If everything goes according to plan for Hilda Zacarías, there could be two Santa Marians in the California State Legislature.
The Santa Maria City Council member recently announced her intention to run in 2010 for the 33rd District Assembly Seat being vacated by San Luis Obispo Republican Sam Blakeslee because of term limits.
In a recent interview with the Sun, Zacarías said she’s been thinking about running for the position for a while.
“It was just a matter of timing,” Zacarías said, adding that the 2010 race seems like the perfect time because it’s also the year her City Council term is set to expire.
A registered Democrat, Zacarías has served on the Santa Maria City Council since 2006, and currently serves as mayor pro-tem. Before being elected to the council, she served five years on the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District Board of Trustees. She also holds a master’s degree in public administration and political advocacy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
And while she might end up leaving City Hall for the state Capitol, Zacarías said she wants to bring a small-town sense of governing with her.
“At this point in my life, I’m coming from the position of a student and citizen who knows and feels the direct impacts of the decisions made in Sacramento,” she said.
A lifelong Santa Maria resident, Zacarías attended local elementary schools and graduated from Santa Maria High School in 1979. She later graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, with a bachelor’s degree in business. After college, she focused on being a single parent to her two children, and running her own local accounting and tax firm for 12 years.
Political advocacy for her fellow Santa Marians and the rest of the Central Coast community, Zacarías said, will be the cornerstone of her platform.
“It’s important, as a legislator, that I connect the decisions made in Sacramento to what happens here in Santa Maria,” she said.
Some of the major issues Zacarías plans to focus on in her campaign—and if elected to office—include the economy, education, and the environment.
On the economy, Zacarías said: “We all know things are in a bad way today, but I’ve never been one to walk away from a problem.
“Now is the time for us to do something about how our money is managed at the state level,” she said. “We need to have a change in Sacramento and the way things are done.”
The Legislature, Zacarías said, needs to look at the way money is handled. To illustrate her point, she singled out the Assembly’s dozens of commissions and committees.
“We have to look at the commissions; look at their budgets and the way they operate,” she said, adding that she once heard of a commission spending close to $1 million on a meeting.
That million, and other chunks of funding, she said, could probably have been better spent on the state’s schools.
“That’s where my background as an auditor comes in handy,” she said, adding that taxpayers deserve to know what the government spends money on and why money is spent.
If elected, Zacarías said she would like to hold a seat on the Assembly’s newly formed Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review.
Along with being fiscally accountable, the Legislature needs to do more to stimulate California’s economy, Zacarías said, by “supporting and building small business.”
Zacarías said she also plans to further promote the expansion of green business, and the creation of “green collar” jobs.
“Promoting green business is the best thing you can do because it supports the economy and the environment,” she explained. “Without the environment, there is no economy, there is no health-care system.”
Lastly, Zacarías said she’ll continue advocating for California’s children by protecting funds for education, children’s health care, and child care.
“I care about the welfare of our children and the quality of education, kindergarten through college,” she said. “I’ve always served as an advocate for that, whether as a parent, teacher, or school board member.”
To accomplish all these goals, Zacarías said she plans to focus on building a consensus between members of both political parties.
“[The legislature] needs to talk about what’s right—that doesn’t belong to any one political party,” she said.
And if anyone is capable of bringing people together politically to make a difference, Santa Maria City Council member Mike Cordero said, it’s Hilda Zacarías.
“She’s a problem-solver who will reach across party lines to solve those problems if that’s what’s necessary,” Cordero said.
“Quite frankly, I hate to lose her as a colleague on the council, but I think it’s important to take a look at what we can gain as a community with Hilda as a member of the Assembly,” he said.
Contact Staff Writer Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 7-14, 2009.
