Two more Santa Rosa residents have thrown their hats in the ring for the City Council seat left vacant by Susan Gorin’s election to the county Board of Supervisors.

Three Santa Rosa residents had applied by the close of business Friday for the vacancy on the Santa Rosa City Council, but City Hall was sticking to its policy of keeping confidential all applicants’ names, position statements and related information.

The election of Erin Carlstrom to the Santa Rosa City Council has created one of the youngest, most influential and most unpredictable politicians the city has seen in decades.

As the race for four seats on the Santa Rosa City Council enters the final stretch, political observers are focused less on Mayor Ernesto Olivares and Councilman Gary Wysocky and more on which candidates may ride their coattails into office. Both incumbents are expected to hold onto their seats on the seven-member council, leaving the fight for third and fourth place as the real battleground where the balance of power on the next council will be decided.

Campaign cash has surged into the coffers of Santa Rosa’s City Council candidates over the past three months, a sign that the seven-way race for four seats is heating up.

Attorney Erin Carlstrom has taken an early fundraising lead in her bid for one of the four Santa Rosa City Council seats on the ballot in November, but the field is far from settled.

Despite concerns about the lack of recent pay concessions from employees, the regressive nature of sale taxes and the additional burden on taxpayers, the council agreed that the measure was the only option that had a good chance of winning passage by voters.