Royal school employee aims for political career

ROYAL CITY - If you have visited the Royal School District administrative office in the last couple of months, it's likely you have met Gina Saldaña.

Superintendent Rose Search's new administrative assistant hopes to be here for some time, but she has lofty goals that would take her as far as Washington D.C. if they were realized.

Inspired by her father, Jose Saldaña, who served eight years on the Quincy City Council, Saldaña hopes to develop a career in politics. She hopes to be president of the United States some day, but she would settle for the U.S. Senate.

"Washington was the first state with two women senators at the time," she noted.

This is not a pipe dream of which Saldaña speaks. She's been planning on politics for several years and she has prepared for it. She knows the road will not be easy, but she's prepared to start at the very beginning and will probably run for Quincy City Council in the next election cycle.

Saldaña has experience with high-level political campaigns. In 2012 she interned on the Denny Heck for Congress campaign. She knocked on doors, put out door hangers and worked phone banks.

"I did sign waving on overpasses," she said.

Saldaña is a 2008 graduate of Quincy High School. She graduated from St. Martin's University in 2012 with a degree in political science and a minor in women's studies.

Saldaña has stayed close to home during her early years of employment. As a sophomore in college, she had a summer job with Cave B Inn, bussing tables for the restaurant Tendrils.

This year, from February-June, Saldaña was a customer care representative for Quincy Community Health Center. From June-September, she was executive assistant to the director of the Commission for Hispanic Affairs.

Saldaña applied with the RSD the last week of September, after former administrative assistant Laurie Shoemaker resigned. She was hired in October.

"I had moved back to Quincy. I was looking for something I could be good at," she said.

Among other duties, Saldaña assists in document writing, arranges Search's calendar and sets up conferences and meetings.

When she starts to run for public office, Saldaña will have health and education at the core of her platforms.

She could learn more about both subjects at her current post.