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Get the facts on the California candidates running for election to the District 28 — California State Assembly
Find out their top 3 priorities, their experience, and who supports them.
Candidate Forum
Gail Pellerin served as the chief elections official in Santa Cruz County from 1993 until her retirement in December 2020. As County Clerk, Gail managed all elections conducted in the county and served as the Commissioner of Civil Marriage. Gail has 35 years of experience in public service – over seven years working for the State Legislature in Sacramento, including for an Assembly office representing Morgan Hill, and 27 years working for the people of Santa Cruz County. In June 2018, Gail was elected to her 4th term as County Clerk.
Gail served as President of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials from 2010 to 2012 and served as co-chair of the Secretary of State’s Voting Accessibility Advisory Committee. She is a graduate of the California Professional Election Administrator Credential program and has taught credential courses on Voters with Specific Needs and Budgets. She is also a graduate of Leadership Santa Cruz County.
In her capacity as County Clerk, Gail has always been a strong advocate for same-sex marriages and received the Hammer of Justice Award from the Santa Cruz County Chapter of the ACLU in August 2009 as well as proclamations from the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and City of Santa Cruz honoring her service to the community including her work on marriage equality issues. In 2010, she received the Kudos Award from the Santa Cruz County Commission on Disabilities, and in 2020, Gail received the Lifetime (Legacy) Achievement Award from the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce. In 2021, Assemblymember Mark Stone honored Gail as a Woman of the Year by the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, recognizing women who are making an extraordinary difference in their communities. This year, Gail was honored for her work as a 2022 Democracy Hero by California Common Cause who has been fighting for voting rights, redistricting reform, government transparency, and to ensure that democracy includes everyone for over 50 years.
As Santa Cruz County Clerk, Gail worked closely with the Santa Clara County elections office, coordinating vote centers, registering new voters at citizenship ceremonies, participating in conferences on election administration, and in combined efforts for remote voters located at the Summit between the two counties. Both departments use the same voting system, so they also function as a back-up to one another if there is ever an outage or any other issue preventing the ability to administer an election.
Major accomplishments while serving as County Clerk include: authoring several election guidebooks to assist voters in navigating through various election procedures including initiatives, recalls, and referendums; implementing innovative voter outreach programs targeting high school students, college students, people living in residential care facilities, voters with disabilities, voters who speak a language other than English, new citizen voters, new residents, and incarcerated voters; mitigating the physical access to polling places so they are accessible to persons with disabilities; obtaining a VoteMobile to provide mobile voting services to voters throughout the county, especially those displaced by the CZU fires in 2020; converting the county’s voting model from a polling place system to a 4-day vote center system authorized during the pandemic where any voter could vote at any location; establishing Passport Saturdays to provide additional convenient hours for people to apply for a passport; and offering office hours for clerk and election services in Watsonville to allow customers to obtain services without having to drive to the government center.
When the global pandemic hit, instead of closing her office, Gail worked quickly to create a safe environment for customers to continue to get essential services from her office such as obtaining a marriage license or getting married. Gail’s staff worked remotely, and she and one other staff person managed the onsite, in-person marriage functions so people could continue with their plans to get married. Gail insisted, “You cannot quarantine love.”
Gail always believed she had the best job in the county managing the office of love and voting. But, after more than 27 years, it was time to make a change. Since retirement, Gail has joined the board of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and is involved with Girls Inc. and Women’s Educational Success at Cabrillo College. She is currently in the process of creating the Cabrillo College Local Government Fellows program, to encourage first generation students to pursue an education that can lead to a career in local government and to provide scholarships and paid internships and mentorships. She is also involved with Emily's List, Breaking the Glass Ballot and WILDR (Women in Leadership for Diverse Representation), organizations dedicated to increasing the number of elected and appointed women in local, regional and state offices. Gail cannot shake the election bug, so she is working with the California Democratic Party’s Voter Protection Committee and was recently hired as a consultant working with Civitas Public Affairs to advocate for the Election Infrastructure Initiative to provide for long-term, sustainable federal funding for local elections offices over the next 10 years.
Gail has been an outspoken advocate for suicide prevention awareness and mental health resources after her husband, Tom, died by suicide on November 19, 2018. Tom was a Partner/Corporate Attorney in Santa Clara County at the Pillsbury Law Firm. Prior to that he practiced for more than a decade in San Jose at other firms. He was also a member of the Santa Clara County Bar Association, past Chairperson of the Tax Section of the Santa Clara County Bar Association and a member of the Executive Committee of the Business Law Section.
Gail has a BS in Journalism from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Prior to her experience in public service, Gail worked as a campaign assistant to political campaigns, newspaper reporter and photographer, and community college instructor.
In her spare time, Gail enjoys going to the beach with her labradoodle Darwin, spending time with her two adult children Jacob & Emily, connecting with family and friends, and traveling.
California’s current housing supply and affordability crisis has been decades in the making, and it will take a diverse and multi-faceted approach to find solutions. Housing costs are rising faster than wages. Our children and grandchildren often can’t afford to live in the community where they were raised, workers performing vital services are spending much of their paychecks on rent, and the dream of buying a home remains elusive for many. Developing more affordable housing is a start, along with addressing the root causes that lead to homelessness and providing transformative services for those without housing. As your State Assemblymember, I will champion efforts to:
Preserve and expand the affordable housing stock.
Provide financing assistance to create more homeownership opportunities for modest wage earners.
Expand services and permanent year-round emergency shelter capacity.
Secure funding for permanent supportive housing.
We must protect and preserve California and continue to lead the nation in sound environmental policy. In the Assembly, I will join our steady leadership in supporting policies that protect our environment, promote sustainability, address climate change, and invest in clean energy. I will work to:
Lower greenhouse gas emissions through policies that further our renewable energy goals. California has led the other forty-nine states in setting and meeting these goals, but studies show we have to do much more.
Secure strong coastal protections and be ready for the rising sea level.
Provide meaningful safeguards to our air and water quality.
Minimize loss of life and property by providing critical funding for forest management and wildfire response.
Our schools continue to be underfunded, and we must make a greater investment in public education from early-childhood education through higher education in our Community College, CSU and UC systems.
All children deserve an equal opportunity for a quality education, and we know that investments in early education and childcare, English as a second language programs, extra-curricular activities and after-school programs all play a critical role in improving outcomes for students and ultimately for communities. In the Assembly I will:
Advocate for expansion of the number of slots, rates and wages for child care in California, as well as early childhood education - pre-school and transitional kindergarten.
Fight to increase funding for needed education programs, including special education, the arts, vocational training programs, and any other pathway that will prepare students for higher education or the job market.
Expand funding for grant programs for tuition and other educational costs so students aren’t drowning in loan debt.
Work to ensure that our teachers and staff can afford to live in the communities in which they work, especially in this region where the cost of living is so high.
Insist that we are paying our teachers a livable wage, especially those that are just starting out, and support affordable housing programs for our educational workforce.
What programs, proposals, projects, or legislation would you support to meet the water needs of all Californians?
Top contributors that gave money to support the candidate, by organization:
Our new State Assembly District, covering parts of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties, faces enormous challenges. Two years into a pandemic, we are working to revitalize our economy and schools, strengthen our public health system, recover from wildfires, and address the impacts of climate change.
My experience as a public servant makes me uniquely qualified to meet these challenges as your State Assemblymember. For the last 27 years I served as chief elections official and then was elected four times as the Santa Cruz County Clerk. Prior to that, I held various positions of increasing responsibility within the California State Assembly for over seven years. Given this experience, I know what the job requires and am ready to hit the ground running.
As County Clerk, I ensured everyone had access to voting by commissioning a nationally recognized VoteMobile program, implementing transparent and verifiable audits, and expanding voting hours and locations. Ensuring that your voice is heard remains my number one priority. I intend to strengthen that voice in Sacramento as your Assemblymember.
Gail
Democracy can only thrive if elected officials involve the community in solving the problems we face. Whether it’s tackling affordable housing, providing health care that’s affordable and equitable, delivering mental health care services for those in need, or keeping California as a world leader in addressing climate change, I want to work with you to solve problems.
I respectfully ask for your vote to represent you as Assemblymember for the 28th Assembly District and look forward to our working together.
Top contributors that gave money to support the candidate, by organization:
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