Audra Sisson joins Eureka Ward 1 race for open council seat

Eureka’s Ward 1 race now has three candidates, turning an open council seat into one of the city’s most consequential contests this year. The winner will help decide how Eureka handles housing, public safety, downtown business conditions and the budget choices that follow Leslie Castellano’s departure.

Audra Sisson entered the race on April 20 after filing paperwork for the Ward 1 seat and then announcing her candidacy. Her rollout centered on local roots and a career built around operations and infrastructure systems. Sisson described herself as a Eureka native, a community advocate and a business leader with more than two decades of experience in fields including transportation, logistics, software systems, security infrastructure and water treatment.

Her background also reaches across Humboldt County. Sisson’s mother is from McKinleyville, while her father has ties to Fortuna and Carlotta, giving her campaign a broader county story as well as a Ward 1 one. After leaving Humboldt as a young mother, she worked several jobs in San Diego while earning a degree in business management and finance from San Diego State University.

Sisson’s campaign materials also highlighted community service, including youth mentorship, community cleanups, Make-A-Wish fundraising and work to help fund and build elementary schools in rural Laos. That profile puts her in a different lane from Victor Garcia, who announced his Ward 1 bid on April 8 and has framed his campaign around tenant protections, healthcare access and working-class concerns. Jason McCutcheon has also signed up for the seat, adding a third name to a race that already had started to draw attention.

The stakes are clear because Ward 1 is not just another neighborhood contest. Castellano’s current term ends in November 2026, after first being elected in November 2018 and re-elected in November 2022. Eureka’s five-member City Council is elected by ward boundaries, and the body approves the annual budget and oversees the city’s financial affairs, which means the Ward 1 vote will help determine priorities that residents feel in daily life.

The city says its next regular municipal election is Nov. 3, 2026, with Ward 1, Ward 3, Ward 5 and the mayor’s seat on the ballot. The nomination period runs from July 13 through Aug. 7, leaving time for the field to shift before ballots are set. Ward 1’s boundaries are laid out on the city’s ward maps, underscoring why this race is likely to turn on neighborhood-level concerns rather than broad campaign slogans.

With Castellano termed out, Ward 1 will be represented by someone new. The question for Eureka voters is which of the three candidates will bring the clearest answer to the city’s most persistent pressures: housing costs, public safety and the condition of downtown.