Sitting on the sidelines isn’t Matt Gunderson’s style. That’s why he’s running for California’s 38th State Senate District. California needs officeholders with real-world experience who aren’t afraid to say what they mean and act on it. In the State Senate, Gunderson will be a bipartisan problem solver, working with everyone to solve the challenges of our time including affordability, homelessness, crime, ensuring local control, and maintaining our quality of life.
These days we all work hard for our money, and life is getting more expensive. Sacramento needs to treat our hard earned money responsibly and with respect. In the Senate I want to help get government focused back on spending that improves our quality of life. Part of this is having clear priorities, like making sure every student gets a great education, and making sure all of our communities are safe.
We need more transparency of Sacramento’s spending, so that the public can easily see where our dollars are spent. We also need regular, nonpartisan oversight of spending so that we can identify fraud, waste, and corruption, eliminate it, and put the money back where it belongs.
We must balance the need for new affordable homes with preserving the character of our neighborhoods. The state legislature should get rid of laws that override community preferences and give for-profit developers free rein to build multi-story, multi-unit rental properties in suburban neighborhoods next to single-family homes.
The Sacramento legislature tends to have a ‘one-size-fits-all’ attitude that ignores what people in the community actually want. I’m running to change that – to put what people in the our communities want first. One of the reasons people want to live here is our quality of life, and we need to stand together to protect what we have built together.
Rising violent and property crime is on everyone’s mind. Even if you live in a safe neighborhood, it’s likely that you or a friend or family member has witnessed public drug dealing or consumption, had a car or business robbed, or wondered whether it’s really safe to walk alone at night. I believe the first job of government is keeping us safe, and that we can do so. Part of this is building trust between law enforcement and communities where the relationship has been strained. Part of it is making sure we have enough well trained, well equipped police to do the job and do it right.
Repeal the state’s disastrous laws that let violent felons out of jail early, which have reclassified serious violent and property crimes as misdemeanors, and have reduced penalties for distributing hard drugs.
Increase our police forces, and make sure they are well trained and equipped while reflecting the diversity of our state.
Oppose the ‘defund the police’ movement. We must provide better training and expand law enforcement techniques when it comes to our mental health crisis.
Address community concerns and equity by building relationships between local communities and police, and make sure every officer is trained to de-escalate violent conflict and is equipped with a body camera.
For a number of years our homeless population has been surging. Letting people live and die in the streets isn’t compassionate. Letting people stay addicted to drugs or suffer with mental illness isn’t liberal. It seems like politicians hold another press conference every week, but at the end of the day their solutions are pie-in-the-sky dreams which never come to be, and which do nothing to actually help get our homeless of the streets, into the treatment and services they need, and which clean up the garbage and camps which have become open air drug markets. There are solutions that have worked. They aren’t easy, but just talking is making the situation worse.
A child’s future shouldn’t be determined by their race or their ZIP code. Sadly, while California has some of the best K-12 schools, we also have some of the worst… and the worst are often in communities that are already struggling. We need to refocus on making sure we recruit more teachers and pay them better if they are willing to work in schools with large numbers of disadvantaged students. Over time, the best way to reduce crime, fill good-paying jobs locally, and get people into the middle class is to make sure every student has the opportunity to learn in a clean, safe environment with skilled educators.
There is more than one path to success in life. Some people may choose to go to college – but it’s getting more and more difficult to get into California schools, they can be outrageously expensive, and it’s increasingly difficult for students to find good paying jobs after they graduate.
Other people may choose the route of working in retail, or manufacturing, or the trades, but we don’t really have an adequate system for helping them with training and the skills they need to succeed. These are not hard problems to fix, and by fixing them, we would open the door to opportunity for generations of people to live middle class lives.
Let me be blunt: I’m a Republican and I like clean air, clean water, and unspoiled nature. I think most of us would agree that we need to make California a greener, bluer place that we can all appreciate and enjoy. Part of this is protecting and improving what we already have, including preventing wildfires, making sure disadvantaged communities get the same level of environmental protection our wealthy communities have, and ensure our beaches and waterways aren’t exposed to oil and other toxic substances.
Part of this is looking to the future, including taking a lead on climate change, preventing new off-shore oil, and moving rapidly towards getting 100% of our energy from renewables.
More than half of the people in California are women, and our mothers, daughters, and sisters have not always been treated with the respect and equality they deserve. Given what is going on nationally, California needs to double down in ensuring that women are treated equally, and that their specific needs are addressed now, not in the future. As a proud husband and “Girl Dad,” this is my commitment.
Make sure that women’s health issues are addressed, now: all women should have access to affordable healthcare, including no-cost breast and ovarian cancer screening, and that the state prioritizes additional funding for breast and ovarian cancer emergencies.
Protect the right to choice. I am pro-choice, and I support and will continue to support California law, which enshrines the right to choice. I believe I’m in the mainstream of our community here: let’s educate our young people so that abortion is less common, but make sure that if a woman needs to make this decision that medical care is available and safe. Like most Californians, I believe we need to use common sense here: I oppose late term abortions, unless the life of the mother is in danger, and support parental notification.
Require equal pay for equal work for women. It’s pretty outrageous that in 2022 women often earn less for the same job than men do. It’s past time to fix this problem.
California is becoming a state only for the uber-wealthy and the poor. It’s sad, but most Californian’s believe it’s almost impossible to find a job or start a small business that allows a person or family to live a middle class life. Most Californians with children believe that their children will have to move out of the state to find financial security. Of course, many people are doing well, but many aren’t, and it should be our priority as Californians to help them succeed. We need a state government that opens up more opportunity for people to move into the middle class, to be able to buy a house and retire here, rather than making our day to day lives harder, more expensive, with more hassles.
No one should have to lose sleep (or their home) wondering if they can afford their healthcare or that of a loved one. Everyone should have access to affordable preventative care. Our emergency rooms should be for emergencies, not day to day health concerns. No one should be denied healthcare for pre-existing conditions. At the same time, I don’t believe that top-down, Sacramento-run health care is the answer. We need to protect the Doctor-patient relationship, and encourage private healthcare to provide the best possible services at the lowest cost to everyone.
It’s hardly a secret that California is one of the least friendly states to people who own a businesses or want to open a business. We constantly see businesses leaving the state, shutting down their doors, or failing to open when there is opportunity. When this happens we lose both starter jobs and good-paying middle class jobs. The truth is this impacts people most who are already struggling to pay the rent, or buy groceries, or to just take the next step in life. This isn’t productive, it isn’t good for our future, and we need to change how we do business here.
Eliminate exorbitant fees and excessive regulations that are easy for huge businesses to pay or abide by but which are crippling for new businesses just getting started, or mom and pop family owned businesses just scraping by.
Stop attempting to shut down independent contractors, people who work on their own schedule and their own time.
Open the ‘welcome wagon’ to businesses all over the country so they can bring good-paying jobs back… let them know we’ll make it easy to open the kind of tech, manufacturing, and retail businesses that provide jobs to all kinds of people with different experience, skills, and needs.