# Santa Barbara City Council, District 6 Compare records and positions simply between Jason Carlton, Anabella Lehne, and 2 more for Santa Barbara City Council, District 6 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-6 - 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 - **Jason Carlton** — Electrical Contractor - **Anabella Lehne** — Notary Public - **Alexander Stoeber** — Real Estate Advisor - **Gabe Escobedo** — Former School Board President 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 6, which covers Downtown. They are Jason Carlton, Gabe Escobedo, Anabella Lehne, and Alexander Stoeber. Vote for one. There is no primary and no runoff. District 6'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, Meagan Harmon, is not running for re-election; local reporting confirms she is instead endorsing one of this race's candidates, Gabe Escobedo, for her own seat, though this pass found no stated reason for her own decision not to run. Local reporting names Escobedo the leading Democratic candidate and Stoeber, running as an independent, Escobedo's top challenger; Lehne and Carlton round out the field. The clearest policy contrast is over housing: Escobedo emphasizes affordable-housing programs and preserving public space, while Stoeber and Lehne both frame their platforms around increasing housing supply through zoning and looser development rules rather than added regulation. ## Gabe Escobedo Gabe Escobedo is a former school district board president and a former Planning Commission chair. Local coverage describes them as "a fixture in local politics." They campaign on affordable housing, support for small businesses, and preserving public spaces. They are endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party. Outgoing District 6 Councilmember Meagan Harmon also endorses them. **Strengths:** The most extensive local-government record in the field. They are an elected school-board president and appointed Planning Commission chair. They also have the sitting Councilmember's endorsement. **Trade-offs:** The incumbent's endorsement is a strong signal of institutional continuity. It is not itself independent evidence of their specific policy positions beyond what they state themselves. **Keep in mind:** Local reporting names them the leading Democratic candidate. The field also includes an independent, Stoeber, framed as Escobedo's top challenger. Reporting describes this as a competitive two-candidate dynamic within a four-candidate field. ## Alexander Stoeber Alexander Stoeber is a real estate advisor running as an independent. Local coverage describes them as Escobedo's top challenger. They want to increase housing supply through changes to zoning and development standards. They are skeptical that rent stabilization is an effective tool for affordability. **Strengths:** A real-estate background directly relevant to the zoning and development-standards changes they propose. Local reporting names them the clearest alternative to Escobedo. **Trade-offs:** No prior appointed or elected city role is documented for them beyond their professional background. **Keep in mind:** Their real-estate advisory work is the industry their proposed zoning and development changes would most directly affect. That is worth noting, not disqualifying, alongside their stated positions. ## Anabella Lehne Anabella Lehne is a notary public and a former escrow assistant for Fidelity National Title. They campaign on making housing construction easier rather than adding new regulations. **Strengths:** A background in real-estate-adjacent administrative work such as escrow and notary services. That gives them some familiarity with the housing-development process they campaign on. **Trade-offs:** No prior appointed or elected city role is documented for them. Their platform statement is brief next to Escobedo's or Stoeber's. **Keep in mind:** Their position is to ease construction and avoid new regulation. That aligns broadly with Stoeber's rather than Escobedo's on this seat's central housing debate. ## Jason Carlton Jason Carlton is a union member and president of Carlton Electrical Construction. They campaign on ensuring the needs of "residents, businesses, and workers are supported by our city." **Strengths:** A business-owner and union-member background. It spans both the labor and small-business groups their platform names directly. **Trade-offs:** No prior appointed or elected city role is documented for them. No source details specific policy positions beyond their general platform statement. **Keep in mind:** Of the four District 6 candidates, they have the least independent coverage. Only their inclusion in the Independent's roundup was found. That is a real, if modest, sourcing gap next to Escobedo and Stoeber. ## 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 6 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 6 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/santa-barbara-council-6 (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.