# Santa Barbara City Council, District 4 Compare records and positions simply between Devon Wardlow, Monte Wilson, and 2 more for Santa Barbara City Council, District 4 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would represent one of Santa Barbara's six council districts. They vote on the budget, land use, and ordinances. Santa Barbara is a Santa Barbara County city of about 88,700 residents. The term is four years. The Mayor is elected separately, citywide. The council does not choose the Mayor from among its own members. - Jurisdiction: City of Santa Barbara - 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/santa-barbara-council-4 - 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: 77 out of 100 (Mixed), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Devon Wardlow** — Planning Commissioner - **Monte Wilson** — Former Software Executive - **Jason Dominguez** — Attorney - **Genevieve Taft-Vazquez** — Corporate Consultant A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Four candidates are running for Santa Barbara City Council, District 4. The district covers the Upper Eastside, the Riviera, and the foothills. The candidates are Jason Dominguez, Genevieve Taft-Vazquez, Devon Wardlow, and Monte Wilson. Vote for one. There is no primary and no runoff. District 4's seat is one of six district Council seats on Santa Barbara's council-manager government -- the budget, land use, and city ordinances for this Santa Barbara County city of about 88,700 residents -- alongside a separately, citywide-elected Mayor. It's a 4-year term. The seat is open because its sitting Councilmember, Kristen Sneddon, is running for Mayor instead of re-election, on the same ballot as this race. The field splits on the city's central flashpoints -- rent stabilization and whether State Street reopens to cars. Wardlow, endorsed by the county Democratic Party, supports rent stabilization and keeping State Street car-free; Wilson, running as an independent, calls rent stabilization punitive and favors reopening the street; Dominguez, a self-described centrist and former Councilmember for a different district, is courting independent voters skeptical of both parties; Taft-Vazquez frames her campaign around bringing outside professional experience rather than aligning with either camp. ## Devon Wardlow Devon Wardlow is a City Planning Commissioner. They graduated from Santa Barbara High School and UCSB. They advocate for affordable housing and for protections for vulnerable spaces and populations. They support the city's rent-stabilization ordinance. They want State Street to stay closed to cars. They are endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party. **Strengths:** Current appointed experience on the Planning Commission. That is direct exposure to the land-use decisions a Councilmember makes. They also have a party endorsement. **Trade-offs:** They have no prior elected office. A Planning Commission seat is appointed. It is not a record voters have judged directly before. **Keep in mind:** Their positions on rent stabilization and State Street track closely with outgoing Councilmember Sneddon's. A vote for them reads, in part, as continuity with her positions on this seat's central issues. ## Jason Dominguez Jason Dominguez is an attorney and a registered Democrat. He describes himself as a centrist. He served on the City Council for District 1 from 2015 to 2019. He lost his 2019 re-election bid by eight votes. He is now running in District 4. He is targeting independent voters he says are dissatisfied with party politics. **Strengths:** The only candidate in this field with prior elected Council experience. He has a full term to point to, including how he voted. **Trade-offs:** That term ended when voters chose not to re-elect him, by eight votes. He is now running in a different district than the one that decided that. **Keep in mind:** His self-described centrism sits between Wardlow's and Wilson's more defined positions on rent stabilization and State Street. No independent source pins down where he lands on either issue. ## Monte Wilson Monte Wilson is a former software executive running as an independent. He calls rent stabilization a punitive policy. He favors rapid housing construction. He supports reopening State Street to vehicle traffic. He frames his campaign around fiscal responsibility and "common sense" policies. **Strengths:** A private-sector executive background distinct from the rest of the field. He states specific positions rather than broad themes. He would reopen State Street and oppose rent stabilization. **Trade-offs:** No prior appointed or elected city role is documented for him. No independent account of specific civic or community involvement beyond his campaign platform was found. **Keep in mind:** His positions place him furthest from Wardlow's on this seat's two central issues. District 4 voters focused on rent stabilization or State Street have a clear contrast between these two. ## Genevieve Taft-Vazquez Genevieve Taft-Vazquez is a corporate consultant. She holds degrees from Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and Johns Hopkins. She returned to Santa Barbara six years ago after living elsewhere. She serves on the city's Neighborhood Advisory Council. She frames her candidacy around bringing a new perspective and balance to city leadership. **Strengths:** Current appointed service on the Neighborhood Advisory Council. She also brings a detailed academic and professional background among this field. **Trade-offs:** "New perspective and balance" is a broad framing. No independent source describes where she lands on rent stabilization or State Street. **Keep in mind:** Her return to Santa Barbara six years ago is a shorter recent local tenure than her three opponents. Weigh that against her stated outside professional experience. ## Sources 1. [City of Santa Barbara City Clerk -- "Final List of Candidates," City of Santa Barbara, November 3, 2026 Election (dated August 17, 2026, the certified post-nomination-period roster): lists Mayoral (Eric Friedman, Matt Kilrain, Wendy Sims-Moten, Kristen Sneddon), District 4 (Jason Dominguez, Genevieve Taft-Vazquez, Devon Wardlow, Monte Wilson), District 5 (Ian J. Baucke, Cevin Cathell, James G. Zurlinden), and District 6 (Jason Carlton, Gabe Escobedo, Anabella Lehne, Alexander Stoeber) -- 4 contests, 15 candidates](https://santabarbaraca.gov/sites/default/files/2026-08/Candidate%20Contact%20Info%20-%20PUBLIC_1.pdf) 2. [City of Santa Barbara -- "Elections" (City Clerk's Office): states the Council approved a resolution calling the general municipal election to fill District 4, District 5, District 6, and Mayor; gives the July 13-August 7, 2026 nomination period and links both the Final List of Candidates and the city's NetFile Public Access Portal for campaign-finance disclosure](https://santabarbaraca.gov/government/city-hall/elections) 3. [City of Santa Barbara -- "Mayor & City Council": current-roster page naming Randy Rowse as Mayor and Wendy Santamaria (D1), Mike Jordan (D2), Oscar Gutierrez (D3), Kristen Sneddon (D4), Eric Friedman (D5), and Meagan Harmon (D6) as sitting Councilmembers -- confirms Sneddon and Friedman are each their district's incumbent, now running for Mayor instead of re-election, and that Harmon is not on this ballot; also states Councilmembers represent a district while the Mayor represents the entire city](https://santabarbaraca.gov/government/mayor-city-council) 4. [Wikipedia -- "Santa Barbara, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population (88,665) and the council-manager government type; does not cover the 2026 election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Barbara,_California) 5. [Wikipedia -- "Mayor of Santa Barbara, California": gives a 4-year term and documents an existing four-consecutive-term limit (citing a court ruling that forced former Mayor Hal Conklin to step down mid-term for exceeding it); used narrowly for term length and the existence of a term limit, not for any 2026 candidate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Santa_Barbara,_California) 6. [City of Santa Barbara's NetFile-hosted Public Access Portal for campaign-finance disclosure (public.netfile.com/pub2/?AID=csb, redirecting to netfile.com/public/csb/campaign): a client-rendered single-page app -- no filer data loaded via WebFetch this session, and no live-browser workaround was available (the shared Chrome extension was disconnected all session) -- a documented access gap, not a finding about any candidate's actual fundraising](https://netfile.com/public/csb/campaign) 7. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer searches attempted for multiple 2026 Santa Barbara Mayor/Council candidates returned only an empty response each time this session, consistent with the Incapsula bot-blocking this dataset has repeatedly hit on this site -- a documented access gap, not a finding of no filer](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Eric%20Friedman) 8. [Santa Barbara Independent -- "Ready to Race: Who's Running for Santa Barbara City Council and Mayor" (Ryan P. Cruz, Aug. 11, 2026): comprehensive profile roundup of the Mayoral and District 4/5/6 fields, including two mayoral names (Mark Redmond, Michael Stilwell) later absent from the city's Aug. 17 certified Final List and therefore not built as options here](https://www.independent.com/2026/08/11/ready-to-race-whos-running-for-santa-barbara-city-council-and-mayor/) ## The rest of the ballot Santa Barbara City Council, District 4 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, "Santa Barbara City Council, District 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/santa-barbara-council-4 (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.