Fundraiser Supports 33rd Assembly District Hopeful
Santa Maria Councilmember Hilda Zacarias Campaigns in Hope Ranch
Hilda Zacarias, the Democrats’ 33rd Assembly District candidate, spoke to a group of more than 40 people in the Hope Ranch home of former county supervisor Susan Rose this past Sunday.
The afternoon garden party, attended by Mayor Helene Schneider, Rep. Lois Capps, Assemblymember Pedro Nava, and others, generated donations to fund Zacarias’s campaign. She’s running against Republican candidate Katcho Achadjian of San Luis Obispo.
“I’m grateful to have an opponent who is sane enough and different enough to give people a real choice,” Zacarias told the party’s attendees.
Achadjian, current SLO County supervisor, and Zacarias, current Santa Maria councilmember, will vie to replace State Senator-elect Sam Blakeslee, a Republican, for the State Assembly’s 33rd District this November. The district includes the northwest of Santa Barbara County, including Santa Maria and Lompoc, and all of San Luis Obispo County.
“We have the largest and longest coastline of any Assembly district,” said Zacarias, who is opposed to offshore drilling, “and I’m the right person to protect that.”
Zacarias holds a master’s degree in political administration from Harvard University, and has experience as an accountant, auditor, and analyst, she said. She described an early love with public policy and a life of community involvement.
Whatever action Zacarias took in her life, “It was about service,” she told attendees.
Zacarias’s politics focus is on education, the environment, and social justice, she said.
Helen Conly, the campaign’s financial director, estimated that they have raised $110,000 in donations in the past year by throwing such fundraisers. The garden party was their first such event held in Santa Barbara.
