They are Democrats Stephen Barkalow, Bill Monning, Emily Reilly and Barbara Sprenger and Morgan Hill residents Republican Robert Murray and Libertarian Mark Hinkle.

Assembly District 27 covers most of Santa Cruz County and portions of Monterey and Santa Clara counties, including Morgan Hill and unincorporated areas northwest of Gilroy.

Sprenger, a former twice-elected San Lorenzo Valley school board member, said she's got the ability to look creatively at solutions and to build a constituency.

"At the bottom of all (California's issues) is the budget crisis," Sprenger, 55, said.

Monning, 56, said his main priorities are education funding.

"California is 46 or 47th in per student spending," the self-described community activist said.

Barkalow, a chiropractor, said he's watched the decline in health care for 30 years and realized change wasn't going to happen unless someone got into the legislature and made a change from the inside out. He has never held elective office.

"It would be really nice to put someone in the legislature who understands at least one system really well," he said.

Emily Reilly, 60, is a Santa Cruz councilwoman. She said her work as the owner of a bakery has given her the skills to hold a state office.

"I respect and trust my employees, which translates to trusting and respecting my staff and being responsive to constituents," she said.

Murray, a lawyer, said two issues he'd like to focus on are budget reform and education. Murray, like Barkalow, has never held office, or run for political office. But, he drafted legislation supported by taxpayer associations that was passed unanimously in both houses, he said.

This is Hinkle's seventh campaign, and fifth for the assembly district. Hinkle said he has a duty to bring issues to light that Democrats and Republicans usually don't want to talk about.

"The state budget has grown faster than population growth," he said. "We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem."