# Ojai City Council, District 2 Compare records and positions simply between Rachel Lang or Larry Steingold for Ojai City Council, District 2 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person represents one of Ojai's four numbered City Council districts. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land-use decisions. A citywide-elected Mayor also sits on the council. An appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. Ojai moved from at-large to district elections in 2018, under Ordinance 889. This followed the California Voting Rights Act. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Ojai - 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/ojai-council-2 - 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: September 1, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 86 out of 100 (Strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Rachel Lang** — Incumbent - **Larry Steingold** — Retired Realty Salesperson A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. 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. It is one of four numbered districts. They were created when the city moved from at-large to district-based Council elections in 2018, under Ordinance 889. The term is four years. The Mayor, City Clerk, and City Treasurer remain elected citywide. With two names on the ballot for one seat, whichever candidate gets more votes wins. There is 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. It spans wildfire resilience, housing, infrastructure, and economic diversification. **Trade-offs:** No independent reporting was found 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 includes a published guide sold commercially. That is a distinctive and unusual public profile for a sitting councilmember. Voters may weigh it 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, with regular Council and Planning Commission attendance and a current Public Safety Commission role. 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. 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 and Tripepi Smith. Voters can look those up in city budget documents to judge for themselves. ## Sources 1. [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](https://clerkrecorder.venturacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/cfmcfmr001_contcanddataproof_08-18-2026-on-ballot-alpha-order-applied.pdf) 2. [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](https://clerkrecorder.venturacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/cfmcfmr001_contcanddataproof_08-17-2026-off-ballot.pdf) 3. [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](https://www.ojai.ca.gov/190/Election-Information) 4. [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](https://www.ojai.ca.gov/267/City-Council) 5. [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](https://netfile.com/public/OJAI/campaign) 6. [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](https://www.ojaivalleynews.com/news/elections/rachel-lang-launches-campaign-on-full-moon-in-aquarius/article_b2f3c3f0-0137-46f9-9e85-5809d15d6ff4.html) 7. [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](https://www.ojaivalleynews.com/news/elections/steingold-vision-larry-steingold-s-on-the-ballot-for-city-council-district-2/article_fb953d03-ddab-45f3-8b6d-f721fcb6527e.html) ## The rest of the ballot Ojai City Council, District 2 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, "Ojai City Council, District 2 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/ojai-council-2 (sources last retrieved September 1, 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.