civic experience from the Historical Commission and the History Museum board. A clear position on Measure D.

**Trade-offs:** No opponent qualified, so no comparison is possible. There is no independent reporting on his votes. What exists is his 2024 campaign and recent remarks on Measure D and the downtown park.

**Keep in mind:** Lang was elected in 2024 to a term that would ordinarily run to 2028. District 4's accelerated 2026 election puts his seat up two years early. That is a consequence of the city's court-driven shift to district elections. It is not a consequence of anything Lang did.

## Review notes

- 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.

## Sources

1. [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.](https://www.losaltosca.gov/161/Elections)
2. [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.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Altos,_California)
3. [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.](https://losaltosonline.com/news/los-altos-moves-to-district-based-elections-this-november-is-your-district-up-for-election/article_83d2b39a-4391-4114-b6dc-3f2f99bf60df.html)
4. [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.](https://www.losaltosca.gov/289/City-Council)
5. [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.](https://www.losaltoslarry.org/)
6. [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).](https://losaltosonline.com/news/we-ve-got-another-runner-lang-announces-bid-for-los-altos-city-council/article_d7a77bfc-281c-11ef-8ef8-c3d61c87634b.html)
7. [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.](https://losaltosonline.com/news/lang-warns-parking-initiative-could-reshape-downtown/article_63bc0f33-eb1a-41d1-8ad4-e4d7934ca403.html)
8. [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%).](https://losaltosonline.com/news/updated-election-results-local-returns-favoring-incumbents-with-one-los-altos-exception/article_fa405c42-a143-11ef-8682-ffc9f5382681.html)

## The rest of the ballot

Los Altos City Council, District 4 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, "Los Altos City Council, District 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/los-altos-council-district-4 (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.