# Member of the State Assembly, District 64 Compare records and positions simply between Blanca Pacheco or Raul Ortiz Jr. for Member of the State Assembly, District 64 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-64 - 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 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Blanca Pacheco** — Assemblywoman · Democratic · Incumbent - **Raul Ortiz Jr.** — Pest Control Manager · Republican Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco took 66.5% of the June 2 vote and Republican Raul Ortiz Jr. took 33.5%; they were the only two candidates on the primary ballot. The district covers Downey, Bell Gardens and part of southeast Los Angeles 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. The incumbent has a solid enacted record and one of the most organization-funded campaigns on this ballot: $535,100 of her $1,102,606 came from businesses and other organizations and $528,932 from PACs and committees, with no small-donor total reported. Weigh the record against that funding shape. ## Blanca Pacheco Blanca Pacheco, a Democrat, represents District 64. It covers Downey, Bell Gardens and parts of southeast Los Angeles County and northern Orange County (official Assembly site). She was elected to the Downey City Council in 2016. She then served two terms as Mayor of Downey, the district's largest city, becoming its first Latina mayor (official Assembly site). She earned her bachelor's degree from UCLA and her law degree from Loyola Law School. She has been an attorney since 2003 (official Assembly site). In the Assembly she chairs the Rules Committee. She also sits on Judiciary, Appropriations, Governmental Organization and Local Government (official Assembly site). Pacheco says her upbringing as "the daughter of a nurse and a public school bus driver in a working-class neighborhood" instilled in her "an appreciation for hard work" (official Assembly site). This year she authored AB 1821. Her official site describes it as modernizing the California Public Records Act by moving agency response deadlines from calendar days to business days. The bill extends how long agencies can take to answer a request. After amendments in the Assembly and Senate, it passed both houses on August 25, 2026, and was enrolled two days later (official Assembly site; California Legislature). No 2026 campaign platform document from Pacheco could be located beyond her official legislative descriptions. Her other authored bills this session address survivor protections for sexual battery, bond-spending transparency, homeowner equity after foreclosure, and student athlete mental health training (official Assembly site). **Strengths:** A long record in local and now state government, including chairing the Rules Committee that controls bill assignments. **Trade-offs:** AB 1821 extends how long agencies can take to respond to records requests, a trade-off for people requesting them. **Keep in mind:** No independent news coverage of her 2026 campaign message beyond her own official materials could be located. ## Raul Ortiz Jr. Raul Ortiz Jr., a Republican, works as a branch pest control manager and lives in La Mirada. He is 59 (Orange County Register). He describes himself on his campaign site as "a lifelong social & fiscal conservative businessman, husband and father who knows how to get things done" (campaign site). He serves on the Assembly District 64 Republican Central Committee. He has not held elected office (Orange County Register). This is at least his second consecutive run against Democratic Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco. He also ran against her in the 2024 general election (Orange County Register). In a 2026 Southern California News Group questionnaire, he wrote that "our children and parental rights are under attack along with personal and religious freedoms." He also wrote that California's education system "is in shambles" (Orange County Register). The clearest documented fact about his candidacy is the record itself. He lost the 2024 general election to Pacheco, and he is on the ballot against her again in 2026 (Orange County Register). He promises to "cut spending and balance the budget" before creating "new revenue streams without raising taxes." He lists parental rights, lower taxes and opposition to "geoengineering" among his top three issues (Orange County Register). He also says he would repeal the state's gas tax and "protect Prop 13" (Orange County Register). **Strengths:** He has run twice for this seat, giving him some name recognition in the district despite little institutional support. **Trade-offs:** No record in office, and a platform built more around national political themes than district-specific proposals. **Keep in mind:** His questionnaire answers cover topics like geoengineering that other candidates on this ballot did not raise, alongside more familiar positions on taxes and parental rights. ## Record in office Blanca Pacheco (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 35 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 11 of them signed into law. Raul Ortiz Jr. 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 Pacheco — AB 64 (2025): Vital records. Pacheco — AB 1178 (2025): Peace officers: confidentiality of records. Pacheco — AB 352 (2025): Crimes: criminal threats. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Blanca Pacheco** - Primary: $1,102,606 raised (Individuals: $23,800; PACs & committees: $528,932; Businesses & other orgs: $535,100) - November: $90,000 raised (PACs & committees: $22,800; Businesses & other orgs: $67,200) - **Raul Ortiz Jr.** - Primary: $11,388 raised (Small donors: $3,640; Individuals: $7,398; PACs & committees: $814) - November: $943 raised (Individuals: $943) 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 - Raul Ortiz 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. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org) 3. [Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco — Biography and 2026 Legislation pages (career background, committee role, authored bills including AB 1821)](https://a64.asmdc.org/biography) 4. [California Legislature — AB 1821 bill history (Pacheco's Public Records Act bill, passed and enrolled)](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1821) 5. [Raul Ortiz for Assembly — Home page (his self-description and stated priorities, in his own words)](https://raulortizforassembly.com) 6. [Orange County Register — Raul Ortiz Jr., AD-64 candidate, 2026 primary election questionnaire (his own answers on priorities and record)](https://www.ocregister.com/2026/05/06/raul-ortiz-jr-ad-64-candidate-2026-primary-election-questionnaire/) 7. [Orange County Register — Raul Ortiz Jr., AD-64 candidate, 2024 primary election questionnaire (confirms his earlier run against Pacheco)](https://www.ocregister.com/2024/01/20/raul-ortiz-jr-ad-64-candidate-2024-primary-election-questionnaire/) 8. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 9. [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 64 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 64 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-64 (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.