Peninsula Campaign Filings Detail Final Push as Leyla Bakery Launches

Pre-election campaign finance disclosures Covering the Sept. 20 through Oct. 17 filing window reshaped four Peninsula municipal and school board races on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, while the hospitality team behind Meyhouse in Palo Alto and Sunnyvale announced plans for a 2,000-square-foot brick-and-mortar Turkish bakery in Santa Clara.

Mountain View City Council and MVLA Trustee Area 3 Fundraising

In the Mountain View City Council race—where all 8 candidates accepted the city's $32,352 voluntary campaign spending limit—Parks and Recreation Commissioner IdaRose Sylvester leads direct fundraising with approximately $36,300 raised (over $36,000) and $18,200 spent, according to a report by Emily Margaretten for the Mountain View Voice. She is followed closely by James Kuszmaul ($34,700 raised, $30,800 spent) and Robert Cox ($34,600 raised, $30,900 spent)—both just under $35,000—along with Paul Donahue ($32,200 raised, $17,100 spent), Erik Poicon ($24,400 raised, $8,500 spent), Silja Paymer ($16,100 raised, $7,700 spent), Sam Ali ($4,600 raised, $3,700 spent), and Alex Amoroso ($2,500 raised, $8,700 spent).

Independent expenditure committees have also poured tens of thousands of dollars into the Mountain View council contest: the National Association of Realtors spent nearly $80,000, the California Alliance of Family Owned Businesses PAC spent $17,300 each, and the Peninsula Opportunity PAC spent $5,700 each in support of Cox and Donahue. Meanwhile, the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council spent nearly $20,000 backing Poicon, and the Mountain View Professional Firefighters PAC spent $3,800 each for Cox, Donahue, and Sylvester.

In the Mountain View Los Altos High School District (MVLA) Trustee Area 3 race, incumbent Thida Cornes holds the largest campaign total at roughly $8,900 ($6,800 raised in 2026 plus $2,100 carried over from her previous campaign, including $700 from Jennifer Tirva and $500 each from Jessica Speiser and Plumbers Local 393), according to reporter Christina Casillas at the Mountain View Voice. Fellow incumbent Catherine Vonnegut and former trustee Sanjay Dave (who served from 2016 to 2024) filed short-form declarations indicating they plan to raise and spend under $2,000.

Menlo Park City School District and Sequoia Union High School District Filings

Further north on the Peninsula, two school board contests saw significant late-stage activity, according to a pair of reports by Jennifer Yoshikoshi for The Almanac:

• Menlo Park City School District: Between Sept. 20 and Oct. 17, challenger Maya Herstein reported $4,048 in contributions—including $1,000 from former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg—plus a $2,000 personal loan, bringing her total war chest to $11,442 with $6,409 spent, according to The Almanac. Challenger Andrew Barnes collected $725 in donations and added a $5,000 personal loan for a $8,526 total, spending $1,101 on lawn signs and $4,169 on campaign mailers. Incumbents Jed Scolnick and Sherwin Chen filed under the $2,000 reporting threshold.
• Sequoia Union High School District Area A: Belmont parent Alon Shiran raised $14,111 during the Sept. 20 to Oct. 17 period—roughly $11,000 more than incumbent Amy Koo's $2,149—boosting Shiran's cumulative fundraising to $24,316 ($6,073 spent) compared to Koo's $8,648 total ($5,233 spent), according to The Almanac's Sequoia race report. Shiran's contributors include $5,000 from Hagit Shekel, $1,000 each from Eugene Fooksman and Ilya Lipkind, and $999 from Gary Tan's Gary's List Action, while Koo received $1,500 from former Redwood City Mayor Alicia Aguirre and $100 from Area E trustee Maria Cruz.

Meyhouse Team to Open Brick-and-Mortar Leyla Bakery in Santa Clara

In South Bay culinary news, restaurateur Omer Artun—who founded the Turkish restaurant Meyhouse in Sunnyvale in 2019, expanded to Palo Alto in 2023, and opened Meze Kebab in January—is launching Leyla Bakery in a 2,000-square-foot space (with a 700-square-foot customer counter and seating area) inside the former Copenhagen Crown Bakery at 2079 El Camino Real in Santa Clara early next year, according to a report by Adrienne Mitchel for The Almanac.

Ahead of the Santa Clara storefront debut, Leyla Bakery is operating online pre-order pickup from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 8:30 p.m. at Meyhouse's Palo Alto (632 Emerson St.) and Sunnyvale (187 S. Murphy Ave.) restaurants. The menu features sesame-crusted simit ($6 for two), soft açma and poğaça rolls, savory börek and su böreği pastries, leavened pide flatbread ($6), Turkish coffee and tea, ayran yogurt drink, and house-made lemonades.