Escondido Mayor Dane White made changing Escondido’s approach to homelessness his top priority in his first term as mayor. Now seeking reelection, he faces a challenger with daily experience serving that same population.
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There are three positions on the ballot in November, with one of two council races wide open due to the departure of District 1 incumbent Consuelo Martinez.
White’s “public safety first” policy stands in contrast to the prevalent “housing first” approach, which holds that getting a roof over a person’s head can lead to progress on many other fronts, including addiction. White, first elected in 2022 at age 33 as the city’s youngest-ever mayor, has pursued a more aggressive stance, empowering law enforcement officers to “take action after help is refused.”
The mayor argues that this approach has helped produce a “32% reduction in unsheltered individuals,” from 2025 to 2026 according to the city’s most recent point-in-time count.
Challenger Elias Velazquez, an information director and volunteer coordinator at Brother Benno’s Foundation in Oceanside, pushes back in the campaign statement he filed with his nomination papers to run for mayor. He pledges to restore “access to state and federal homelessness funding,” a nod to restoring housing-first.
White has a strong list of endorsements, including the city firefighters association, state senator Brian Jones, county Supervisors Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson and the mayors of Vista, Poway and Santee.
Velazquez has the endorsement of the San Diego County Democratic Party and the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council.
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Campaign finance statements for the first half of 2026 show that White has a hefty lead with an ending balance of $86,890 on June 30 compared to $13,868 for Velazquez.
Escondido’s District 1 city council seat, representing generally the northern half of the downtown area east of Center City Parkway, North of Escondido Creek, south of El Norte Parkway and west of Citrus Avenue, is in play this election season.
Martinez notes on her website that she does not intend to seek what would have been her third term on the council but does not explicitly state the reasons why the small business owner is bowing out. Two candidates seek to fill the seat: Tanner Horsley, a communications manager with the U.S. Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station in San Diego who previously served in the U.S. Marine Corps, and Vanessa Valenzuela, finance director for a local nonprofit organization.
In his candidate statement, Horsley lists endorsements from White and other council members. Valenzuela does not list endorsements in her statement or on her website. Campaign finance statements indicate that Horsley had an available balance of nearly $16,000 at the end of June compared to $4,604 for Valenzuela.
Incumbent Joe Garcia represents Escondido’s second council district, which is the city’s northern and easternmost political subdivision, including more rural areas north of Lake Dixon Park. A pastor, Garcia is seeking his third term on the council, though his first term was cut short by redistricting. He faces Anthony DiMartino, director of government affairs at Californians for Safety and Justice, a nonprofit that advocates against the overuse of incarceration.
DiMartino lists endorsements from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, state Rep. Darshana Patel and the San Diego County Democratic Party. Garcia does not list endorsements in his candidate statement or on his website. Campaign finance records showed that Garcia had $10,556 at the end of the filing period, with DiMartino logging $23,535.
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