City of Pacific Grove · Statewide General Election

Pacific Grove City Council, District 3

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

Andrew Kubica — Planning Commission Chair
Tara Leweling — Business Owner / Air Force Veteran
Susan Goldbeck — Writer / Former Councilmember

This person would hold one of Pacific Grove's six district-elected City Council seats: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Monterey County city of about 15,090 residents (2020 census). Pacific Grove adopted single-member council districts for the first time this cycle; Districts 1, 3, and 5 are up in 2026, with Districts 2, 4, and 6 following in 2028. A 4-year term.

District 3 is an open seat with no sitting incumbent: three candidates are running in Pacific Grove's first-ever District 3 election -- Andrew Kubica, chair of the city's Planning Commission; Tara Leweling, a U.S. Air Force veteran and business owner; and Susan Goldbeck, a longtime resident and former citywide councilmember.

All three candidates come to this open seat from different tracks of city civic life: Kubica from the Planning Commission he currently chairs, Leweling from a business and military career with no prior city-government role, and Goldbeck from a previous, pre-district term on the Council itself.

This is Pacific Grove's first-ever District 3 election

Because Pacific Grove only adopted single-member council districts this cycle, there has never before been a District 3 council seat, and so no sitting officeholder is defending it. Whoever wins takes the seat for a full 4-year term, and the candidate with the most votes wins outright -- there is no runoff.

Andrew Kubica

Kubica holds a degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and, by his own account, spent decades in Systems Engineering at Lockheed Martin, working in project management, complex technologies, and budget analysis. He says he has lived in Pacific Grove for 20 years, attends City Council meetings regularly to comment on issues of concern to residents, and was instrumental in the city obtaining a new fire truck. He served four years on the city's Traffic Commission and currently chairs its Planning Commission. He also volunteers with the Pacific Grove Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). His statement says he wants to serve residents with a fair and open mind while ensuring the city's fiscal health.

Strengths

Current chair of the Planning Commission and four years on the Traffic Commission -- direct experience on two city bodies that advise the Council on land use and infrastructure.

Trade-offs

This dataset's only source for his background is his own filed statement; no independent reporting or campaign site was found for him in this pass.

Keep in mind

His engineering and budget-analysis background is self-described rather than independently verified against a public employment record.

Tara Leweling

Leweling describes her occupation as "Business Owner." By her own account, her connection to Pacific Grove began in 1999, when she was stationed at the Naval Postgraduate School and lived in District 3; she returned in 2004 for a PhD and met her husband there. She served nearly 22 years in the U.S. Air Force, including a stint she describes as service "at the White House," and later held senior executive roles in financial services. She now owns a local strategic advisory firm and says she mentors emerging leaders. Her stated priorities are environmental stewardship, housing affordability, economic vitality through support for local businesses, infrastructure investment, and encouraging civic dialogue across the community.

Strengths

A long, documented personal history in the district dating to 1999, plus a senior-executive private-sector background in financial services.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed local-government experience; this dataset's only source for her military and executive-career claims is her own filed statement.

Keep in mind

Her statement's description of White House-adjacent Air Force service is stated in general terms, without a specific role or dates, in her own filing.

Susan Goldbeck

Goldbeck says she has been a resident and community leader in Pacific Grove for more than thirty years and describes her occupation as "writer, community volunteer." She previously served as a City Councilmember and as a Planning Commissioner, though her statement does not specify the years of that earlier Council term, and this dataset could not independently confirm the dates. She says she has run two local businesses -- a law practice and a community newspaper, The Beacon -- and that her priorities are open communication and transparency in government while preserving what makes the town distinctive and remaining open to beneficial change.

Strengths

Prior Council and Planning Commission service gives her the deepest institutional experience of the three District 3 candidates.

Trade-offs

Her statement does not specify when she served on the Council, and this dataset found no independent record confirming those dates or evaluating that earlier term.

Keep in mind

She is the only District 3 candidate with prior officeholding experience, though it was earned under the city's old, pre-district electoral system rather than the by-district one voters are choosing under now.

Source review: Very strong (91/100) · 8 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

countyofmonterey.gov (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Elections -- official "Candidate List" page for the November 3, 2026 General Election: within the City section, exactly five Pacific Grove rows appear -- Mayor, Member/City Council 2-Year, and Member/City Council Districts 1, 3, and 5 -- confirming the office structure and count, though (as with this page's county-office rows built earlier in this file) no per-seat candidate names render in the fetched page text
cityofpacificgrove.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Pacific Grove -- official "November 3, 2026 General Election and Ballot Measures" page: lists every qualified candidate by office (Mayor: Coletti, Smith; District 1: Garfield, Hanley; District 3: Goldbeck, Kubica, Leweling; District 5: Thomas; At-Large: McDonnell, Ogle) and links each candidate's filed Candidate Statement of Qualifications, noting Ogle filed none
montereycountynow.com (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Weekly (montereycountynow.com) -- "Eight candidates are vying for four seats in P.G.'s first-ever district election" (Pam Marino): independently names the same ten candidates across all five races, reports that the at-large seat is a two-year term on the ballot because no one currently represents District 2, and that challenger James Ogle could not be reached for comment
en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Pacific Grove, California": used narrowly for population (15,090, 2020 census), incorporation year (1889), and council-manager government type; not for the article's stale 'elected at-large' description of the council, which the city's own 2026 election materials supersede
cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- a negative-result campaign-finance search: a direct filer-search query for each of Pacific Grove's ten 2026 candidates returned an empty, contentless response with no filer or committee data renderable at all, in every attempt this session
files.cityofpacificgrove.org (opens in a new tab)Andrew Kubica's own filed Candidate Statement of Qualifications for Pacific Grove City Council District 3, Nov. 3, 2026 election: his account of his Aerospace Engineering degree from Notre Dame and decades in Systems Engineering at Lockheed Martin, his 20 years as a PG resident, and his service on the Traffic Commission and as current chair of the Planning Commission
files.cityofpacificgrove.org (opens in a new tab)Tara Leweling's own filed Candidate Statement of Qualifications for Pacific Grove City Council District 3, Nov. 3, 2026 election (occupation "Business Owner"): her account of nearly 22 years in the U.S. Air Force including White House service, senior executive roles in financial services, and owning a local strategic advisory firm, and her stated priorities of environmental stewardship and housing affordability
files.cityofpacificgrove.org (opens in a new tab)Susan Goldbeck's own filed Candidate Statement of Qualifications for Pacific Grove City Council District 3, Nov. 3, 2026 election (occupation "writer, community volunteer"): her account of over thirty years as a PG resident and prior service as a City Councilmember and Planning Commissioner, and running a law practice and a local newspaper, The Beacon

Last updated September 1, 2026.