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City of Ojai · Statewide General Election

Ojai City Council, District 2

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 represents one of Ojai's four numbered City Council districts: city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions, alongside a citywide-elected Mayor and an appointed City Manager who runs day-to-day operations. Ojai moved from at-large to district-based Council elections in 2018 (Ordinance 889, under Elections Code Section 10010 and the California Voting Rights Act). A 4-year term.

Incumbent Rachel Lang seeks a second term representing District 2 against Larry Steingold, a retired real estate broker and vice chair of the city's Public Safety Commission running on fiscal discipline.

This person represents District 2 on Ojai's five-member City Council -- one of four numbered districts created when the city moved from at-large to district-based Council elections in 2018 (Ordinance 889). A 4-year term. The Mayor, City Clerk, and City Treasurer remain elected citywide.

With two names on the ballot for one seat, this is decided by whichever candidate gets more votes -- no ranked-choice voting or runoff.

Why did Lang launch her campaign on a specific full moon?

Lang is a professional electional astrologer of roughly 20 years, including work she says has touched gubernatorial, mayoral, and congressional campaigns, and is the author of a published 2026 timing guide. She launched her re-election campaign July 29 -- a date her own book flags as favorable, tied to a full moon in Aquarius -- and told Ojai Valley News that timing is 'just another tool in the toolbox' alongside fundraising, coalition-building, and message discipline, not a substitute for them.

Rachel Lang

The incumbent, on the Council since 2022. Her stated second-term priorities: wildfire risk mitigation and resilience, affordable housing, modernizing energy infrastructure and decarbonization, better communication, tourism-independent economic strategies, and a goal of paving every Ojai street by 2029.

Strengths

Four years on the Council and a specific, itemized platform spanning wildfire resilience, housing, infrastructure, and economic diversification.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent reporting evaluating her votes on specific council decisions; available coverage of her campaign focuses substantially on her astrology practice, not a policy record.

Keep in mind

Her professional astrology work, including a published guide sold commercially, is a distinctive and unusual public profile for a sitting councilmember -- voters may weigh that alongside her stated council priorities.

Larry Steingold

A retired commercial real estate broker from Rhode Island who moved to Ojai roughly nine years ago and now serves as vice chair of the city's Public Safety Commission. He is a frequent public commenter at City Council and Planning Commission meetings and campaigns on fiscal discipline: he has criticized the city's roughly $2 million, four-year commitment to DignityMoves and its roughly $107,000 annual marketing contract with Tripepi Smith, and favors competitive bidding and proactive (rather than reactive) fire-hardening spending.

Strengths

An active civic record -- regular Council and Planning Commission attendance, a current Public Safety Commission role -- and an itemized fiscal platform naming actual city contracts to scrutinize.

Trade-offs

As a non-incumbent, he has no Council voting record; his real-estate career was in Rhode Island, not Ojai, and his commission service is confirmed only by Ojai Valley News's own reporting.

Keep in mind

His fiscal critique names specific vendors and dollar figures (DignityMoves, Tripepi Smith) that voters can independently look up in city budget documents to judge for themselves.

Source review: Strong (86/100) · 7 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • clerkrecorder.venturacounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Ventura County's own certified 'Contest/Candidate Proof List' (report CFMR001), the on-ballot roster dated and printed August 18, 2026, in 'alpha order applied' form -- names all four Ojai City contests (Mayor; Council Districts 1, 2, 3) as ON BALLOT with their exact qualified-candidate rosters, ballot designations, and incumbency flags
  • clerkrecorder.venturacounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Ventura County's companion 'Contest/Candidate Proof List -- Off Ballot' document, dated August 17, 2026 -- Ojai's City Council contests do not appear anywhere in this document, corroborating by absence that none were cancelled or resolved by appointment under Elections Code Section 10229
  • ojai.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)The City of Ojai City Clerk's Office's own 'Election Information' page (updated August 7, 2026, the regular filing deadline): a candidate-by-candidate filing table (papers pulled/filed/qualified) independently confirming the county's certified roster exactly, including Clay Creasey's withdrawn Mayor filing
  • ojai.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)The City of Ojai's own City Council page: names the sitting five-member Council by district and term, and states Ordinance 889 (Dec. 11, 2018) moved Ojai from at-large to district-based Council elections under Elections Code Section 10010 and the California Voting Rights Act, with the Mayor, City Clerk, and City Treasurer remaining elected citywide
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)A negative-result campaign-finance source: the City of Ojai's NetFile public campaign-finance portal, the sole channel for 2026-cycle filings per the city's own FPPC Filing Requirements page -- a client-side JavaScript app gated behind a Cloudflare Turnstile challenge, returning no filer or report content to any automated fetch this session
  • ojaivalleynews.com (opens in a new tab)Ojai Valley News -- 'Rachel Lang launches campaign on full moon in Aquarius' (Robert Shepyer, July 30, 2026): profiles incumbent Rachel Lang's professional background as an electional astrologer and her stated second-term priorities
  • ojaivalleynews.com (opens in a new tab)Ojai Valley News -- 'Steingold vision: Larry Steingold's on the ballot for City Council District 2' (Robert Shepyer, Aug. 13, 2026): profiles challenger Larry Steingold's background and his fiscal-discipline platform in detail

Last updated September 1, 2026.