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FACEBOOK INSTAGRAMCalifornia’s 6th State Senate District has a familiar face politically representing it. Roger Niello, a former three-term assemblyman, Sacramento County supervisor and longtime businessman, beat Democratic challenger Paula Marie Villescaz by a count of 55.7 percent to 44.3 percent in the November 2022 general election.
Background
Niello, who is 74 as of this writing, has been a fixture of the Sacrmanento business community for nearly 50 years, with his family having done business locally for nearly a century.
He currently serves as co-owner, board member, and corporate secretary for the Niello Company, one of the largest auto dealers in the Sacramento region, and has worked for the organization since 1974. Several years into Niello’s tenure, in 1983, the Sacramento Bee wrote of how Niello’s father, Richard Niello Sr., had initially worked for his father’s auto dealership in San Francisco before coming to Sacramento in 1955 to partner in a Volkswagen dealership with Wes Lasher.
At the time of Niello Sr.’s death in June 2022, 10 days shy of his 100th birthday, son Richard Niello Jr. told the Bee that the business had had $733 million in revenue in 2021.
Roger Niello’s time as an elected official dates to February 1999, when he won a special election to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, winning 55.3 percent of the vote in a five-candidate field. “It makes me feel good that somehow I have made a difference on a volunteer basis and as an elected official I hope to make even more of one,” the Bee quoted Niello as saying.
He followed this with election to the California State Assembly in 2004, serving three terms before being termed out of that legislative body. Niello lost a November 2010 special election to replace the late Sen. Dave Cox, who had represented the then-1st District.
After leaving the Assembly, Niello’s work has included serving as president and CEO of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce from 2012 to 2015.
Aside from his political activities, Niello lives in Fair Oaks with his wife of 52 years, the former Mary Elena Blair. They share five adult children and six grandchildren, according to the bio on his site.
Committees
Niello’s official website doesn’t include his committee assignments as of early February 2023, with committee assignments posted on the site of Senate President Pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins. Niello’s assignments are as follows:
Banking and Financial Institutions (vice chair)
Budget and Fiscal Review (vice chair)
Business, Professions and Economic Development
Insurance
Judiciary (vice chair)
Transportation (vice chair)
Legislative Ethics
Budget Subcommittee #4 on State Administration and General Government
Joint Committee on Fairs Allocation and Classification
Joint Legislative Budget Committee
Select Legislation
SB 232: One of Niello’s first sponsored bills as a state senator, this bill would change the definition of what constitutes a gravely disabled person and change how reimbursement to local governmental agencies and schools works.
District Boundaries and Office Locations
California’s 6th State Senate District includes parts of Placer and Sacramento counties, bordering the city of Sacramento at its north, east, and southern sides. The district includes all or parts of the cities of Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln, Rancho Cordova, and Galt, as well as unincorporated communities such as Granite Bay, Orangevale, and Carmichael. Niello keeps the following offices:
