Candidate for
Member, Democratic Party County Central Committee; County of Los Angeles; Assembly District 38

I am running to continue to represent California's 38th Assembly District as a member of the Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee (LACDP).

I was elected to LACDP in 2008 and previously served as an alternate to the Chairman of the 38th Assembly District Delegation. I am now Secretary of the Delegation and thus have been responsible for organizing endorsement interviews of local candidates. I consider this to be one of County Committee's most important functions.

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 also serve as a member of the State Central Committee (DSCC), where I serve on the Legislative Committee.

I live in Porter Ranch with my wife Dawn and son Ray. I am a software developer and manager. I am Vice President of the North Valley Democratic Club and represent the club on the Executive Committee of DP/SFV (Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley).

I had previously 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 endorsement list for the comments made about me by these respected leaders.

I appreciate your support.

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 grew up in Chatsworth and now live in Porter Ranch with my wife Dawn and son Ray.

I was fortunate to have been raised and groomed on Democratic Party politics. Grandpa worked in Roosevelt's campaigns and mom 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.

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.

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.

The Importance of Education

I currently serve as Corporate Secretary and Member of the Board of Trustees of The Summer Science Program, an educational non-profit that provides teenagers with an opportunity to study math, physics, and astronomy in a college-like environment and to work on a real science project with real scientists.

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 developer and manager. For over seven years I have been working in Chatsworth for a small but long established company, Micro Memory (recently acquired by Curtiss Wright, the Wright Bros' company). I previously worked for Sun Microsystems for 9 years.

I learned much from my contrasting experiences with Micro Memory and Sun. Micro Memory does its own production in the United States. Sun has been outsourcing many jobs to India and other foreign countries. 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.

Political Activism

I am Vice President of North Valley Democrats, 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 have been a leader in the voter protection movement and in the fight against abuse of administration power. As the lead researcher on impeachment, 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 joined the County Committee in February, 2007. With my positions on LACDP and DSCC, I feel I have been able to make a real difference. I worked on the resolution to impeach Judge Bybee for his support of torture -- a resolution eventually chosen by the DSCC as one of a handful of priority resolutions and then passed on the floor of the 2009 State Convention. I sponsored the successful LACDP resolutions calling for an end to the death penalty and calling for the California Democratic 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.