Source: Cabaldon for State Senate campaign
Christopher Cabaldon makes run-off for State Senate race in District 3, which includes far Eastern Contra Costa County
By Allen D. Payton
With almost all the remaining votes counted in the five counties included in State Senate District 3, former 22-year West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon bested three other candidates to place second in the March 5th primary election to qualify for the run-off in the general election on November 5th.
According to the unofficial election results on the California Secretary of State’s website, as of Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at 4:05 PM, he had 59,082 votes or 26.6% of the vote, trailing Dixon Councilman Thom Bogue who placed first with 61,811 votes or 27.8%.
On his Facebook page, Cabaldon wrote today, “The votes have been counted…we’ve won the primary election by a margin of nearly 13,500 votes, with voter turnout in our district significantly beating earlier projections. Having received 30% more votes than the next closest Democratic contender, I will be our party’s candidate in the November general election. I am profoundly honored, and immeasurably grateful for your support.
A special thank you to the people who knew me best, no matter what absurd smears the barrage of daily attack mailers tried to peddle. Among the Democratic candidates, we received nearly two-thirds of the vote in West Sacramento and 55% of the vote in Yolo County (winning by a large margin in all four cities). My hometown and our neighbors never wavered, and my heart is full with appreciation. Serving as mayor and successfully transforming West Sacramento was the great honor of my life, even more so now that I may be the first-ever state legislator to hail from the city.
Remarkably, though, we prevailed even without Yolo County, winning a majority of the other counties in the district, too (including the largest, Solano County). I ran to be a champion for every part of our diverse district, from its rural towns to mid-sized cities, so I was proud to be the sole candidate to place in the top three in every one of the six counties in the district. Thank you to the countless community leaders, activists, entrepreneurs, working men and women, small business owners, elected officials, and friends in Solano, Napa, Contra Costa, Sacramento, and Sonoma who gave me a chance, introduced me to thousands of people in their communities, and helped to build a movement.
Now on to the November general election!”
However, according to the Secretary of State’s election results page for the State Senate District 3 race, Cabaldon actually received 38.4% of the vote for first place in Yolo County, 24.9% for second place in Napa County because Bogue and Democrat Rozzana Verder-Aliga tied for first place, 22.6% of the vote for second place in Solano County, 24% for second place in Sacramento County, 25.1% of the vote for second place in Contra Costa County and 21.4% for third place in the Sonoma County portion of the district.
Cabaldon with the Bidens, President Obama and Hillary Clinton. Source: Cabaldon for State Senate campaign.
Experience & Views – “A Democrat’s Democrat”
On his campaign website, Cabaldon stresses his Democrat and LGBTQ bona fides while spouting partisan rhetoric and tying himself to national leaders and issues. He says, as mayor in 2016, he answered Obama’s “clarion call”, about “the incoming federal government (i.e. Trump Administration) poised to be the largest threat to civil and human rights, democracy and elections, the safety net, and America’s role in the world…to protect the nation and its people.”
Cabaldon claims he rushed “to the Texas border with a bipartisan delegation of mayors to shine a national spotlight on the incarceration of immigrant children stolen from their families” even though that practice had begun during the Obama Administration.
A quote on the About page of his website reads, “Sometimes fighting for West Sacramento means taking the fight to Trump.”
Labeled a “progressive” by the Sacramento Bee, the former mayor claims to be “A Democrat’s Democrat” and “Promoting a Democratic Agenda Across America”. Cabaldon also shares he was elected to the Solano County Democratic Central Committee, then “appointed by the Chair of the California Democratic Party (CDP) as lead Co-Chair of the CDP’s Legislative Committee and was elected to the state central committee as an Assembly District delegate. He pitched in as a member of the state party’s AAPI, Filipino, and LGBTQ caucuses.”
According to his website, “As a co-chair of Filipinos for Hilary and a member of her National AAPI Leadership Council, Christopher crisscrossed the country, walking precincts in battleground states to turn out AAPI voters for the Democratic ticket.”
In 2020 he was elected to the Democratic National Committee and according to his Wikipedia page, as mayor, he served as Vice President of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors. Cabaldon was also inaugural chair of the national LGBTQ Mayors Alliance, and former chair of both the Asian/Pacific and LGBT caucuses of the League of California Cities.
During his time as mayor, Cabaldon also served as a member of the state’s Delta Protection Commission, he fought to stop the tunnels project. But the governor is currently pushing for a single tunnel, known as the Delta Conveyance, which will move water from the Sacramento River, north of the Delta, to southern California.
Cabaldon also stresses his experience in education. He served as Vice Chancellor of the California Community Colleges System from Sep. 1997 until March 2003.
Obama appointed him to the national board at the launch of College Promise, on which he served with the chair, current First Lady Jill Biden. The organization is a national non-profit working to make the first two or more years of college education free.
Cabaldon represents the State of California on the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education,, for which he has served as Commissioner and Chair of the Policy Research & Analysis Committee since March 2011. He also served as Chair of U.S. Conference of Mayors‘ Jobs, Education, and Workforce Committee.
Cabaldon serves on the board of directors for EdSource, which, according to its website, is a “source of education information, research and analysis” and “the pre-eminent multimedia education news organization in California.” According to his bio on the organization’s website, “As mayor of West Sacramento for two decades, he implemented universal preschool, college savings accounts, digital badges, free community college, and automatic admission to college, and served as education/workforce chair for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Previously, Cabaldon was vice chancellor of the California Community College system, the Hazel Cramer Endowed Chair and professor of Public Policy and Administration at CSU Sacramento (from Aug. 2019 to Dec. 2020), president of EdVoice, president of the Linked Learning Alliance, and chief (Staff Director) for the California Assembly’s Higher Education Committee” (from April 1989 to Nov. 1996) to which he was appointed by “anti-war and civil rights activist” State Senator Tom Hayden.
Cabaldon also serves on the boards of education-related Project Attain, California Competes and All4Ed.
Current Work
According to his LinkedIn profile, since July 2009 the former mayor has worked as a Partner of Capitol Impact, which, according to its website, “is a leading provider of strategy design, policy development, capacity building, and philanthropy advising to the social sector…with a track record for catalyzing small initiatives to statewide movements.”
In addition, since Oct. 2021 he has held the title of “Mayor in Residence” at the Institute for the Future, a not-for-profit think tank in Palo Alto, whose “mission is to prepare the world to create better, more equitable futures by disrupting short-term thinking with visions of transformative possibilities,” known as futures studies.
Education & College Activism
Cabaldon earned a B.S. degree in Environmental Economics from U.C. Berkeley where he was student body vice president and earned a Masters degree in Public Policy Administration at Cal State Sacramento.
An activist during his college days, “at UC Berkeley, Christopher protested the university’s investments in South Africa’s apartheid regime, and as student body vice president led the statewide student lobbying campaign to pass divestment legislation by then-Assemblymember Maxine Waters. He helped enact an ethnic studies curriculum, root out anti-Asian policies and practices in admissions procedures, end the “zero club” of academic departments with no women or faculty of color, and created the state’s first Tagalog language course at a public university. Christopher led the first statewide organizing campaign for UC student employees participating in the United Farm Workers’ grape boycott.”
Election Experience
In addition to serving as mayor from 1998-2020, this is Cabaldon’s second run for state office having run unsuccessfully for State Assembly in 2008. In 2020, he served as California co-chair of Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign during the primary, and lost re-election for mayor that November.
Issues
Cabaldon lists his issues as building a stronger economy, building housing and preserving communities, addressing the homeless crisis, protecting our environment, expanding access to education and keeping communities safe, which he mentions last.
Personal Background
Also according to his Wikipedia page, in 2017, Comstock’s Magazine ran a cover story about Cabaldon entitled, Behind Closed Doors, which told the story of the death of his mother when he was a young boy and the ongoing process of coping, persevering, and finding meaning and purpose after loss.
Cabaldon is openly gay and in 2006, the Logo network featured him in an episode of the series Coming Out Stories of when he came out publicly in his annual State of the City address.
About State Senate District 3
The District includes all of Solano County, Napa County, and Solano County and portions of eastern Sonoma County, southwestern Sacramento County and far eastern Contra Costa County, including the cities of Brentwood and Oakley, and the communities of Discovery Bay, Byron, Bethel Island and Knightsen.
The seat is open as incumbent State Senator Bill Dodd is termed out and could only serve two of the four-year term according to a last-minute decision by the Secretary of State. But Dodd disagreed saying he’s only eligible for two more years in the State Assembly but chose to not run for either.
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