Seven Council Candidates Officially Enter Race for Two Seats

It's official. Seven candidates, including two incumbents, will vie for two San Clemente City Council seats this November.

They include . Also running is incumbent and frequent top vote-getter Jim Dahl.

The other challengers are Jim Cerrone, Don Clegg, Christopher Hamm and Michael Mortenson.

Incumbent City Clerk Joanne Baade and incumbent City Treasurer T. Pall Gudgeirsson are running unopposed, as they did last election.

Cerrone isn't quite official yet: the Orange County Registrar of Voters has to qualify him to run, which might take a few business days, Baade said, because he filed his papers right before the deadline Friday.

Interestingly, this week pulled papers to run, but notified Baade by email Friday afternoon that he decided not to run after all.

Thursday, after the deadlines for all the California cities, the California Secretary of State will draw letters from a hopper to create a randomized alphabet, Baade said. This alphabet will determine the order of names on the ballot; candidates will be placed in alphebetical order by last name in accordance with the secretary's randomized alphabet.