City of Monterey Park · Statewide General Election
Monterey Park City Council, District 1
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
- Thomas Wong — Monterey Park City Councilmember · Incumbent
This person holds your district's seat on Monterey Park's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Council members choose one of their own to serve as mayor and mayor pro tem, presiding over meetings but casting only one vote like any other member.
Only one candidate qualified for this seat. Incumbent Thomas Wong, on the council since 2022 and the council's mayor in 2024, appears unopposed for a second term — so this contest is settled and your vote here does not change the outcome.
This person holds the District 1 seat on Monterey Park's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions. A 4-year term ending in November 2030. Council members choose one of their own to serve as mayor and mayor pro tem, presiding over meetings but casting only one vote like any other member.
With no opponent, the useful question is not who to choose but what the officeholder has done and what to watch next. Wong is campaigning on continuity: a current push behind the city's newly enacted data-center ban and this cycle's two ballot measures on housing overlays and hotel tax, building on a decade of prior water-district and environmental-commission service before he joined the council.
Thomas Wong
Thomas Wong is the incumbent, first elected to the council in November 2022 and the council's mayor in 2024. Before that, he served ten years on the elected board of the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, seven of them as board president, and chaired the city's Environmental Commission. He previously worked on staff for former State Controller Betty Yee and former Assemblymember Mike Eng, and holds an economics degree from UCLA and a public-administration master's from USC. He's running unopposed for a second term.
Strengths
A decade on the water district board, seven as its president, plus a term as the council's own mayor, gives him more elected experience than a typical newcomer.
Trade-offs
Running unopposed means his record faces no organized public counter-argument this cycle.
Keep in mind
He also sits on the boards of Climate Resolve, SCAG, and the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership — a workload a second council term would extend.
Source review: Very strong (91/100) · 5 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.
- montereypark.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Monterey Park — City Clerk's Office, "Certified Candidates in Ballot Order," November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election (dated 8/28/2026)
- montereypark.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Monterey Park — City Clerk's Office, "Candidate Filing Status" table for the November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election (dated 8/13/2026; superseded by the 8/28/2026 certified list)
- montereypark.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Monterey Park — "November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election" information page (offices on the ballot, term length, key dates)
- montereypark.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Monterey Park — Staff Directory: Thomas Wong, Council Member, District 1 (official biography)
- montereypark.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Monterey Park — FPPC Disclosure Reports & Filings (per-candidate index of filed campaign-statement forms, dates only)
Last updated August 31, 2026.