Three days after Election Day, the District 4 councilmember leads challenger Nevin Stanton-Trehan 1,123 votes to 638, or 63.77 percent to 36.23 percent, according to the latest results update from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk as of Friday afternoon, Nov. 6.
That is a 485-vote lead with 1,761 District 4 votes counted so far, up from a 438-vote lead in Wednesday afternoon’s count. The South Pasadenan has called the race for Cacciotti.
Ballots are still being counted across Los Angeles County, and results are not official until the county certifies them. But to close the gap, Stanton-Trehan would have to win the ballots still out in District 4 by a far wider margin than the 36 percent he has won so far.
The Only Contested Council Race on the Ballot
District 4 was the only South Pasadena City Council seat with a race this year. District 5 Councilmember Janet Braun ran unopposed, as was administratively accepted to her next four years by City Council this summer.
The last time District 4 was contested, in 2018, Cacciotti beat Eric Brady 929 to 357.
A Quarter Century on the Council
Cacciotti was first elected to the South Pasadena City Council in 2001. He has served as mayor several times and is the longest-serving member of the current council.
His work reaches well past city limits. In February 2026 he was sworn in as chair of the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Governing Board, the agency that regulates air pollution across Orange County and the urban parts of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Voters in his district have now handed him another four-year term.
Credit Where It Is Due: Nevin Stanton-Trehan Stood Up and Ran For Office
Running against a 25-year incumbent in a town this size takes nerve. Stanton-Trehan Went For It.
He ran under the slogan “a new generation” and gave voters the only contested council race on this year’s ballot. Without him, District 4 voters would have had no choice to make.
He took positions plenty of residents may have agreed with, and he took a little heat for other positions, publicly. That is part of the job, and he stayed-in it to the end.
He also brought real issues to the race. One was street safety near Garfield Park, where he pushed for, at minimum, marked crosswalks at Stratford and Hope.
Stanton-Trehan is not going anywhere. He chairs the city’s Finance Commission, with a term running through 2027, and is an executive vice president at the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles. He sits on the South Pasadena Educational Foundation (SPEF) board, coaches South Pasadena Little League and Jr. Clippers basketball, and is a Marengo Elementary parent.
Contested races make for better councils. South Pasadena is better off when residents step up to run, and Stanton-Trehan did.
Here’s What’s Coming Up
Los Angeles County has up to 30 days to certify the election.
The City Council formally accepts the certified results, and the winners take the oath of office. In 2022, that happened at a special council meeting in December, along with the council’s annual vote on mayor and mayor pro tem.
Cacciotti returns to a council with a big job ahead: The $80 million Measure SOS streets bond, which voters also approved this week. As of Friday’s update, Measure SOS leads 8,120 to 2,075, or 79.65 percent, well over the two-thirds it needs.
Congratulations, Councilmember
From all of us at The South Pasadenan: Congratulations to Michael Cacciotti, and thank you to everyone in District 4 who voted.
