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| David Mercado Valderrama - 1st Filipino-American to win as representative to the Maryland Legislature (1990) |
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IN 1990, David M. Valderrama became the first Filipino-American to be elected to a state legislature on the mainland United States. A Democrat, he served Prince George’s County in Maryland as a member of the House of Delegates from January 9, 1991 to January 8, 2003.
Born in Manila, Philippines, on February 1, 1933, Valderrama holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Far Eastern University, Manila, Philippines, and a Master of Comparative Law degree (American Practice) from George Washington University in Washington, DC.
A former Philippine lawyer and anti-Marcos activist, he immigrated to America in November 1961, and worked for many years as a senior legal specialist of the US Library of Congress. Regarded as a community role model and coalition builder, Valderrama has been a band-leader, sales executive, bank executive, television correspondent, author, small businessman, publisher, and editor before he entered politics.
The former president of the Philippine Lawyers Association of Washington, DC.
Valderrama became the first FilAm probate judge in the US. He was first elected to public office in 1982, when he won a seat on the State Democratic Central Committee, where he served as a vice-chair for Prince George’s County until his appointment by Governor Harry Hughes to fill an unexpected vacancy on the bench in November 1985. In 1986, as his term was running out, he stood for election in his own right. He ran in the September primary and won overwhelmingly in an unusually crowded field of 11 candidates, which victory he duplicated in the November election of the same year. Following his election, Valderrama became the Maryland State Representative to the National College of Probate Judges and the Orphans’ Court Liaison Judge from Prince George’s County to the Maryland General Assembly. In 1990, he was elected to the state legislature where he served for more than a dozen years.
Among Valderrama’s many achievements are the following:
Member of the Constitutional and Administrative Law Committee, 1991-92 Environmental Matters Committee, 1992-94
Deputy Majority Whip, 1995-2001
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