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City of Pacific Grove · Statewide General Election

Pacific Grove City Council, At-Large (Short Term)

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 is a one-time, citywide at-large seat on Pacific Grove's City Council, not tied to any of the city's six geographic districts. It is on this year's ballot, for a 2-year term only, because no one currently represents District 2 under the city's new by-district system; District 2 itself is not up again until 2028, alongside Districts 4 and 6. Every voter citywide, not just District 2 residents, gets to vote in this race.

Incumbent Councilmember Lori McDonnell, finishing her first term, is running for this transitional at-large seat against James Ogle, an artist who filed no candidate statement and could not be reached for comment by Monterey County Weekly's Sept. 1, 2026 election preview.

This is a one-time, citywide at-large seat on Pacific Grove's City Council, not tied to any of the city's six geographic districts. It is on this year's ballot, for a 2-year term only, because no one currently represents District 2 under the city's new by-district system; District 2 itself is not up again until 2028, alongside Districts 4 and 6. Unlike the ballot's three district races, every Pacific Grove voter -- not just residents of a particular district -- gets to vote in this one.

McDonnell was first elected in 2022, before Pacific Grove adopted district elections, and is the only incumbent councilmember standing for this seat. Ogle has not held elected office in the city and, per Monterey County Weekly's reporting, did not respond when the paper sought comment for its election preview.

Lori McDonnell

McDonnell, 59, is the incumbent, first elected to the City Council in 2022, now seeking this transitional at-large seat as her first term ends. Her own filed statement describes her occupation as "Incumbent / Researcher" and cites her service on the Council and on the city's Community Human Services and AMBAG (Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments) boards. She holds a master's degree in Psychology and says she has conducted research at NASA, the Veterans Administration, and Stanford School of Medicine. She describes herself as a renter and says she understands the importance of affordable housing from that vantage point. Her stated priorities are continuing to support residents, local businesses, and the environment, and working collaboratively with residents, city staff, and fellow councilmembers on housing and growth solutions that preserve the city's character.

Strengths

A completed Council term plus service on two regional boards (Community Human Services, AMBAG) -- a broader institutional vantage point than a first-time candidate would have.

Trade-offs

This dataset's only source for her first-term record is her own filed statement; no independent reporting evaluating her time on the Council was found in this pass.

Keep in mind

Because she was elected in 2022 under the city's old, at-large system, this transitional seat is in effect the same citywide constituency she has already represented, not a new one.

James Ogle

Ogle is an artist and Lori McDonnell's challenger for this seat. He filed no Candidate Statement of Qualifications with the city, and Monterey County Weekly reported it could not reach him for comment for its Sept. 1, 2026 election preview. Beyond his listing as a qualified candidate on the city's own official election page and the county's candidate list, this dataset found no further biographical or platform information about his candidacy.

Strengths

Not established by any source reachable this session.

Trade-offs

No campaign statement, campaign site, or news profile was found for him; even Monterey County Weekly's own reporting could not reach him.

Keep in mind

With virtually no independently documented background available, this contest functions largely as a retention question about McDonnell rather than a comparison between two fully documented platforms.

Source review: Very strong (90/100) · 6 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)Lori McDonnell's own filed Candidate Statement of Qualifications for Pacific Grove City Council, Nov. 3, 2026 election (age 59, occupation "Incumbent / Researcher"): her account of her Council term and Community Human Services/AMBAG board service, her MA in Psychology and research background at NASA, the VA, and Stanford School of Medicine, and her stated priorities of affordable housing and collaborative problem-solving

Last updated September 1, 2026.