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Schwarzenegger chooses Senator Abel Maldonado for lieutenant governor
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California State Sen. Abel Maldonado speaks at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008.
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Congressman, and former lieutenant governor, John Garamendi
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California's next lieutenant governor could be someone who spent part of his childhood in East Los Angeles. Schwarzenegger named Santa Maria State Senator Abel Maldonado to the job. Maldonado grew up spending the summer months with his family in Southern California. During the school year, he picked strawberries with his parents in the Central Valley.
Putting Californians back to work tops the list for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his choice for lieutenant governor, Abel Maldonado. Schwarzenegger introduced the Mexican-American senator today at a news conference in Whittier. Maldonado chose the location, because, he says, his aunt and grandparents used to live in the neighborhood.
"My mom and my dad didn't have the resources to pay for a babysitter," says Maldonado. "So, they would bring me here in the summer months and my aunt would take care of me. We're back here again, because I will never forget where I come from."
Maldonado also thanked his constituents in California's Central Coast. That's where his family's strawberry farm is. The 42-year-old senator grew up picking strawberries with his mother and father on a half-acre farm in Santa Maria. Today, Maldonado says, the family business sprawls across 6,000 acres and has hundreds of employees.
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“My family knew that our business could only grow if we were responsible with our money and we were accountable for our expenses,” said Maldonado.
He says that's what California needs to do and creating jobs is part of the solution. In February, Maldonado cast the final vote the governor needed to push through the state budget. It included massive tax increases and budget cuts.
But the two have bumped heads on other issues over the years. During a news conference Tuesday morning where Schwarzenegger introduced Maldonado, the governor said their relationship is like a marriage – and chuckled at the comparison.
"And the more I got to know him, the more I really liked what he stood for," says Schwarzenegger. "Not just because he’s a Republican, or not just because he crossed the aisle. But his family values. As much as he loved the state of California, as much as he loved his father and his mother, what they taught him.”
Maldonado would replace John Garamendi, who this month won an East San Francisco Bay Area seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. A majority-Democratic state Senate and Assembly still have to confirm Maldonado. Two Republican state senators are also running for lieutenant governor.
The moderate Republican says those early experiences shaped his views. He has a few words for young Latinos in the neighborhood.
“If they think that there are limits are dreams, I’m here to tell them to look at me. There is not limit on what you can dream.”
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