Entrepreneur is ready for Sacramento

Alicia Robinson

After building a business she started on borrowed money into a

multimillion-dollar electronics firm, Cristi Cristich wants to put

her entrepreneurial experience toward policymaking in Sacramento.

Cristich is one of six Republican candidates seeking the 70th

District seat that Assemblyman John Campbell will leave this year due

to term limits.

A native of Silicon Valley, Cristich took a job operating the

switchboard for an electronics firm after graduating from high school

in 1980. She eventually became a product manager and later vice

president of sales and marketing, and when a former customer

consulted her about finding a missile part, she decided she had

learned enough to start her own business.

She borrowed $20,000 from a friend and -- after a bumpy few months

-- she finished her first year with $250,000 in sales, she said.

Today, Cristek Interconnects Inc. employs 150 people and makes

electronic connectors that provide pathways for digital signals in

military and medical products.

As her business grew, Cristich got involved with community

organizations and began mentoring women starting their own

businesses, she said.

As a businesswoman, Cristich believes it’s important to be

involved in the community, she said.

“Business people are uniquely qualified to provide the ultimate

hand-up,” she said. “A job is a hand-up, as opposed to a government

hand-out.”

Her work with the National Assn. of Women Business Owners led her

to advocate for businesses on public policy issues such as trade,

welfare reform and health care.

After working with the administration of then-President Bill

Clinton and agreeing to endorse him in 1996, she decided to get more

involved in Republican party politics, she said.

“Every issue that I ever advocated for was in line with the

Republican position,” she said.

Her desire to promote Republican politics led her to suspend her

own campaign for six weeks last year to help get Arnold

Schwarzenegger elected, she said.

While Cristich places herself firmly on the Republican side of the

aisle, she doesn’t divide political issues along gender lines.

Women are sometimes turned off by politics because of negative

campaigning, but they are concerned about issues that are universal,

such as jobs, health care and welfare reform, she said.

“I’ve always been a believer that if you prepare, you’re qualified

and you persevere, you’ll succeed,” Cristich said. “I think more

conservative women need to step forward and run for office.”