Quick Take
The candidate field for the June primary is nearly set, now that all filing deadlines for offices up for election have passed (except for the Santa Cruz mayor’s race, which closes on Wednesday). Here’s how it shakes out.
The Santa Cruz County primary ballot is just about final, as the filing deadlines have passed for all offices up for election in June. The deadline to file to run for Santa Cruz mayor is Wednesday.
The candidate pool is filled with familiar names, some of whom have run for office in previous elections and others who are running for positions they held in the past.
In the city of Santa Cruz, two council seats are up for grabs. District 4 will see a rematch of the 2022 race between incumbent Scott Newsome and community organizer Hector Marin, minus Greg Hyver, whose name was in the city’s candidate watch webpage but who did not submit his paperwork by the deadline, according to City Clerk Bonnie Bush. District 4 covers downtown Santa Cruz and part of the Westside bounded by High Street to the north and Bay Street to the west.
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In District 6, which covers the lower Westside, the westernmost part of the upper Westside and part of the UC Santa Cruz campus, incumbent Renee Golder is seeking another term, challenged by Gabriella Noack, who filed just before the Friday deadline.
Noack didn’t return Lookout’s request for comment, but according to her LinkedIn page, she is a graduating UC Santa Cruz senior double-majoring in sociology and philosophy. She is also an Everett Program fellow and a technology educator with Barrios Unidos.
One more candidate, real estate agent Susan Warner Andre, filed to run for mayor ahead of the March 11 deadline. She joins longtime politico and former city councilmember, county supervisor and Santa Cruz mayor Ryan Coonerty, environmental activist Gillian Greensite, former county supervisor candidate and Get The Flock Out co-leader Ami Chen Mills, former city council and mayoral candidate Joy Schendledecker and former mayor and councilmember Chris Krohn.
The mayor’s race has a longer filing period than the other offices, because there’s no incumbent running. Mayor Fred Keeley is not seeking reelection. Andre did not return Lookout’s request for comment.
Of the two county supervisor races, only one is contested. In District 3, which covers most of the city of Santa Cruz and a large swath of unincorporated county up the coast to the north, incumbent Justin Cummings will stroll into his second term unopposed. Cummings won the seat in 2022, beating out current Santa Cruz City Councilmember Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson.
District 4, which covers most of the city of Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley, has Elias Gonzales and Tony Nuñez vying to replace incumbent Felipe Hernandez.
Gonzales, 48, is a Watsonville native and longtime community advocate. He recently worked for the MILPA Collective, a nonprofit that empowers younger generations with indigenous teachings, policy and community advocacy. He also worked as a youth program manager for the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County in Watsonville, and served on the county juvenile justice delinquency prevention commission.
Nuñez, 33, was born in Mexico and raised in Watsonville. He was a reporter for The Pajaronian for over a decade, and more recently, served as the marketing and communications manager for nonprofit Community Bridges. He is also the board chair of the Pajaro Valley Health Care District, which operates Watsonville Community Hospital.
The primary election is on June 2. The candidate filing period for the mayor’s race ends on Wednesday. If one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in a race with three or more candidates, they will win the race outright. If all candidates fail to reach that threshold, the general election on Nov. 3 will serve as a run-off between the top two vote-getters.
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