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City of Seaside · Statewide General Election

Mayor of Seaside

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On the ballot

This person is Seaside's directly elected Mayor -- one seat on a five-member City Council (the Mayor plus four at-large councilmembers) that sets the city's budget, land use, and policy for this Monterey County city of about 32,366 residents (2020 Census), while an appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. Elected citywide (at large) on a nonpartisan ballot to a 4-year term.

Two candidates are running for Mayor of Seaside: incumbent Ian N. Oglesby and challenger Alex Miller, a sitting City Councilmember who chose to run for Mayor instead of seeking re-election to his council seat. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there is no runoff.

Seaside's Mayor is one seat on a five-member City Council -- the Mayor plus four at-large councilmembers -- that sets the budget, land use policy, and city ordinances for this Monterey County city of about 32,366 residents (2020 Census), while an appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. The Mayor is elected citywide on a nonpartisan ballot to a 4-year term.

Miller announced his run more than a year before the election, telling Monterey County Weekly in November 2025 that he had "very high hopes for the city" but that "specific groups have a say in the city" and that Seaside "should be more fair," saying he had grown frustrated losing votes on the council and wanted more dialogue with the Mayor. Oglesby, in the same reporting, framed his own priority as affordability: "Making sure our families can afford to stay here, that's really my priority."

Ian N. Oglesby

Ian N. Oglesby is Seaside's incumbent Mayor, first elected in 2018 after previously serving on the City Council -- he lost his own council re-election bid in 2016 before winning the Mayor's race two years later on a "Jobs, Housing & Water" platform, per Monterey County Weekly's 2018 election coverage. He is now seeking a further term. No campaign website was found for his 2026 campaign; per Monterey County Weekly's November 2025 reporting, his stated priority is keeping Seaside affordable for families, and the same reporting notes he has had past public clashes with Miller over social media comments about downtown revitalization.

Strengths

A full term as sitting Mayor plus prior Council service dating to 2018, and a clearly stated affordability priority.

Trade-offs

No campaign website or detailed 2026 platform beyond the affordability line reported by Monterey County Weekly was found this pass; the same reporting describes past public friction with Miller.

Keep in mind

Miller frames this race around fairness and access to city decision-making, while Oglesby frames it around affordability -- a genuine contrast in emphasis, not simply an incumbent running unopposed.

Alex Miller

Alex Miller is a sitting Seaside City Councilmember, first elected in 2022, who chose to run for Mayor rather than seek re-election to his council seat. Per his own campaign site and Monterey County Weekly's reporting, his platform centers on citizen involvement in city decisions, economic development (a cultural district, a downtown association, and promoting Seaside as a destination city), and quality-of-life priorities including public safety, youth programs, housing, and homelessness prevention. He points to his advocacy for a full ban on fireworks -- 2026's Measure CC, which voters did not approve -- and his lone 2024 vote against renewing legal contracts tied to ongoing personnel investigations as examples of independent decision-making on the council.

Strengths

A full council term plus two specific, documented examples of independent votes (the fireworks-ban push, the lone dissent on personnel-investigation contracts).

Trade-offs

As a challenger, his platform is stated intent rather than a mayoral record; Measure CC, the specific ballot measure he championed, did not pass -- a real setback for that priority.

Keep in mind

His campaign explicitly frames the race around fairness and access rather than a single policy failure by Oglesby; weigh that framing against Oglesby's own affordability-centered pitch.

Source review: Strong (86/100) · 9 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: Alex Miller's own campaign website (miller4mayor.com): stated platform of citizen involvement in city decisions, small-business and cultural-district economic development, and public safety, housing, and homelessness-prevention priorities. may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • ci.seaside.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Seaside -- official "Verified Candidates" graphic, published on the City Clerk's Election Information page under "Verified candidates at the end of the filing period (August 7, 2026)": names two Mayoral candidates (Alex Miller; incumbent Ian N. Oglesby) and five City Council candidates for the two open seats (Annalisa Mitchell, Karla Lobo, Ken Fittro, Lacey Raak, and incumbent Rita Burks) -- the most current official statement of the field found this pass.
  • ci.seaside.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Seaside -- official Election Information page (City Clerk): states the council-manager election cycle ("Two (2) council member seats and one (1) mayor seat are to be voted on every two (2) years. Council members serve a four (4) year term and the Mayor serves a four (4) year term") and lists this cycle's offices directly -- "MAYOR (1 SEAT) ... Incumbent: Ian N. Oglesby, 4-year term, November 2026-2030" and "COUNCIL (2 SEATS) ... Incumbent: Rita Burks, Incumbent: Alex Miller, 4-year term, November 2026-2030" -- the latter listing reflects the offices' sitting incumbents as of the notice's publication, not the final candidate field; see the Verified Candidates graphic for the settled roster, which shows Miller ultimately filed for Mayor rather than Council re-election. Also confirms the nomination period (July 13-August 7, 2026) and that campaign finance disclosures are filed with the City Clerk's Office.
  • ci.seaside.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Seaside -- official "Mayor & City Council" page: "The City of Seaside is a General Law City with a Council / Manager form of government. The five-member City Council is a legislative and policy-making body that is elected on a nonpartisan basis"; "The City of Seaside has one Mayor and four Council Members, all elected at-large." Names the sitting roster "as of November 2022" (Mayor Ian Oglesby, Mayor Pro Tem Dave Pacheco, and Councilmembers Alexis Garcia-Arrazola, Rita Burks, and Alex Miller) and separately states "The Mayor serves 2-year terms" -- inconsistent with the newer, election-specific Election Information page's "4-year term" language for this cycle's Mayor seat; this shard follows the newer page for term length, per this dataset's practice of preferring the most current official statement.
  • countyofmonterey.gov (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Elections -- official "Candidate List" page for the November 3, 2026 General Election, reached via a Wayback Machine snapshot (captured 2026-08-23) after the live page 403'd on every direct fetch attempted this pass: within the City section, "CITY OF SEASIDE Mayor, Vote for One" lists Alex Miller ("Father/Councilman/Businessman") and Ian N. Oglesby ("Incumbent"); "CITY OF SEASIDE Member, City Council, Vote for no more than 2" lists Annalisa "Lisa" Mitchell ("Regional Director"), Dennis Volk ("Businessman"), Karla Lobo ("Mother"), Kenneth Fittro ("Retired Education Specialist"), Lacey Raak ("Nonprofit Executive Director"), and Rita Burks ("Educator/Councilmember"). Volk does not appear on the city's own current Verified Candidates roster; see this shard's commentary for how that discrepancy is resolved. Used for each candidate's own filed ballot designation.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Seaside, California": 2020 Census population (32,366); council-manager government structure; used narrowly for population and background, not for anything about the 2026 election.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer searches for all seven named candidates (Miller, Oglesby, Mitchell, Volk, Lobo, Fittro, Raak, Burks): every query returned only an Incapsula bot-detection challenge page, the same documented access block on file elsewhere in this dataset; Cal-Access's own scope (state-level filings) excludes local candidates in any case.
  • montereycountynow.com (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Weekly (montereycountynow.com) -- "Seaside City Councilmember Alex Miller announces a bid to challenge Mayor Ian Oglesby in 2026" (Sara Rubin, Nov. 4, 2025): reports Miller's announcement that he would forgo Council re-election to run for Mayor instead, his criticism that "specific groups have a say in the city" and that the city "should be more fair," his advocacy for a full fireworks ban (Measure CC, which failed at the polls) and his lone 2024 vote against renewing legal contracts for ongoing personnel investigations, and Oglesby's own stated priority of affordability ("Making sure our families can afford to stay here").
  • miller4mayor.com (opens in a new tab)Alex Miller's own campaign website (miller4mayor.com): stated platform of citizen involvement in city decisions, small-business and cultural-district economic development, and public safety, housing, and homelessness-prevention priorities.
  • montereycountynow.com (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Weekly (montereycountynow.com) -- "Former Seaside councilman Ian Oglesby is back as mayor, Jason Campbell and Jon Wizard clinch victories for council" (Marielle Argueza, Nov. 6, 2018): reports Oglesby, a former Seaside councilmember who lost his 2016 council re-election bid, won the 2018 Mayor's race in a three-candidate field on a "Jobs, Housing & Water" platform; used narrowly for his prior council/mayoral history, not for anything about the 2026 election. The same article independently confirms Dennis Volk ran for City Council in 2018 (finishing fourth of five candidates), corroborating he is a real, recurring local candidate rather than a data artifact in the county's 2026 candidate list.

Last updated September 1, 2026.