Matthew Gene Craffey, a university development director, has lived at Park La Brea for four years and is running as a Republican against State Assemblyman Richard Bloom for his seat in the 50th District.

Courtesy of Craffey Matthew Craffey has lived in Park La Brea for the past four years.

In his first run for political office, Craffey said his faith was restored in the nation’s political process.

“I’ve had a lot of people reaching out to me with their concerns and the issues that matter to them, people who really pay attention to the candidates who really care what they stand for, and that’s been great,” he said.

On the down side, he said the experience confirmed for him that money plays too big of a role in the election process. He wanted to challenge Bloom because he believes it is time to bring balance to the Legislature, which has been dominated by Democrats since 1997, which he said allows for gaps in accountability.

“As much as I am a registered Republican and that’s the party I closest align with – I would say this now and I would say this even if we had a Republican supermajority – I honestly believe that’s true [that there needs to be an even balance],” he said. “I don’t think either side has the complete story. I think you have to have the best ideas from both.”

Craffey’s activism started in 2000 when he was the youngest board member – and one of only two republicans – on the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance.

“It was a great experience because a lot of people that were part of that organization had avoided working with the Republican lawmakers in the county,” he said. “At that time, Ventura County was more of a red county than a blue county, and we had a lot of Republican lawmakers that had no engagement or relationship with the community. And because I was a Republican and gay I could speak to them in the language that they understood and explain to them what we had in common – which was a lot more than what divided us. And I was able to actually help facilitate some important partnerships.”

He is president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, which has been instrumental in removing anti-LGBT language from the state’s GOP platform. The year before, they were chartered as the first LGBT volunteer organization of the Republican party.

As a gay Republican, he thought he was making great progress for the LGBT community’s overall fight for equality. But then he was disheartened when the national GOP party added language to its platform that opens the door for discrimination against the LGBT community, and closes the door on marriage equality.

“That was disappointing for all of us in Log Cabin,” he said. “There were a lot of people that were really upset.”

But he found solace later during the Republican National Convention when Donald Trump became the first presidential candidate to support LGBT rights at the convention.

“Honestly, for all of the things that are legitimate to criticize Donald Trump for, on LGBT issues he’s actually been very supportive,” Craffey said.

But that doesn’t mean he plans to vote for the real estate mogul.

“Honestly, I’m not going to decide … until the day of,” he said.

Craffey’s personal platform revolves heavily around education reform, which he believes will indirectly strengthen the state’s economy.

“If you look at a lot of problems in society, they can be traced back to education and equal access,” he explained.

He said education standards and results can be raised by reforming teacher evaluations, which he hopes would weed out the “bad apple” tenured teachers, and reward the ones who go the extra mile for students. He said he knows the vast majority of teachers do a great job, but the current structure lacks transparency.

“The teachers in our state that are doing a great job, that are thinking outside the box that are staying after school to help kids, they’re not getting paid any more or getting promoted or recognized in any way differently than the teacher who does the bare minimum or the teacher that is completely incompetent but is tenured,” he said.

In general, he said he would work to invest in and improve the state’s school system, especially for low income families.

“I think that’s an area where society does have an obligation to help,” he said. “It’s hard to put a price on how important schooling is. … You can’t guarantee outcome, but you can guarantee access.”

Craffey said the closest he’s come to meeting Bloom was through an exchange on Twitter about a potential debate, but it never materialized.

“I don’t see him being a proactive member of the Assembly trying to make our state and things in our district any better,” the challenger said.

Craffey said he is frustrated he didn’t get a better opportunity to challenge Bloom. He said the incumbent is a fine person and has nothing against him, but Craffey believes Bloom has been part of “the problem in Sacramento” of Democrats creating too much regulation on the state’s economy. If elected, Craffey said he would have a “hands off” philosophy when it comes to industry regulation.

“[California is] not an environment that’s friendly to business,” he said. “It’s really tough if you’re starting out as a business in California. It’s really tough to grow if you’re in California because of the tax rate and the regulation, because there’s an attitude that we’re California so we can just squeeze every last dollar out of this company because they’ll want to be here.”

Assemblyman Bloom, center, hopes to return to the 50th Assembly District after Nov. 8.

Bloom countered and said the state is business-friendly with continuing revenues, but said the Legislature is always reviewing regulations.

“The contention that the state is not business-friendly is off,” Bloom said. “Just look at how the business community is growing. There are some places we could do a better job, but the tech industry and other sectors are very healthy and growing.”

Bloom said it’s hard to say what issue took up the bulk of his time during his last term because it was probably a tie between issues with climate change and housing affordability. He also spent a lot of time working on the state’s budget subcommittees on transportation and natural resources.

He said he is a big supporter of Measure M, which he said will bring a lot of relief and change to the paradigm of transportation. His district includes Beverly Hills, which is working to be the first city to implement autonomous public transportation. Bloom said he is doing his part to advance driverless technologies at the state level. He said they are also working to encourage other technologies that could improve sustainability, but “in the case of autonomous vehicles, that future is within sight.”

“California is going to play a big role in its development,” he said. “We want to make sure we keep that industry here.”

Both candidates recognize that homelessness will continue to be an issue in the state. Bloom said he supports Prop. HHH on Los Angeles’ ballot to raise billions of dollars to create supportive housing for homeless. He also thinks the problem stems from the state’s affordability crisis as well, and has authored bills that Gov. Jerry Brown signed to address those concerns.

“The housing affordability crisis affects everyone from millennials to the growing senior population,” he said.

Bloom added that it has been a pleasure and an honor serving the the 50th Assembly District since 2012.

“I look forward to the results of this election in the hope that I will be returned to office for another term,” he said.