Abel first ran for office because in 1994, the family farm applied for a building permit to erect a new 35,000 square foot cooling facility. After months of wading through the city's bureaucracy, he grew disillusioned with the lack of customer service that government had provided him, and he decided to run for City Council. So at the age of 26 Abel ran and was elected to the Santa Maria City Council. Two years later, he was elected Mayor by defeating the incumbent and a former Mayor. After guiding the city out of a financial crisis, Maldonado took his leadership style to Sacramento for the first time in 1998 when he was elected to the State Assembly. In the State Assembly, he made a commitment to his constituents to represent them to the best of his ability. He did so by priding himself on serving their needs before anything else. During his Assembly tenure Abel was named Hero of the Taxpayer by the Americans for Tax Reform, led the charge to see seat belts in school busses, worked with Gov. Schwarzenegger to reform the antiquated California Workers Compensation System and worked to enact legislation to raise academic performance in our schools just to name a few of his many accomplishments. « less
Government Positions
California State Senate
Upper house of California state legislature
California State Assembly
Lower house of the California State Legislature
Education
California State Polytechnic University
Part of the California State...
Donors
Cisco Systems
Internet solutions company that provides hardware, software and...
Donation/Grant Recipients
Bob Dole
US Representative and Senator from Kansas
Andrea Seastrand
US Representative from California
George W Bush
43rd US president, ex-governor of Texas, son of George H W Bush



