Biography
Family
I am tired of conservatives asserting that they are the only ones with family values. My family is very important to me, as I am sure yours is to you. I feel it is the government's responsibility to protect family values by providing the infrastructure necessary for each family to prosper in its own way.
I am a San Fernando Valley native and have lived my whole life in this area.
I was born in Encino and grew up and now live in Chatsworth.
I was fortunate to have been raised and groomed on Democratic Party politics.
My grandfather worked in Roosevelt's campaigns and my mother for Adlai Stevenson.
My father, a WWII veteran, was a newspaper editor.
My mother, Arline Mathews, won the Democratic primaries for Congress in 1974 and for Assembly in 1976 and 1980.
As a Los Angeles County commissioner, she brought about many environmental and humanistic changes including securing funding for the world's first gay community center.
I was still small when I marched for Cesar Chavez. At 11 years old, I was working in the McGovern campaign. When I was 13, I walked precincts for my mother's congressional campaign against Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr. (son of the Arizona Senator).
My family has taught me the importance of protecting all families, not just those who fit some specific mold. Families must be given the freedom to prosper in their own way while being empowered with great opportunities including good jobs, quality education, affordable health care, and a safe environment. Those are family values I cherish.
I had previouosly been a leader in the fight against abuse of administration power
and in the voter protection movement.
I have worked closely with the national leaders of Progressive Democrats of America, Democrats.com, AfterDowningStreet.org, and ProtectMyVote.org. See my 2008 endorsement list for the comments made about me by these respected leaders.
The Importance of Education
I currently serve as Parliamentarian and Member of the Board of Trustees of The Summer Science Program, an educational non-profit that provides teenagers with an intensive six-week opportunity to study math, physics, and astronomy in a college-like environment and to work on a real science project with real scientists.
This program is building the next generation of top scientists that will keep us at the top of a high-tech world.
After 12 years of public school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, I went to Caltech in Pasadena where I majored in astronomy and physics.
I left physics to become a software engineer and manager.
I provide consulting services to computer companies on the design of their products.
I had been a Chief Technology officer in a well-established company and a principal in a small start-up company, both designing computer storage products.
I previously worked for 8 years at Micro Memory, a small but long established company in Chatsworth.
Before that, I was at Sun Microsystems for 9 years.
I learned much from my contrasting experiences with these different companies.
Micro Memory did its own production in the United States until it was bought out and shut down by a much larger company.
Sun had been outsourcing many jobs to India and other foreign countries before it got bought out.
Then I saw the entrepreneurial side with a start-up.
We have been losing tech jobs and other professional positions throughout our district.
We must work harder to keep jobs here.
Creating jobs for many must be more important than profits that go to only a few.
For this country to be a technological leader, we need quality public education including the right to go to college.
We should invest in basic research done in the United States by citizens and permanent residents.
We should leverage the great educational institutions we have in this district to partner with businesses and provide them with the pool or workers they need.
Political Activism
I am President of North Valley Democratic Club, with whom I have a very long association. Many members of the club know me from when I was attending their meetings as a little kid with my parents.
I joined the County Party's Central Committee in February, 2007. That led to much more, as the County Committee elected me to State Committee and then the the Executive Board of the State Committee. I was honored to be appointed to the county Rules Committee and the state Legislation Committee.
In these roles I have sponsored a number of successful resolutions at the state and county level, and I have added some important issues into the state platform. I have pushed for nuclear safety, for ending the death penalty, for protecting American jobs, and for calling for the state party to make resources available to win seats for Democrats in all 58 counties. I have consistently stood for protecting our values including good jobs, quality education, affordable health care, and a safe environment.
I have been a leader in the voter protection movement and in the fight against abuse of power by the Bush administration. As the lead researcher on impeachment of Bush and Cheney, I have worked closely with the national leaders of Progressive Democrats of America, Democrats.com, AfterDowningStreet.org, and ProtectMyVote.org. See my endorsement list for the comments made about me by these respected leaders.
I was shocked by the abuse of power by the Bush administration and saddened by the failure of Congress to assert its constitutional authority. We must not set a precedent that future presidents can commit all the same abuses and worse.
I was first elected to the Los Angeles County Democratic Party (LACDP) in 2008 to represent the 38th Assembly District.
From 2012-2015 I served as chair of the party's Region (from the San Fernando Valley to Lancaster) and Vice Chair of the county party and was thus responsible for organizing activities across the region such as the official party endorsement of candidates.
This is a very important activity to ensure that the Democratic party is able to support our local candidates.
I also serve on LACDP's Rules Committee, which has been working on Bylaws changes to help improve the operation of our Party.
LACDP elected me to to represent the county as a member of the State Central Committee and its Executive Board.
In turn the State Committee has appointed me to its Legislative Committee. On the legislation committee, I have succeeded winning support for increasing the minimum wage, overturning Citizens United, and restoring Glass Steagall banking regulations. As an EBoard member, I succeeded in getting into the state party platform that we should phase out all nuclear power. Working on the nuclear and toxic mess at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, I have won statewide party support for a cleanup to the highest standards.
I hope serve you by continuing these efforts and more to protect our values.
Richard M. Mathewsinfo AT voterichard DOT org