Meet Gus Mattammal, Candidate For 15th Congressional District Seat

SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA — Gus Mattammal, a private tutor and Half Moon Bay resident, is running to represent the 15th Congressional District, a redrawn district held by the outgoing Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo).

Speier announced that she wouldn't be running for reelection after representing most of San Mateo County and parts of San Francisco since 2008. Her predecessor, Tom Lantos, had held the seat from 1991-2008. The redrawn district stretches from San Francisco down to East Palo Alto, with parts of Menlo Park and Atherton included.

Mattammal is one of six candidates running for the open seat. The primary is June 7, narrowing the field to two candidates before the Nov. 8 general election.

Learn more about Mattammal and his goals for the district as voters cast their ballots before and on Election Day June 7th in the following exclusive Q&A with Patch.

Age (as of Election Day)

50

Party Affiliation

Republican

Family

Wife Jill Morris Mattammal, 48

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

BA, Physics and BA, Mathematics, Pomona College 1994; MBA, Yale School of Management, 2000

Occupation

Director, Advantage Testing. 19 years experience as a private tutor, 15 years in management

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

None

Campaign website

https://gus4congress.com/

Why are you seeking elective office?

I’m running for Congress to fundamentally change the nature and tone of our politics. Like so many Americans, I’ve watched with dismay over the last 25 years as the tone of our politics has become increasingly toxic. America must be strong if we are to handle the challenges we face in the world, and we will not be strong if we spend all our energy fighting each other. I will be a force to help remind Americans that whatever our disagreements may be, we are, above all, Americans.

I’ve put together a policy platform that is rooted in conservative principles of personal choice, free markets, and incentives to change behavior. It achieves goals long held by liberals: universal healthcare, aggressive action on climate change and comprehensive immigration reform. If we use conservative policies to achieve those goals, then there is a basis for negotiation and compromise, and the temperature of our politics will start to come down.

Whether you are conservative, liberal, or somewhere in between, the people on the other side of the divide from you are not your enemy. They are your family, your friends, your neighbors, and your coworkers. Vote Gus June 7th and November 8th- we’ll solve the big problems we face, and we’ll do it together.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

My opponents on the Democratic side are all longtime politicians who have built lengthy careers in politics by being part of the system and doing the things you have to do to slowly move up the political ladder.

They will never be able to bring fundamental change to the system that made them. As a political outsider, I’m not beholden to either party’s ideologies, and I’ve used that freedom to design a conservative platform that can achieve liberal goals.

And I’ve gotten the support of both the local and the state Republican party leadership, so I have a demonstrated track record of being able to persuade my party to support my plans.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

Aside from education reform and economic development (especially in our under-resourced areas), here are three other major policy planks in my campaign platform:

1) Universal healthcare through universal health savings accounts.

This is not a Medicare-for-all strategy, nor a single-payer strategy. Those are expensive and often lead to low-quality care. My strategy is modeled after Singapore’s healthcare system, which achieves universal coverage at a quarter of the cost of America’s healthcare system while allowing more personal choice and freedom because individuals control their own spending. Less spending, less government, and more individual choice and freedom —these are three conservative goals we’ll achieve while also achieving universal healthcare.

2) Climate change action through targeted investments in technology, including carbon capture and fusion power.

We are in a race with Canada, England and other advanced countries to finish developing these technologies. Whoever wins the race will get to sell them to the rest of the world. I want America to win this race, so we can build new industries, create jobs and wealth and finally make demonstrative progress on climate change.

3) Comprehensive immigration reform.

We will use technology to secure the border, so that anyone crossing it uses a controlled point of entry. We will invest in increasing our immigration court capacity, so we can adjudicate cases quickly; and we will work out a pathway to citizenship for anyone not here legally that involves real restitution for being outside the process, probably in the form of community service.

That will provide a secure border, respect for the law and community work that does not cost taxpayer money, while also bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I’ve built a multimillion-dollar education business centered in San Mateo County that now stretches to a dozen states. I built that business by talking with families one by one, listening to them to understand their challenges and aspirations, and then helping them achieve their goals. Politics at its best is exactly that. I manage a team of almost 50 people, so I have experience putting together high-performing teams, which will be critical to my role as your Congressman.

I also have experience working with nonprofits in our area. For example, for over 10 years, my education company has partnered with Mission Graduates in San Francisco, providing them with pro bono classes for their students, some of which I’ve taught personally.

I’ll use that experience to build more private-public-nonprofit partnerships to attack some of the biggest problems we face in our district, including homelessness, affordable housing and economic development. That way, we don’t have to wait for Washington D.C. to try and get legislation passed. We can start now, in our own community.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Americans hunger for authenticity in their elected officials. Unfortunately, career politicians, most of whom have invested years of their lives carefully building their careers, become so scared of doing anything that might damage their reputations that they lose all authenticity.

I am not a career politician, so I am free to be myself and speak plainly, and that’s what I do. Go to my website and watch some of my videos, and then judge for yourself. You’ll see what I mean.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I’m running for Congress to fundamentally change the nature and tone of our politics. I’m the right person for the job. I have the right strategy for the job, and I have the most important skill for the job, which is the ability to persuade others to join me.

I’m the right person for the job because my life experience has prepared me to build bridges between different groups. I grew up in the inner city, but I spent summers and weekends on a farm. I grew up in churches, but I attended a very liberal college and a very liberal university. I’ve lived in the Midwest, the South, the West and the Northeast. These experiences have given me the ability to speak to many different kinds of people in their language.

I have the right strategy because I’ve developed a platform that can appeal to both Republicans and Democrats, and therefore offers the possibility of the two parties working together. And by running and winning with it in a very blue district, I will show that it’s a platform that should be rolled out nationally. Then Republicans and Democrats will have a set of policies they can work on together.

Finally, I have the most important skill a person trying to change politics must have: the ability to persuade others to join him. I’m endorsed by San Mateo County GOP, San Francisco GOP, California GOP, and the California Congress of Republicans, all of whom recognize that my policies are conservative in their principles, even as they seek to achieve what are often assumed to be liberal goals. And I’ve persuaded many people who have not voted for a Republican in years, sometimes not ever, to vote for me. Vote Gus June 7th and November 8th, and let me show you what I can do.