Returns for Costa Mesa City Council races favor mayor’s reelection, new candidates

If preliminary results in the races for three seats on the Costa Mesa City Council — including the at-large position of mayor — remain unchanged, a mix of old and new faces could be sworn into office in early December.

Figures updated by the Orange County Registrar of voters Thursday at 5 p.m. showed Mayor John Stephens holding firm in his reelection campaign, after being appointed to the position in 2021 and winning his first two-year term the following year.

Stephens continued to maintain a strong lead Thursday, receiving 52.43% of the vote, with 16,646 ballots cast, compared to challenger James Peters, who followed with 47.57% approval and 15,100 votes.

Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens, left, with state Sen. Dave Min and Costa Mesa Councilman Manuel Chavez and supporters at an election night celebration on Tuesday.

(Courtesy of John Stephens)

The mayor spent election night first in plain clothes passing out pizza and water to voters queued at the city’s Senior Center, then at the local event space Celebrations, where he watched initial returns alongside state Sens. Dave Min (D-Irvine), who is in a tight battle for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives with Republican Scott Baugh, and Josh Newman (D-Fullerton) and Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie Norris (D-Irvine), both seeking reelection.

“I feel confident about my lead, but it’s important to count every single vote,” Stephens said Thursday. “I’m not quite ready to declare victory, but I’m cautiously optimistic.”

In addition to continuing the council’s work on preventing and reducing homelessness in his next two years in office, Stephens said he hoped to advocate for Costa Mesa’s playing a role in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and the FIFA 2026 World Cup.

Voters wait in line to cast their ballots in the 2024 general election outside Costa Mesa City Hall on Tuesday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

He suggested the city could be part of a wider network of hospitality and transportation options for Olympics-bound travelers and possibly use its Jack Hammett Sports Complex as a World Cup training facility.

“Showcasing Costa Mesa and central Orange County internationally, with everything we have to offer, is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Stephens said. “It’s now or never, and we’re very well placed to do that.”

In Costa Mesa Council District 1, the race to fill a vacancy left by outgoing Councilman Don Harper, who did not seek reelection to a second term, was still fairly close Thursday evening, with newcomer Mike Buley maintaining a 685-ballot advantage over current Planning Commission Chair Adam Ereth.

Voting figures showed Buley, a business litigation attorney, ahead with 54.93% of the vote and 3,818 ballots, compared to Ereth’s 45.07% voter approval with 3,133 votes cast in his favor.

Buley attributed his apparent success to a grassroots campaign among the many Mesa Verde neighbors he’s come to know in his 21-year residence in the city, who encouraged him to run for office.

Costa Mesa District 1 City Council candidate Mike Buley, second from right, poses with wife Adriana and children, from left, Natalie, Michael and Samantha.

(Courtesy of Mike Buley)

“We put in a lot of work and a lot of hours and time,” he said Thursday. “Regardless of their political persuasions, they all jumped on board and were willing to put their national politics aside and say, “Shoot, Mike, you’re a nice guy — you’ve got my vote.”

While Buley remains cautiously hopeful that vote totals will remain in his favor, he’s already beginning to engage in conversations on important local matters. On Thursday, he attended a city leader discussion on addressing homelessness, hosted by the Love Costa Mesa initiative, and said he hopes to educate himself on the complexities surrounding the issue.

Jeff Pettis hopes to unseat Mayor Pro Tem Jeffrey Harlan in Costa Mesa’s Council District 6.

“It’s something I’m going to learn about at a more than stump-speech level and really get granular on,” he said of his nascent political career. “I’m in the ‘education of Mike Buley’ phase.”

While District 2 City Councilman Loren Gameros ran unopposed in Council District 2, receiving 100% of the vote with 3,862 ballots cast, the race for a contested seat in the city’s 6th Council District remained as hot as ever Thursday.

That’s where Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Harlan, running for a second term, placed a close second behind conservative challenger Jeff Pettis, with fewer than 250 ballots separating the two contenders.

As of Thursday, Pettis had received 51.92% approval with 3,344 votes cast for him, compared to Harlan’s 3,097 ballots (48.08%). Unlike Buley and Stephens, Pettis did not return calls requesting a comment on his lead.

For more results, including daily 5 p.m. updates, visit ocvote.gov/results/current-election-results.