Alameda Post12%
Alameda’s November Ballot Lineup Taking Shape 2%
By Adam Gillitt10%
8/7/2026, 7:45:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 6 faulty reasoning types, including Halo Effect, Appeal to Authority, and Negativity Bias, with Attempt to Sell a Product or Service as the most egregious example at 10.8% saturation with 169 hits. Analysis detected 372 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,571 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 6.8% and a BS Rank of 2% (29,982 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 98.00% of the article peer group.
The nomination period for candidates wishing to run for office in Alameda opened on July 13, and there has been a steady flow of candidates pulling and filing papers declaring their intention to run.
The nomination period was scheduled to close today, Friday, August 7, but on Thursday afternoon, the City of Alameda announced the nomination period would be extended until Wednesday, August 12, because incumbent City Councilmember Tracy Jensen has not filed to retain her seat.
Local races to be contested in November’s general election include Mayor, two City Councilmembers, two four-year terms on the AUSD Board of Education, one two-year term on that Board, and three seats on the City of Alameda Health Care District Board.
There are also three City ballot measures to be decided.
The Alameda Post will reach out to local candidates who qualify for the ballot for more information and will publish their responses in the coming months.
The Post will also hold a forum for Mayoral and City Council candidates on Saturday, September 26, at Mastick Senior Center, 1155 Santa Clara Avenue, starting at 2 p.m.
Although the information below is accurate as of the time of publication, the candidate roster will not be final until the end of the nomination period on Wednesday, August 12.
For the most up-to-date candidate, campaign, and election news, please visit and bookmark our Alameda Election News page , which is regularly updated.
Candidates for Mayor
Alameda’s City Charter specifies in Section 2-14: “No person shall be eligible for the office held by that person for two complete consecutive terms immediately prior to the term for which the person seeks election or appointment.”
This means that after being elected twice, starting in 2018, Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft is not eligible to run for another consecutive term.
Three current or former City Councilmembers have qualified for the ballot to replace her, all of whom were born in Alameda.
Tony Daysog has been elected multiple times to the Council, serving from 1996 to 2006, 2012 to 2016, and 2018 until now.
He also made a run for the 12th Congressional District seat in 2024 but did not advance past the March primary.
He is a professional urban planner with a master’s degree from UC Berkeley.
He has not yet released a campaign website for this election.
Tracy Jensen also is a current Councilmember, elected in 2022.
Before that she was elected to the Board of Education for two terms, and the Health Care Board for two terms after first being appointed to the seat.
She earned a bachelor’s degree from CSU East Bay, and an MPH (Master of Public Health) and MBA from Emory University.
She worked as a Senior Services Administrator for the Oakland Human Services Department for over 20 years.
Her campaign website is tracyforalameda.com .
Malia Vella was elected to the Council in 2016 and served two terms through 2024.
She was the first Councilmember to become a mother while in office, giving birth to two children.
She earned a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College, a Juris Doctor (law) degree from Santa Clara University, and is a licensed attorney in the state of California.
She previously worked as Deputy Superintendent at the California Department of Education.
Learn more at maliavella.com .
City Council candidates
Two Council seats are open this election.
Tony Daysog is not eligible for another consecutive term and Tracy Jensen chose not to run for a second term; both are candidates for Mayor as listed above.
Five people have pulled papers to replace the two Councilmembers so far.
At the of the time this article was published, the final two candidates listed have not filed their papers or qualified for the ballot, but have until August 12 to do so.
Thushan Amarasiriwardena finished third in the 2024 Council race.
He is a multimedia journalist and digital and AI/LLM product manager who has worked for the Boston Globe , Google, and the US Digital Service under the Biden administration.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from North Carolina State University.
His campaign website is thushanforalameda.com .
( Editor’s note : He is a former board member of the Alameda Post who resigned earlier this year .)
Marcie Soslau Johnson was formerly employed by the City as a Social Services manager working with Alameda Collaborative for Children, Youth and their Families.
Most recently, she worked as executive director for the Friends of the Alameda Free Library.
She earned a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from Temple University.
Her campaign website is marcie-johnson.com .
Tyler Savage works in tech as a partner manager, currently for a firm named groundcover and previously for GitLab.
Before that he worked in business and sales operations for VMWare.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis, and a master’s degree (MS) in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University.
He is also a local coach for youth baseball and basketball teams.
Find out more at savageforalameda.com .
Stephen Slauson has thrown his hat into previous races, including a run for City Council, State Assembly District 18, and the U.S.
House of Representatives District 12.
Born and raised in Alameda, he has a bachelor’s degree (BS) in Electrical Engineering from the University of California and has completed contracts for Alameda Unified School District (AUSD), Alameda Municipal Power, and the City of Alameda.
He has not yet shared an address for his campaign website.
Amos White has also filed to run in previous Council elections.
He is an environmental nonprofit executive who founded 100K Trees for Humanity, and serves on the Alameda County Agricultural Advisory Committee and the California Urban Forest Advisory Committee.
He is also a civil rights activist, working with ACLU People Power.
He maintains a personal website at about.me/amoswhite .
AUSD Board of Education
The race for AUSD School Board seats has been broken into two contests: one for a two-year term to finish out the term for Meleah Hall, who resigned less than a year after being elected in 2024, and another for two regular four-year terms.
Five candidates have qualified to run for the two four-year terms: incumbent Gary Lym ; Carrie Hahnel , who was appointed to fill Hall’s seat and is now running for a full term; former Board of Education member Mike McMahon ( mikemcmahon.info/campaign.htm ); 2024 candidate Joyce Boyd ( joyce4ausd.com ); and newcomer Sarah Putnam .
The term of current Board president Ryan LaLonde ( ryanlalonde4ausd.com ) expires this year and he is running unopposed for the two-year term.
McMahon originally signaled he would compete for the seat but withdrew from that race and filed papers for the four-year terms.
Jennifer Williams resigned from the board effective August 12, but her seat will not be contested in the November election.
Instead, the remaining board members will decide at a meeting later this month if the position, which runs through November 2028, will be filled by appointment or special election.
Alameda Health Care District Board
Although three positions for the City of Alameda Health Care District Board are being contested on the November ballot, there is little intrigue—all three incumbents have filed to retain their seats.
Gayle Godfrey Codiga , Dr.
Robert Deutsch , and David Saÿen have qualified for the ballot with no challengers.
City ballot measures
City Council voted to place three measures on the November ballot, including a $300 million infrastructure bond , an omnibus amendment to clean up the Charter, and another Charter Amendment pertaining to leases and sales of City property.
Although they will be titled differently on the ballot, the measures are as follows:
Ordinance 3408 : Uncodified ordinance ordering the submission of a measure incurring bonded indebtedness to the qualified voters of the city of Alameda at the General Municipal Election to be held on November 3, 2026, for the purpose of financing the cost of the acquisition and construction of certain municipal improvement projects.
Download PDF to read the full measure.
Resolution 16424 : Calling for the holding of a Consolidated Municipal Election in the City of Alameda on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, for the submission of a Proposed Charter Amendment to amend and repeal outdated provisions, establishing the policies and procedures for such an election, requesting that the County of Alameda conduct such an election, and authorizing City Councilmembers to file written arguments for or against the measure.
Download PDF to read the full measure.
Resolution 16425 : Calling for the holding of a Consolidated Municipal Election in the City of Alameda on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, for the submission of a proposed Charter Amendment to amend Section 3-10 pertaining to leases and sales of City Real Property, establishing the policies and procedures for such an election, requesting that the County of Alameda conduct such an election, and authorizing City Councilmembers to file written arguments for or against the measure.
Download PDF to read the full measure.
Other races and measures on the ballot
There are many other County, State, and Federal contests and measures on the November Ballot.
To see which ones will come before Alameda voters, please visit our Alameda Election News page for up-to-date information.
Adam Gillitt is the Editor and Publisher of the Alameda Post .
Reach him at adam@alamedapost.com .
His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Adam-Gillitt .
The post Alameda’s November Ballot Lineup Taking Shape appeared first on Alameda Post .
Speakers
16speakers47%attributed speech830writer words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coverageRyan LaLonde
23 attributed words3.1% of attributed speech15% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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