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City of San Mateo · Statewide General Election

San Mateo City Council, District 1

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 would represent one of San Mateo's five council districts on the City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions for this city of about 105,600 residents. A 4-year term. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are chosen by the council from among its own members each year, rather than elected separately.

Incumbent Councilmember Lisa Diaz Nash, first elected to represent District 1 in the city's inaugural district election in November 2022, faces business executive and engineer Taso Zografos as she seeks a second term.

The winner serves a 4-year term as one of five district representatives on San Mateo's City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this city of about 105,600 residents. San Mateo moved from at-large to district elections in 2022; the Mayor and Deputy Mayor are chosen by the council from among its own members each year rather than elected separately, and council races have no primary -- Diaz Nash and Zografos go straight to the November 3 ballot.

Diaz Nash, who describes herself as a full-time councilmember, centers her campaign on core city services -- street and pothole repair, protecting 911 response and fire/paramedic staffing, traffic and bike/pedestrian safety, and clean parks and public spaces. Zografos, a business executive and engineer with more than 40 years running companies, frames his campaign around fiscal oversight -- an independent financial review and cutting what he calls wasteful spending -- alongside public safety, traffic congestion, and affordable housing for teachers, nurses, and young families.

Lisa Diaz Nash

Diaz Nash works full-time as the District 1 councilmember and lists a city email address (ldiaznash@cityofsanmateo.org) on her campaign site. Her site does not detail her pre-council career or background beyond her current officeholder role.

Strengths

A full term of incumbent experience and direct, hands-on familiarity with the city budget and council process.

Trade-offs

Her campaign site offers little biographical detail beyond her current role, so voters have limited independent basis to evaluate what she did before joining the council.

Keep in mind

Her platform is built around core municipal services (streets, safety, parks) rather than a specific, itemized record of first-term accomplishments -- this dataset could not independently verify one beyond her own campaign framing.

Taso Zografos

Zografos describes himself as a San Mateo County business leader and community advocate with more than 40 years building companies at the intersection of technology, infrastructure, and public service. His site does not name his current employer or a specific business.

Strengths

A long private-sector track record and a stated pattern of responding directly to residents' calls about neighborhood issues, per his own account.

Trade-offs

No prior appointed or elected city service is mentioned on his site, which also does not name his current company, limiting independent verification of his business background.

Keep in mind

His site's navigation still promotes stale 'Write in Taso!' copy -- the county's certified roster and the city's own candidates page both confirm he qualified for a printed-ballot spot, not write-in status.

Source review: Strong (84/100) · 8 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Lisa Diaz Nash's own campaign site (lisaforsanmateo.com): identifies her as the sitting District 1 councilmember and full-time officeholder (city email ldiaznash@cityofsanmateo.org listed), her platform (street/pothole repair, 911 and fire/paramedic response, traffic and bike/pedestrian safety, clean parks and public spaces); footer publishes FPPC ID 1483665 and Taso Zografos's own campaign site (tasoforsanmateo.com): describes him as a San Mateo County business leader and community advocate with more than 40 years building companies at the intersection of technology, infrastructure, and public service; platform (safe neighborhoods, traffic management, affordable housing, fiscal responsibility, essential services); publishes no FPPC ID this session could find; its navigation still promotes 'Write in Taso!' messaging, treated as stale leftover copy given his confirmed printed-ballot qualification per the county roster and the city's own candidates page may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • smcacre.gov (opens in a new tab)San Mateo County ACRE -- Roster of Candidates, Qualified Candidates Only, November 3, 2026 General Election (CFMR009), dated 2026-08-25: the county's own certified candidate list, naming all seven qualified City of San Mateo City Council candidates across Districts 1, 3, and 5, their filed occupations/ballot designations, and qualification dates, each flagged 'On Ballot: Yes, Vote for 1'
  • cityofsanmateo.org (opens in a new tab)City of San Mateo -- official '2026 City Council Candidates' page (cityofsanmateo.org/4305): lists all seven qualified candidates for Districts 1, 3, and 5 in the order set by the county and Secretary of State's August 13, 2026 randomized-alphabet drawing, and confirms the November 3, 2026 election date
  • cityofsanmateo.org (opens in a new tab)City of San Mateo -- official 'Meet Your Council' page: names Adam Loraine (District 5) as Mayor, Nicole Fernandez (District 2) as Deputy Mayor, and Lisa Diaz Nash (District 1), Danielle Cwirko-Godycki (District 4), and Rob Newsom Jr. (District 3) as the remaining council members
  • cityofsanmateo.org (opens in a new tab)City of San Mateo -- official 'District Elections' page: the city moved from at-large to five City Council districts starting in November 2022; Districts 1, 3, and 5 were elected in November 2022 and are up again in November 2026, while Districts 2 and 4 were elected in November 2024; council members must live in the district they represent
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's San Mateo, California article -- confirms the council-manager government structure, the five-member City Council's staggered four-year terms, and the city's population (105,661 at the 2020 census; a 103,337 Census Bureau estimate as of July 1, 2025)
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)This dataset's own documented record of a dedicated, unsuccessful attempt to retrieve campaign-finance filings for all seven City of San Mateo City Council candidates: California's Cal-Access filer search (cal-access.sos.ca.gov) returned only an Incapsula bot-detection interstitial for every query attempted this session (via both WebFetch and direct curl), with no live browser session available in this worktree to work around it. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source for these seven candidates, not any of their actual finances.
  • lisaforsanmateo.com (opens in a new tab)Lisa Diaz Nash's own campaign site (lisaforsanmateo.com): identifies her as the sitting District 1 councilmember and full-time officeholder (city email ldiaznash@cityofsanmateo.org listed), her platform (street/pothole repair, 911 and fire/paramedic response, traffic and bike/pedestrian safety, clean parks and public spaces); footer publishes FPPC ID 1483665
  • tasoforsanmateo.com (opens in a new tab)Taso Zografos's own campaign site (tasoforsanmateo.com): describes him as a San Mateo County business leader and community advocate with more than 40 years building companies at the intersection of technology, infrastructure, and public service; platform (safe neighborhoods, traffic management, affordable housing, fiscal responsibility, essential services); publishes no FPPC ID this session could find; its navigation still promotes 'Write in Taso!' messaging, treated as stale leftover copy given his confirmed printed-ballot qualification per the county roster and the city's own candidates page

Last updated September 1, 2026.