Give Her a Chance

I recently contacted the Santa Clarita office of Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-chatsworth, by email to congratulate her on winning a very tough and close race and also to let her know that as a conservative I did not vote for her but as a fair-minded person I was and am willing to give her a chance to see how she does representing ALL of her constituents here in the 40th Assembly District.

My email was very quickly responded to (actually within just a few hours) by Andrew Taban, her local field representative here in Santa Clarita, and I shared with him my concern over the recent drastic rate increase in my Socalgas bill and voiced my hope that Ms. Schiavo shared my concern and would be doing what she could to address this issue. He also invited me to visit their office here in Santa Clarita so we could meet face to face and I signed up to receive communications and also to be made aware of any events where I could speak directly to Assemblywoman Schiavo. He graciously took care of all that for me.

Rather than focus on the things the assemblywoman and I will disagree on, I plan on focusing on local issues where we may find some agreement.

I believe Ms. Schiavo is intelligent and practical enough to realize that her victory over Suzette Martinez Valladares was a slim one and that this district is not as deep blue as the numbers may show.

In closing, I would urge my fellow conservatives to follow my lead, give her a chance and sign up to attend her events out here so you can speak with her face to face on the issues important to you.

Like it or not, she is our assemblywoman for the next two years and she needs to hear what we expect from her.

Rick Barker Valencia