‘The best mayor money can buy.’ Inside SLO County town’s unusual election tradition
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Cambria is holding a whimsical, apolitical honorary 2026 mayoral race.
- Buck-a-vote fundraising directs 25% to candidates’ nonprofit groups, 75% to the chamber.
- The mock-mayor winner will be announced Sept. 5 during special Pinedorado event.
When all else fails in this crazy, out-of-control world, we could always use the word “politics” as a swear word.
Somehow, that seems ultra-appropriate after the nasty, chaotic, often vindictive, seemingly endless election season we’ve all just survived.
And more’s the pity, there’s undoubtedly lots more like it in the future.
So, go right ahead. This is your permission to swear about it.
Hit your thumb? “Oh, politics!”
Read or hear about something that makes you fume and steam? “Not that politicking politics again! You’ve got to be politicking kidding me!”
Lose your car in the parking lot? “Where in the politicking mumble-mumble is my Honda?” … although if there are people around, it’s probably best not to say it within their earshot, or they might want to haul you off for treatment.
Other, more forceful curses can be inserted for emphasis, if you wish. (If you know, you know. Think the classical ones that used to make your mom wash your mouth out with soap.)
But there may be an antidote to all that meanness and spite: the whimsical, decidedly apolitical 2026 mayors’ race in Cambria, the first to be held here in nearly two decades.
Cambria’s mayoral competition isn’t the usual race
When big-town mayors run for office, they toss their hats in the ring. In Cambria, mayoral candidates pass the hat, right there out in the open.
In other places, politicians try to avoid the taint of big-money influences. Here, new mayors can proudly proclaim, “I’m the best mayor that money can buy.”
Needed explainer: No, Cambria doesn’t really have a mayor in the traditional sense. The small coastal village in San Luis Obispo County’s northwest corner is not a city, and therefore has no right or authority to hold that kind of election.
That hasn’t stopped townspeople in the past from mock-electing a community leader in their own quirky, non-election campaigning way.
How Cambrians elect an honorary mayor
Want to vote for one of the four candidates? All of them? Want to vote more than once? Don’t want to prove you have a U.S.-given right to cast a ballot?
Want true honesty in campaigning, and no limits to how much you can donate to one candidate, all done anonymously?
How about paying a buck a vote, right out there in front of everybody?
As many votes as you want and your bank balance can handle.
You see, 25% of the electioneering money raised during the tongue-in-cheek campaign will go directly to the four nonprofit organizations represented by each of the very diverse, very Cambria-esque candidates: From the Cambria Grammar School PTA and Rotary Club of Cambria to American Legion Post No. 432 and Cambria Tennis Club.
This year’s candidates, respectively, are Dianne “Lady Ti Di” Brooke, Del Clegg, Jim Bahringer and Barrett Stuart.
The other 75% of the funds will help support the town’s Chamber of Commerce, which has only membership funds and profits from special events to keep it in brochures, chamber and website management, building maintenance and more.
The chamber, which launched in 1945, also needs to raise some big bucks soon for a serious cause. It must renovate and repair the bones of the downtown building the nonprofit business network bought on Valentine’s Day 1950, which it still owns and out of which it’s been helping visitors for decades.
Campaign fundraising events have already begun and will ramp up throughout the summer.
The mock-mayoral winner will be announced at a special ‘50s dance bash on Sept. 5, during the Lions Club’s Pinedorado celebration over Labor Day weekend. Tickets available soon.
Such a campy election cycle can be a lot of fun, especially in a town that rises to any fundraising occasion with alacrity (and credit cards in hand).
Scroll down at the chamber website to vote — errr, donate.
The buck-a-vote election has been an off-and-on tradition for decades in Cambria, with few rules, most of which were merrily bent or broken at one time or another.
That’s not to say the candidates haven’t taken their races seriously.
When Sparky the Firedog beat the other wannabe mayors in 1992, legend has it that one of the other candidates was so upset, he dropped out of the service club that had sponsored him and, he felt, had not paid enough toward his win.
He went back eventually, I think.
As you can imagine, there have always been plenty of hijinks and outrageous campaign promises.
No idea was too farfetched. Build an offshore parking lot in the surf? Why not? Buy Hearst Castle to use as a bed-and-breakfast? Sure. (Or were those April Fool’s Day column topics by then-Editor Scoop Morgan in The Cambrian? The memory blurs.)
Even a goofy mayors’ race has a backstory
The Cambria Development Company, which subdivided Cambria, apparently brought the honorary mayoral idea to town in the early 1930s, with the first honorary title bestowed in 1937.
It reportedly was a way to whip up community spirit, then at a penny a vote, and show prospective lot buyers what a great little town this was — and is.
After elections lagged for a while, the Cambria Chamber of Commerce revived the practice of “buying” the town mayor to raise money for chamber functions. In later years, the event’s fund-drive was dedicated to other causes, such as community youngsters through the now-defunct youth center.
Some of Cambria’s early honorary mayors included such well known and sometimes notorious local names as Camozzi, Lyons, Shamel and Soto.
Henry Cooper gained fame by riding a toilet on a parade float, while Jerry McKinnon’s gold-plated lawn mower was “to mow down the competition.” Bill John’s slogan was, “Cambria needs a new John.”
After 2002’s election win, Tim Mayer endured more than a year of “Mayor Mayer” jokes as the already tall fella reigned while often wearing his in-line skates.
The town’s most recent mayor, Kimberly Mastrantonio, was elected in 2006.
When the concept fell by the wayside, she remained active in an honorary emeritus status for several more years until the crush of life and her real estate business required more attention.
After all, honorary mayorhood can be hard work — just like the real thing. All those ribbon cuttings, special events and hand shaking, plus the serious task of raising money for the nonprofits and the chamber.
Thank goodness, Cambria’s honorary mayors’ race also can be a great stress reliever during the real-life politics that emphasizes the swearing tendencies in so many of us.
