Happy Birthday to West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon

Christopher L. Cabaldon was born today, November 12, in 1965. He is a gay Filipino-American politician from California who serves as mayor of West Sacramento. He is the longest-serving mayor in the city's history. He also represents the State of California on the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Educationas an appointee of California Governor Jerry Brown. He is a member of the Democratic Party and Vice President of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors.

Cabaldon earned his BS in Environmental Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was student body vice president. He earned a Masters in Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Sacramento in its founding class, where he later taught as an adjunct faculty member, and later received the institution's "Distinguished Alumni Service" award.

Cabaldon served as President/CEO of EdVoice, a Sacramento-based education non-profit advocacy group, after a decade with the California State Assembly as Chief Consultant and Staff Director at the age of 24 to the Higher Education Committee and then Chief of Staff to the chair of Appropriations Committee. He began his professional career as Legislative Director of the University of California Students Association.

From 1997 to 2003, Cabaldon was vice chancellor of the California Community Colleges System, with executive responsibility for policy, planning, strategy, research, information systems and data, governmental relations, public affairs, and other initiatives for the system of 110 colleges.

He is currently the Executive Director of the Linked Learning Alliance, program officer for the California Education Policy Fund, and co-director of the California Legislative Staff Education Institute.

Cabaldon was selected mayor of West Sacramento by fellow council members in November 1998, after first being elected to the City Council in 1996. The council chose him for three more one year terms as mayor. In 2004, he won West Sacramento's first direct mayoral election. He was re-elected mayor in 2006, 2008 and 2010, was unopposed in the November 2012 general election, and was reelected with 84.3 percent of the vote in the 2014 general election.

The Logo network featured Cabaldon in a 2006 episode of the series Coming Out Stories, when he came out publicly in his annual State of the City address.