Nora Campos
Campos was elected to City Council in a special election in 2001, overwhelmingly re-elected twice to represent over 97,000 residents in East San José. She has built upon existing neighborhood qualities in encouraging resident involvement, organizing small businesses, and increasing affordable housing through over 1500 affordable units. She serves as board member for the League of California Cities and President of its Latino Caucus. In 2006, Campo founded the Latino Leadership Alliance to establish a forum for influential figures to discuss key issues and create a Leadership Academy for students. She currently serves the LLA as At-Large Board member.

Cindy Chavez
Directly after graduating from San Jose State University, Chavez became active in the San Jose community. She worked as a budget and policy aide on health, human services and transportation issues at the Board of Supervisors. Chavez won her first election to San Jose's City Council in 1998 and focused on the building blocks of great urban centers: establishing standards for traffic calming, building affordable housing and promoting excellent schools. Four years later she ran unopposed for re-election and was named Vice Mayor during her second term. Chavez has also contributed to local high technology initiatives, the arts and guided the political participation of emerging ethnic communities.

Joe Coto
Coto is currently serving his second term in the California Assembly. His agenda in the Legislature continues to focus on making California’s schools the best in the nation. He is striving to ensure that all of California’s children have the ability to experience the American dream; which includes going to college, securing a good paying job, having health insurance and owning a home. Coto was recently elected Chair of the 26 member Latino Legislative Caucus. Coto was appointed to Chair the Assembly Insurance Committee. Spending most of his career in education, Coto had been superintendent of schools for 18 years.

Manny Diaz
Diaz has spent over 25 years in public service. At the community’s urging, he ran for public office and was elected to the San Jose City Council, District 5 and then served two terms in the California State Assembly. Diaz has devoted himself to the betterment of the community in Education, Housing, Healthcare, Job Creation, the Environment and Public Safety. He has also been a champion for the undocumented, the needy and our diverse ethnic communities.

Liz Figueroa
In 1998 Figueroa was elected to the State Senate. She authored several bills to help her high-tech constituency and served as a member of the Assembly Select Committee on Education Technology. Figueroa worked with the White House on landmark legislation that ensured a two-day hospital stay for mothers and their newborns. She co-chaired the conference committee that drafted major legislation, Healthy Families, to provide health insurance for the children of the working poor.

Ron Gonzales
Gonzales was re-elected as Mayor of San José, the Capital of Silicon Valley, in the March Primary of 2002. His goals as mayor included strengthening neighborhoods, improvement of public education, and ensuring the continuing economic vitality of the city with high quality public services and effective solutions to affordable housing and traffic congestion in the region. Before his election as Mayor, Gonzales worked as an executive with the Hewlett-Packard Company, where he led a national education initiative that established partnerships between Hewlett-Packard, local school districts, and universities.

Laura Macias
As a City of Mountain View Councilmember, Macias pushed for more community involvement and more analysis of the city’s operations. She spearheaded a Hate Crime Vigil with the community. She is also a strong advocate of smart growth for all, believing in an important social equity component. In 2007 Macias was selected as Mayor. She has driven the General plan update. She has convened meetings of City Chairs for input and involvement. Macia’s mayoral schedule is often full of many one-to-one meetings along with community listening and ribbon-cuttings.

Simon Salinas
Salinas began his public service career in June 1989 when he was elected as the first Mexican-American to serve on the Salinas City Council. During his tenure with the City of Salinas, Salinas served as the Mayor Pro-Tem. He was elected to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors in 1993, 1997 and currently holds that same position. Sworn in to the California State Assembly on December 4th, 2000, Salinas represented the 28th Assembly District.

George Shirakawa Jr.
Continuing his father’s work and vision of serving the Latino community as well as the entire community of San Jose, Shirakawa was appointed to fill his father’s seat on the city council and went onto be elected two full terms on the San Jose City Council. He served a total of 8+ years as the district 7 council representative. Shirakawa’s work as a councilmember was so respected by his colleagues, Mayor Ron Gonzales chose Shirakawa to be the Vice Mayor during his final 2 years on the council.