A “perennial candidate” whose name has appeared frequently on South Bay area ballots has stuck to his ideology, maintained his enthusiasm, stayed on point and kept the faith despite a succession of losing elections. But now, due to the economic downturn and the vagaries of politics, times are a-changing for Peter Mathews, finally making him a serious contender for a seat in Congress.

Mathews, a 58-year-old college professor, is running for the Democratic nomination for the House of Representatives from the 37th Congressional District against incumbent Rep. Laura Richardson.

Defeating an incumbent is virtually unheard of, and something has to be seriously the matter with a Congress member for him or her to be thrown out of office. But given Richardson’s highly publicized personal and professional challenges, Mathews may be building up enough steam to take her out.

Back on July 27, 2009, the Long Beach Press-Telegram conducted an online poll to gauge the popularity of its hometown representative by asking its readers: “Do you think Peter Mathews has a chance of beating Laura Richardson in the next election?” Some 53 percent of respondents said “yes,” while 47 percent said “no.”

Then, on Feb. 21, 2010, the Progressive Democratic Club held its endorsement meeting where the sentiment was so strong for Mathews that he kept Richardson from getting the endorsement. The club requires that a minimum of 60 percent of the members must vote for a candidate before that candidate is declared the winner. Richardson failed to get that 60 percent.

And last month, Mathews got 65 percent of the votes from the venerable Gardena Valley Democratic Club at its endorsement meeting and walked away with the club’s backing and financial support.

Who is this man who is acting like the little engine that could? He is a naturalized citizen, born in India to a social worker mother and a clinical psychologist father who devoted his career to directing rehabilitation services to people in need.

Mathews immigrated to the United States when he was 10 and grew up in Denton, Tex. He obtained his B.S. degree in psychology and B.A. and M.A. degrees in political science at the University of North Texas before moving to Northern California, where he was elected to his first office — membership on a city planning commission in 1978.

Mathews has been a resident of Los Angeles County for 31 years and has lived in Long Beach for almost 20 years. He is a lifelong educator, having spent more than 25 years teaching American government, international relations, contemporary political issues, and urban politics at Cypress College, where he is a full time professor, and at Cal State Fullerton, where he is an adjunct professor.

Mathews is an ebullient and unapologetic progressive — a retro progressive, really, because his heroes are all dead: Harriet Tubman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, Rep. Augustus Hawkins, etc. He admires the vision, tenacity and humanity of stalwarts of the 1960s. He peppers his discussions with their names and deeds; he quotes them, and is visibly energized by his memory of them.

A political analyst for KNBC-TV and CNN, Mathews is a member of many prominent progressive organizations, including the California Democratic Party Central Committee, the NAACP, and the National Organization for Women. He co-founded the activist group called “Save our Emergency Room at King Drew Hospital” and “Rescue Education California,” a group that worked to reduce K-12 class sizes and which temporarily blocked college tuition hikes. He won the Martin Luther King Drum Major for Justice Award given by the Ministerial Alliance.

Jobs and education are his two biggest issues and he seeks to turn the calendar back to his beloved 1960s to effect improvement in both those areas. He wants higher education in California to be free (or close to it) as it was in the 1960s when it cost $37 a unit. He wants to make attracting and enrolling African-Americans into all the California state colleges and universities a priority. 

Mathews is already working with Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas on fully restoring Martin Luther King Hospital and he also wants to restore Compton College to its original name under high quality leadership.

He says the key to his extremely diverse 37th District is to re-apply the provisions of the 50-year-old Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Bill that fueled bustling job opportunities throughout the South Bay back in the day.

“When I’m in Congress, I plan to bring high-paying jobs back,” Mathews said. “They used to exist here. All over Compton and North Long Beach, we used to have good, middle-class jobs, making cars and all kinds of things, but they went to China and Mexico where the labor is cheap. I want to establish tax incentives, enterprise zones and direct government jobs that were brought here by the late Gus Hawkins. He was a great man during a great time.”