By a massive margin, Soledad voters reject a five-district map and elect a new councilmember.

About a dozen people gathered on Tuesday night, March 5, in support of a different direction for Soledad. They chanted, “No on P / Ansaldo Si,” referring to their dual mission: to vote no on Measure P, thereby passing a referendum on a five-district map for future elections that City Council approved in October, and to vote for Fernando Ansaldo in a race for a vacant seat on City Council. 

The group was small, but their margins of victory were massive. Early election results showed Ansaldo—a former member of the Soledad Community District Advisory Committee—winning with 65 percent of the vote over competitor Phillip Nickerson, and Measure P defeated with 85 percent of the vote.

“It's a massive win for the people,” Mayor Anna Velazquez said.

After City Council voted 3-2 to approve the five-district map—with a rotating mayor, rather than a four-district council map with a mayor elected at large—angry residents quickly organized for a referendum. They created the Soledad Committee for Voting Rights and quickly collected about 1,400 signatures. (As of 10pm Tuesday, the No on P votes total 558, compared to 102 yes votes.) 

Council approved a map drawn by former mayor Fred Ledesma, who was ousted by Velazquez in 2020. She and her political ally on council, Fernando Cabrera, were the two no votes; Velazquez could not seek re-election in 2024, because the approved map put her in Cabrera’s district and his term goes until 2026. 

The newly elected Ansaldo supports the same four-district map as Velazquez and Cabrera, reflecting new political dynamics for council. He doesn’t have a political background, but says the same people at the council and Velazquez’s 2020 campaign motivated him to be more involved in his community. “We need some better representation, transparent representation, folks that are interested in serving their community,” he says. 

Ansaldo, 28, is the youngest person ever elected in Soledad. He says it feels great, and hopes he won't be the last. “I will definitely do my best to represent the millennial generation and also Gen Z. I'm in the middle of both generations,” Ansaldo says. 

Supporters of the four-district map noted that over 20 years ago, residents decided on at-large mayoral elections. (At that time, all city council seats were still elected at large.) Monica Andrade, a spokesperson for the committee behind Measure P (and also Cabrera’s wife) says the results were satisfying. “We wanted to make sure that it was clear to the council that this is what we've been wanting the whole time,” she says.