Your guide to the SLO County District 2 supervisor race
Two candidates are running to replace Bruce Gibson on the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors.
After two decades on the board, Gibson announced last May that he would not seek reelection in 2026.
Now, a local business leader and a Morro Bay engineer are vying to represent the county’s North Coast.
The primary election will be held on June 2.
It’s also the first time in eight years that Morro Bay and Los Osos have had a chance to vote for a county supervisor after redistricting locked them out of the last election.
Here’s what you need to know about supervisor race:
Where is the district?
The Second District runs along the coast and includes Los Osos, Morro Bay and parts of San Luis Obispo to the south all the way up to the Monterey County line.
It also contains the unincorporated communities of Cayucos, Harmony, Cambria and San Simeon.
Who are the candidates?
Jim Dantona is a Democrat and a Cayucos resident. He’s the former president and CEO of the SLO Chamber of Commerce and the Gibson’s current chief of staff.
Previously, he worked as the chief of staff for several Los Angeles City Council members, including Nury Martinez, Felipe Fuentes, Tony Cardenas and Wendy Greuel.
Dantona is campaigning on a platform to create more jobs and affordable housing on the Central Coast. He’s opposed to offshore oil drilling and is in favor of offshore wind projects, as long as they are “developed in the right places with the right safeguards,” he said on his website.
He’s running against Michael Erin Woody, a civil engineer from Morro Bay.
Woody previously served on the Fresno City Council for one term. He ran as a Republican against Salud Carbajal for his congressional seat in 2018, and tried to run for the District 2 supervisor seat in 2022 but was forced out of the race due to redistricting. He’s currently running with no political party affiliation.
He sits on the Salinan Tribal Council of SLO and Monterey counties and is campaigning on a platform centered around environmental stewardship and government transparency. Woody is opposed to developing battery storage facilities, offshore wind projects and offshore oil drilling in or off the coast of District 2.
Who is funding the race?
Woody does not accept donations from corporations, unions or PACs and does not allow any contributors to donate more than $500 to his campaign.
His campaign is primarily funded through a $35,000 personal loan from Woody himself. He’s raised $2,550 in donations so far, with most in $100 increments, according to his most recent campaign finance report.
Dantona has raised a total of $56,630 in campaign contributions, as of the last accounting period.
Some of his largest donations include $5,900 — the current contribution limit — from Patrick Arnold, a broker at Covelop Inc., a major SLO-based developer, and $5,900 from Dantona’s mother, Bonnie Galvin. He’s also received $5,000 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ political action committee.
Who else is supporting the candidates?
Dantona has nabbed endorsements from Gibson and Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg, along with Central Coast Congressmen Jimmy Panetta and Salud Carbajal and SLO County Assemblymember Dawn Addis.
The SLO County Democratic Party has also backed Dantona.
Woody has not publicized any endorsements on his website.
