Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 62; Democratic Party

Assembly Member Wilmer Amina Carter has long served as a leader, mentor and an advocate for our citizens and youth in the Inland Empire. She is serving her second term in the State Assembly representing the people of California and the 62nd District, which includes Rialto, Colton, Muscoy, Bloomington and parts of Fontana and San Bernardino.

She is committed to creating a sustainable community, which includes creating green jobs and retraining, promoting renewable energy and bringing resources to the 62nd District.

Assembly Member Carter believes we can stimulate our economy by strengthening small and independent businesses. Increasing energy independence through green technology is an economic imperative, she believes. So is reforming our health care system. Assembly Member Carter has also called for education reforms in to create a more educated and specialized workforce.

During her tenure, Assembly Member Carter has created, co-authored and supported laws that improve health, safety, transportation, jobs, housing and education for the citizens of the 62nd District and California. She is helping to create jobs through her support of the $2.6 billion federal stimulus funding bill (AB 320) for our highways and roads and to further state economic development. As a business owner, Assembly Member Carter is a strong advocate for small businesses, the engine of the California economy. Assembly Member Carter fought successfully for changes (AB 184) to provisions in the state budget that would have effectively shut down the state's highly successful Small Business Loan Guarantee Program.

Assembly Member Carter is also fighting to keep our citizens in their homes in this difficult economy. A measure (AB 1137) that she co-authored requires lenders to contact homeowners and explore restructuring options before initiating the foreclosure process. Assembly Member Carter supported a bill (AB 329) to give senior homeowners greater consumer protections by keeping them fully informed about the consequences of entering into a reverse mortgage.

Assembly Member Carter is protecting consumers and saving lives with a law (AB 252) that requires patients to have a medical check before undergoing cosmetic surgery. She also co-authored a bill (AB 12) that would have extended benefits to foster care teens through 21, and she has fought to preserve or reinstate funding for black infant health programs, the disabled and animal protection. She has helped bring $870,000 in federal stimulus dollars to her district that will create 200 green technology jobs in 2010. She has also made local businesses more aware of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in training grants made available to District 62 businesses through the Employment Training Panel.

She learned early on in life the value of self reliance and community support. Assembly Member Wilmer Amina Carter comes from a large, extended family and spent her childhood years on a farm in Mississippi before moving to San Bernardino.

She has a demonstrated commitment to public service. For 23 years, she worked under the late Congressman George Brown, culminating in the appointment as his District Director. She also coordinated legislative and community relations for Cal State San Bernardino.

Assembly Member Carter is a strong proponent of real world career training for high school students. She developed and directed a school-to-work program that became a national model for career development. She started and managed Creative Careers for Youth, a joint venture between the U.S. Department of Labor and National Council of Negro Woman.

Assembly Member Carter, who has a master's in education from Cal State San Bernardino, was elected to the Rialto School Board, where she served for four 4-year terms. Her commitment is to make the educational system accessible to everyone. She is the first living African American woman in the Inland Empire to have a new comprehensive high school named for her.

Assembly Member Carter has been involved more than 30 local, national organizations, and continues to devote her time to many of them. She is a small business owner with her husband Ratibu Jacocks. They live in Rialto and have three adult children.