State Sen. Abel Maldonado will have a November challenger in the 15th State Senate District after all.

Independent Jim Fitzgerald, a retired UPS employee from Nipomo, has qualified for the Nov. 4 ballot to challenge Maldonado (R-Santa Maria).

In an e-mail, Fitzgerald said he's running because he thinks he can win and because he believes he can do a better job than Maldonado.

"I think that being an Independent is an advantage in the current political climate.  I believe that people are ready for an independent thinker. In fact, I think that most voters are like me and do not agree 100% with either major party," Fitzgerald said in an e-mail.

Fitzgerald, who has established a website for his campaign, described the high cost of gas as the top campaign issue, and said he would work to promote more alternative fuel sources.

"This includes safe onshore drilling, migration to hybrid and electric vehicles, while continuing to develop all types of alternate and renewable energy," he said by e-mail.

He also said he was against offshore drilling, an important issue for voters in the 15th District, which stretches across California's Central Coast region.

To qualify for the ballot, Fitzgerald said he had to collect 13,533 nomination signatures by August 8, but that he'd considered running for some time.

No Democrat filed the necessary paperwork to run against Maldonado, a moderate Republican who often votes with Democrats. A Pismo Beach attorney, Dennis Morris, failed to receive enough write-in votes in the June 3 primary to qualify for the ballot.

Some said that happened because Maldonado also ran as a write-in Democrat in that election, though he said he did so to give his mother, a Democrat, a chance to vote for him.