# State Senator, District 6

Compare records and positions simply between Roger Niello or Sean Frame for State Senator, District 6 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the California State Senate (4-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/state-senate-6
- 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: 94 out of 100 (Very strong), across 10 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Roger Niello** — California State Senator · Republican · Incumbent
- **Sean Frame** — Small Business Owner · Democratic

Senator Roger Niello took 56.2% of the June 2 vote and Democrat Sean Frame took 28.5% to claim the second slot. The district covers Sacramento's eastern suburbs and the El Dorado foothills.

The winner holds one of 40 State Senate seats for a four-year term, inside a 12-year lifetime cap on service in Sacramento. Senate districts are twice the size of Assembly districts, terms run twice as long, and the Senate confirms the Governor's appointments. This district's member sits in the minority caucus, where enacting legislation requires majority-party agreement.

The incumbent's campaign carries $425,000 in direct party funding, one of the largest party investments on this ballot — a sign the seat is being defended rather than assumed. The challenger has the third-largest small-donor base on this ballot at $28,953. Weigh a minority-caucus record against a challenger with unusually broad individual support and a fraction of the money.

## Roger Niello

Roger Niello, a Republican, represents this district in the state Senate. He spent 25 years running his family's car dealerships. He later served as president and CEO of the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce (official biography). He was elected to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors in a 1999 special election. He then served two terms in the state Assembly, from 2004 to 2010, as vice chair of the Banking and Finance Committee. In the Senate, he has authored bills on business regulation and disability-access "right to cure" rules for small businesses. He has also worked on health measures, such as requiring schools to stock epinephrine (official biography).

Niello is running for a second Senate term. In September 2025, the Senate voted 39-0 to raise pay for incarcerated firefighters during active wildfires (AB 247). Niello was the only senator who did not vote (Legislature floor vote record). He also opposed AB 1231, a felony diversion bill. He said it "coddles criminals and insults the overwhelming number of Californians who demanded that we hold criminals accountable" (official Senate statement, Sept. 9, 2025). The bill did not become law. The Assembly did not concur in the Senate's amendments that September (Legislature bill status).

He promises to keep opposing "new taxes and regulations that drive up costs for Californians" (Sacramento Bee). He wants to fully fund law enforcement rather than "defund the police" (Sacramento Bee). He has called the 2026-27 budget proposal one that "feels as though the state is running in place" (official Senate statement, Jan. 9, 2026). His office has also pushed to ease disability-access compliance costs for small businesses. He wants to eliminate daylight saving time in California (official biography).

**Strengths:** A long record in local and state office, and a public record of speaking out on crime bills rather than staying quiet.

**Trade-offs:** Did not vote on a bipartisan bill raising pay for incarcerated firefighters that otherwise passed the Senate unanimously.

**Keep in mind:** How you weigh a single missed vote against two decades in office, in a chamber where his party holds the minority, is the decision this profile leaves to you.

## Sean Frame

Sean Frame, a Democrat, is a longtime resident of the district who spent nine years as a trustee on the Placerville Union School District board. He says he was moved to run for school board after his son's elementary school principal was shot and killed on campus (campaign site). On the board, he says he helped deliver broadband access, support for students facing housing insecurity, and a dual-language immersion program, in a district where, by his account, seventy percent of students were food insecure and ten percent homeless (campaign site). He now works as a shop steward for CSEA Local 480, representing school support staff for the Sacramento County Office of Education (Sacramento Bee).

Frame says he believes "there is a real role for government," and that this belief "obligates him to see the work done well" (campaign site). He runs what he calls a "corporate-free" campaign, accepting no money from industries that lobby the Legislature, including oil and gas interests his opponent has taken money from (Sacramento Bee). He has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress, so this campaign and his school-board tenure are his record for voters to weigh.

He promises to establish a state public bank to finance affordable housing and to bar private equity firms from buying single-family homes. He backs California's single-payer health care system as, in his view, the most cost-effective option, and supports solar and battery storage built with union labor over nuclear power. He also wants schools to redirect existing funding toward classroom spending and support-staff wages "without requiring tax increases" (campaign site).

**Strengths:** Nine years of school-board experience and a stated no-corporate-money pledge that sets him apart from most candidates on this ballot.

**Trade-offs:** No record in state or federal office, so voters have his board tenure and campaign promises to judge, not a legislative record.

**Keep in mind:** He entered public life after a shooting at his son's school. How much that should shape his fitness for the Senate is left to you.

## Record in office

Roger Niello (Republican) is the sitting State Senator for this district and is lead author of 35 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 6 of them signed into law.

Sean Frame 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

Niello — SB 992 (2026): County auditors: special districts: annual audit exceptions.

Niello — SB 517 (2025): Home improvement contract requirements: subcontractors.

Niello — SB 765 (2025): State snake.

Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record.

## Financial info

- **Roger Niello**
  - Primary: $1,034,029 raised (Individuals: $127,900; PACs & committees: $210,750; Party: $425,000; Businesses & other orgs: $263,875; Self-funding: $5,900)
  - November: $31,500 raised (Individuals: $9,000; PACs & committees: $13,000; Businesses & other orgs: $9,500)
- **Sean Frame**
  - Primary: $154,415 raised (Small donors: $28,953; Individuals: $74,001; PACs & committees: $49,549; Businesses & other orgs: $1,500)
  - November: $11,716 raised (Individuals: $11,466; PACs & committees: $250)

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

- Sean Frame for Senate 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. [Senator Roger Niello — About Roger Niello (career biography)](https://sr06.senate.ca.gov/about-roger-niello)
4. [Senator Roger Niello — AB 1231 undermines public safety, Senate Republicans expose in official analysis (quote on AB 1231)](https://sr06.senate.ca.gov/content/ab-1231-undermines-public-safety-senate-republicans-expose-official-analysis)
5. [California Legislature — AB-247 Senate floor vote record (Niello's non-vote)](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB247)
6. [California Legislature — AB-1231 bill status (did not become law)](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1231)
7. [Sacramento Bee (via Yahoo News) — Your guide to California's 6th District state Senate race](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/guide-california-6th-district-state-205037505.html)
8. [Sean Frame for Senate — campaign site (biography and issues)](https://www.seanframe.com/)
9. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/)
10. [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

State Senator, District 6 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, "State Senator, District 6 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/state-senate-6 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026).

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