# Monterey Park City Council, District 1 Thomas Wong is running uncontested for Monterey Park City Council, District 1. Full ballot at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Monterey Park's 5-member City Council. They vote on 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. - Jurisdiction: City of Monterey Park - 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/monterey-park-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 5 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Thomas Wong** — Monterey Park City Councilmember · Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. 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. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions. The term is four years, 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 they 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, they 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. They previously worked on staff for former State Controller Betty Yee and former Assemblymember Mike Eng, and hold an economics degree from UCLA and a public-administration master's from USC. They're 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 them more elected experience than a typical newcomer. **Trade-offs:** Running unopposed means their record faces no organized public counter-argument this cycle. **Keep in mind:** They also sit on the boards of Climate Resolve, SCAG, and the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership — a workload a second council term would extend. ## Sources 1. [City of Monterey Park — City Clerk's Office, "Certified Candidates in Ballot Order," November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election (dated 8/28/2026)](https://www.montereypark.ca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/19520/Candidate-Status-Table-ballot-order-08282026) 2. [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)](https://www.montereypark.ca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/19456/Candidate-Status-Table-08132026) 3. [City of Monterey Park — "November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election" information page (offices on the ballot, term length, key dates)](https://www.montereypark.ca.gov/1738/2026-General-Election-Information) 4. [City of Monterey Park — Staff Directory: Thomas Wong, Council Member, District 1 (official biography)](https://www.montereypark.ca.gov/m/directory/employee?eid=170) 5. [City of Monterey Park — FPPC Disclosure Reports & Filings (per-candidate index of filed campaign-statement forms, dates only)](https://www.montereypark.ca.gov/142/FPPC-Disclosure-Reports-Filings) ## The rest of the ballot Monterey Park 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, "Monterey Park City Council, District 1 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/monterey-park-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.