• Better Know a Candidate Karen Ellison

I've been doing "Better Know a Candidate" blogs since 2014 and this year there will be a total of three blogs for District 4. 

If you're already familiar with my style you know that I'm not here to "fact-check" the candidates. This is a conversation and I let the candidates speak, and I also throw in several "fun" questions.

First up will be challenger Karen Ellison, then incumbent Bridgette Moore. The third blog will be opinions about the race as there will be no opinions in this blog.

There is a third candidate on the ballot, but she declined the chance to be in a blog. I'll touch on her candidacy in the opinion blog. 

With that out of the way, let me introduce you to Karen Ellison.

Karen Ellison, candidate for Wildomar City Council, D4.

1) What made you choose Wildomar as your hometown?

I recently got married, I met my husband online, and he's from Temecula. He's lived here since 1976 and he knows all the [local] areas very well, and he knows Wildomar, he went to Elsinore High School. When we got married, we decided we wanted a new place to live and he suggested that we go look in Wildomar. 

Karen and husband Shawn.

It's the greatest city around because there's no traffic, it's really quiet, it has beautiful land, and the neighbors are all really nice. We have a lot of friends that live in the area. We decided to come out and just start looking [for a house] and we found our place. We put an offer in right away and we moved in. We love it. 

How long have you lived in Wildomar?

Almost three years. 

Karen's 17-year-old dog Charlie.

2) What got you interested in running for city council?

Back in the '90s I was a reporter and I covered the Los Angeles city beat and I covered the Mayor's office, the Sheriff's office, and I worked with many of the city council members, the Supervisors, and did a lot of the elections throughout Los Angeles County. I've always been interested in politics and the [various] offices, learning a lot about it. 

When I lived in Orange County I got really involved in our city (Lake Forest). There were a lot of things happening, the city was growing as well. I got involved in helping maintain the city and make some changes for the better of residents. 

One of the examples is there were no red curbs painted in neighborhoods [at corners] when turning and there were no stop signs. The amount of accidents around certain areas were high. I helped 

I helped improve traffic safety in Lake Forest where in some neighborhoods people would park all the way to the corner, making it difficult to see oncoming traffic. I helped get stop signs installed and curbs painted red near the corners. [I] also helped Lake Forest tackle Short Term Rental (Airbnb) issues.

I like the design and the QR code sends you to her website.

3) Tell me about your family.

Pretty much all of my family is from New York. However, many of them reside in the area. Today my parents live in Terramor (55 and older community, in Corona), my brother lives in Murrieta, my uncle and some cousins live in Valley Center, some of my husband's cousins live in Windsong community here in Wildomar, and the rest of my family lives in Nevada. 

I have a stepdaughter and a stepson. My stepdaughter just moved to Miramar with her fiancé, they're getting married later this month —He's in the Marines. 

Karen's family.

4) It takes a certain desire to serve the community as an elected official, what is your past community involvement?

As I said, I've been very involved in covering city councils, and the Mayor's office [...] other political offices as a reporter. I was also involved in my own community when I lived in Lake Forest. 

I was able to get a good education on understanding how things work and what the city council has say in and what they don't. I became really involved in learning and asking questions so I could help our neighbors. That's how I got involved in the community and I want to do more.

5) How long have you considered running for this seat?

I think I considered running for this seat for almost a year now. I am new to Wildomar. Like I said, I've only been here almost three years and coming in as somebody who is looking at things really fresh I see a lot of things that are just being neglected around the city. That haven't been paid attention to. And I just don't know why it's not getting attention. 

One of the examples is the roads here. I want to call out specifically Bundy, from the 15 freeway to Mission Trail. It's the most disastrous street I've ever seen in my life, and for it to be a main thoroughfare into Wildomar it's very upsetting and frustrating that it hasn't been addressed. 

Karen went on to specify Mission Trail and Corydon as unsafe roads at night "You cannot even see the road". 

I want to help to get roads updated and improved so we have a safer way to travel [...] as well as bikers (cyclists) and walkers. 

6) You're at the dentist's office with ten minutes to kill, and your smartphone is NOT getting a signal (gasp!). Which magazine do you reach for: The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Faire, People, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, or Highlights?

With only 10 mins, I think I'm going to reach for People. 

7) What is your day job? 

My day job is a communications consultant. I help a lot of tech companies, as well as a lot of startup companies, build their communication, marketing and media plans to grow their business. Whether it's product launches or it's helping executives with their thought leadership. 

I've worked with Amazon, Johnson & Johnson Vision, and other leading tech companies as well as construction businesses and design businesses. 

Currently, I'm working with a consumer product that's just getting launched called BunzzUp and I've been taking a lot of AI courses as well. I'm leveraging AI technology to build content such as logos and social media posts. 

8) What's your understanding of the job of city council members and/or what your job would be after you're elected?

I believe the job of a city council member should be is an advocate for the residents that they support. They should be listening to the residents, hearing their concerns, as well as hearing the things they love about the city. 

City Council Members should be the people that are helping

residents resolve issues. 

I believe City Council members should be helping setting up meetings for residents,  helping find other key stakeholders to help, and attending meetings to resolve issues. They should be involved throughout the process since they are representatives of the residents. Council members should be the ones helping to resolve the issues of the residents. 

Point blank, that's the main goal of a city council member. That's what I believe, being an advocate for the residents.

9) What’s a nice relaxing afternoon for your family?

It's probably heading to a friend's house and enjoying the pool in the summertime. During the wintertime, we love playing games. We have a shuffleboard table at our house, and we love playing cornhole. We love any activity where we're not in front of a screen. We are also big football fans and we do have a lot of football parties. We play fantasy football with our whole family and it gets very competitive. We all have different teams that we love so it [makes for] a really fun season. 

10) Being on city council can be very time-consuming. When elected will your schedule allow for you to be "all in"?

Absolutely. I would not be running if I wasn't going to be all in. Like I said, my main role is to be an advocate for the residents and I will do whatever needs to happen to get our residents to a point where they're happy with —solving their problems or finding a resolution. I'm all in —whatever needs to happen I'm going to be there. 

11) When you get a break in the action, how do you unwind/hobbies?

We love going to the lake. We usually head out to the river in Laughlin and Havasu. We have a boat so we enjoy —just really unwinding, disconnecting, getting out on the lake. We try to go almost every other weekend in the summertime.

During the fall and the winter seasons, we enjoy football with our family and enjoying lots of party games. Anything to really disconnect. I think that you need to have balance in your life and if you can get away from the everyday stresses it makes you a more balanced person. 

12) What are your top three concerns for Wildomar?

We talked about road improvements. Obviously, that's a big passionate one, that's the one I noticed the very first time I ever drove into Wildomar. 

Two, is the low and no-income housing, slash "the homeless shelter" going in right smack in the middle of our communities. I feel that they're really great ideas, I just think that they're in the wrong locations and not set up for success for the residents that live there. 

I also have a plan I’m currently seeking input on to consider a homeless center that would support Wildomar, Elsinore, Murrieta, Menifee, and Temecula that would include services such as food bank, clothes, health and mental services, living conditions, employee services that would help make these residents more successful and get out of the situation they are in.

And then another one of my concerns or "things that I'm going to be fighting for" are more resident rights to things that are happening in the community like the shelters and the low/no income [projects]. 

I believe that we should be able to have a say when there are businesses like homeless shelters going in our community that's actually physically going to affect our life. I want to work on writing bills with our Senator and State Assembly (which I have requests out to) to help ensure these properties are run efficiently, safely, and legally.

13) Currently each council member appoints a planning commissioner. What's your approach to future growth and how heavily would that factor in when choosing a commissioner?

I think that a planning commissioner needs to be really involved in the city. I think that they need to

have the best interest for the residents and to be able to talk to the residents on what they want and, what they don't want. 

I think a planning commissioner should agree to aligning to our mission statement to bring the right businesses into our community with managed growth in mind and being an advocate as well. That's what is important to me.

14) How do you envision your community outreach if elected? 

Communications is one of the most important things. I think that you need to be present and you need to be available at all times. You need to be available to the residents and attending as many city meetings as possible. You need to continue to be advocating. I do what I call "Wildomar Walks" where every weekend I go to a different community within our district and I let people know where I'm going to be and I invite them to walk and get out in fresh air and be healthy, have conversations. That's something I'm going to continue to do so that people know where I'm going to be and find out what's going on in their neighborhood. 

We also need to have a better communication outreach program and start promoting a newsletter, or an email [because] people don't even know where to go to sign up for a [city] email. I think we need to do an overhaul of the website and have a community bulletin area where we can post stuff and our community can also post things that are happening or what they're doing in the community. 

15) SoCal is close to many areas, are you more of a beach, mountain, or desert person?

I'm a water girl, so anything to do with water, whether it's the lake or the ocean, that's where I'm at. 

16) Why are you the best candidate for the job?

Well, I feel like I'm the best candidate for the job because I have a lot of skillsets that would enable me to step into the position and start advocating for people right away. 

I understand what the issues are in the communities in District 4, I have them all listed out on my website, and I'm learning more every day that I need to add. I feel that my communications background, working with CEOs of leading tech companies —building strategies, talking to the media, asking questions as a reporter, answering difficult questions.

Being a public relations professional as I've been for the last thirty years, I have a lot of skillsets that would enable me to step into the role and start advocating right away. I also have the skills to compromise and negotiate so that both parties are happy and walk away [feeling] that they got what they really needed. 

17) If you could speak directly to the Wildomar voters, and tell them why they should vote for you, what would you tell them?

I think they should consider voting for me because when I say that I want to be an advocate for them I truly believe that. I believe that if you're on city council you need to be advocating for your residents every day. 

I need to be talking to you, finding out what is bothering you, what are you loving about the district, so I can continue to help resolve or continue doing what is loved. I think that is the number one —NUMBER ONE thing over anything else that is done on city council is being there for the residents.

Below are links to Karen's campaign cites. 

https://www.instagram.com/ellison4wildomarcitycouncil/

https://www.facebook.com/EllisonforWildomarCityCouncil

https://ellisonforwildomarcitycouncil.com/

List of Karen's endorsements as of September 13, 2024.

Wildomar Rap notes

Both candidates were given a copy of the unpublished blog more than a week before publication so that we could smooth out any wording in the answers above, or transcription errors. 

Karen helped with several edits to the original, but none of the answers changed during the process, they were just made more succinct and clear.

Link to blog of incumbent Bridgette Moore