# Member of the State Assembly, District 28 Compare records and positions simply between Gail Pellerin or Carol Pefley for Member of the State Assembly, District 28 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the California State Assembly (2-year term). - Jurisdiction: California Legislature - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-28 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 24, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 92 out of 100 (Very strong), across 6 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Gail Pellerin** — State Assemblymember · Democratic · Incumbent - **Carol Pefley** — Small Business Owner · Republican Assemblymember Gail Pellerin took 72.0% of the June 2 vote and Republican Carol Pefley took 28.0%; they were the only two candidates on the primary ballot. The district covers Santa Cruz County and part of Santa Clara County. The winner holds one of 80 Assembly seats for a two-year term, inside a 12-year lifetime cap on service in Sacramento. An Assemblymember authors bills, sits on the policy committees that decide which bills advance, and argues for the district's share of the annual state budget. Committee assignment is where most of the leverage sits, and it is handed out by the majority's leadership. This race is unusual on one measure worth noticing: both candidates raised real money from small donors, which most contests on this ballot did not. That does not tell you who to prefer, but it does mean both campaigns are answering to individual supporters to a degree that is rare here. Weigh the incumbent's enacted record against a challenger running a genuinely funded campaign rather than a nominal one. ## Gail Pellerin Gail Pellerin, the Democratic Assemblymember for this district, spent more than 27 years in election administration for Santa Cruz County before her election, including years as the elected county clerk. She has represented this district since 2022 and has authored dozens of bills in the Assembly. Her campaign site states that "ensuring that your voice is heard remains my number one priority" (campaign site). This year she authored AB 1902, which tightens the rules on detaining a young offender in a secure youth treatment facility — limiting continuances of probable-cause hearings, requiring a trial within 60 days of a probable-cause finding, and capping total detention at three years; it passed the Assembly 66–0 and the Senate 39–0, and was enrolled and sent to the governor on September 10, 2026 (leginfo). She promises to keep working on affordable housing and homelessness, health care access, economic growth, equality and civil rights, and climate action, saying "democracy can only thrive if elected officials involve the community in solving the problems we face" (campaign site). **Strengths:** 27 years running elections gives her direct expertise behind the elections-related bills she now writes, and her latest bill on youth detention passed the Legislature without a single no vote. **Trade-offs:** She has held this Assembly seat only since 2022, so her enacted record is still shorter than more senior members on this ballot. **Keep in mind:** Weigh nearly three decades of hands-on election administration against a shorter Assembly tenure than some colleagues elsewhere on this ballot. ## Carol Pefley Carol Pefley is a Republican small business owner and the only other candidate on this district's ballot. She has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress. No campaign website or news coverage of her platform could be located. What she would prioritize in office is not documented anywhere that could be located. What is known about her comes from her ballot designation as a small business owner. **Strengths:** She gave this district a contested race rather than an uncontested one, and took more than a quarter of the June vote doing it. **Trade-offs:** She has no record in any office to be judged on, and no documented platform beyond her ballot designation. **Keep in mind:** Coverage surfaced almost no biographical or platform detail about her. That gap is what is publicly available, not a comment on her candidacy. ## Record in office Gail Pellerin (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 34 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 12 of them signed into law. Carol Pefley has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Pellerin — AB 1919 (2026): Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District: transactions and use tax: qualified voter initiative. Pellerin — AB 2333 (2026): Child welfare nongovernmental organizations. Pellerin — AB 1736 (2026): Political Reform Act of 1974: lobbyist employers: fictitious appearances. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Gail Pellerin** - Primary: $525,966 raised (Small donors: $12,172; Individuals: $123,303; PACs & committees: $279,800; Businesses & other orgs: $109,050) - November: $46,128 raised (Individuals: $19,728; PACs & committees: $12,400; Businesses & other orgs: $14,000) - **Carol Pefley** - Primary: $68,216 raised (Small donors: $2,787; Individuals: $54,679; PACs & committees: $400; Businesses & other orgs: $350; Self-funding: $10,000) - November: $9,350 raised (Individuals: $9,050; PACs & committees: $300) Figures are CA Form 460 filings through June 30, 2026 by committees controlled by each candidate, and can include transfers from a candidate's earlier committees. Semi-annual reports covering January–June 2026 were due July 31, 2026, so some totals lag a period behind. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-09-21. Total is itemized (Schedule A) contributions and self-funding loans dated after the June 2, 2026 primary, through June 30, 2026 — small-dollar unitemized (under $100) contributions aren't independently dated in Cal-Access's raw export, so they aren't reflected here and this may undercount true small-donor activity since the primary. This also doesn't include money reported only on 24-hour late-contribution reports (Form 497) that haven't yet appeared in a periodic Form 460 filing. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-08-30. ## Review notes - Gail Pellerin for Assembly may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [CA Secretary of State — Statement of Vote, June 2, 2026 primary (certified 2026-07-10)](https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/prior-elections/statewide-election-results/primary-election-june-2-2026/statement-vote) 2. [Gail Pellerin for Assembly — campaign site (why running, priorities)](https://gailpellerinforassembly.com/) 3. [California Legislature — AB 1902 (2025-2026), Secure youth treatment facilities, text and history](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1902) 4. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org) 5. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 6. [Cal-Access raw data export — California Secretary of State](https://www.sos.ca.gov/campaign-lobbying/helpful-resources/raw-data-campaign-finance-and-lobbying-activity) ## The rest of the ballot Member of the State Assembly, District 28 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Member of the State Assembly, District 28 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-28 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.