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.

As the 7th of 8 children in a community-minded family in Wisconsin, something in Matt’s DNA always told him public service is a virtue. Public officials should work for the people, not the other way around. Matt now hopes to take his voice to Sacramento and change the ‘business as usual’ approach that is driving middle-class people to leave our state.

Twenty-two years ago, Matt moved to Orange County, bringing his business sense with him. In 2000 he started a new auto dealership, Infiniti of Mission Viejo. He then built two additional dealerships from scratch: Audi of Mission Viejo and Volvo Cars Mission Viejo. The three businesses created over 185 good-paying local jobs. Gunderson’s strong business skills and professional integrity earned him appointments to the Audi National Dealer Advisory Board and the Infiniti Dealer Council, where he served as Council Chairman for three years.

After recently selling his dealerships, Matt realized he had a choice – sit back and complain or run for office to try to improve the state. He picked running for office.

Matt is currently closing out 10 years on the Mission Hospital Foundation Board, where he served as Chairman and where he led one of its most recent capital fundraising campaigns. He also served as the Chairman of the Mission Hospital’s Emergency and Trauma Task Force. Previously, Matt served on the Saddleback College Foundation Board, was Chair of the Orange County Auto Dealers Association, and spent several years as a volunteer AYSO Extra soccer coach.

A fourth-Generation Encinitas resident, Catherine Blakespear grew up in Del Mar and Cardiff, where she attended Torrey Pines high school. She was a three-time MVP of her varsity basketball team and captain for two years. She then attended Northwestern University in Chicago, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism.

After five years as a print journalism reporter, writer and editor for the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press, she attended law school at the University of Utah, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law and Family Studies, graduating in 2006.

As an attorney, Catherine clerked for a justice on the Utah Court of Appeals before working for a large law firm, and eventually co-founding a woman-owned law firm focusing on estate planning.

Catherine and her husband moved back to her hometown of Encinitas in 2009, where she joined the city’s Traffic and Public Safety Commission. At the end of her term, she was elected to the Encinitas City Council in 2014. She was subsequently elected Mayor in 2016, and re-elected in 2018 and 2020 by double-digit margins.

In December of 2020, she was unanimously chosen in a bipartisan vote to be the Chair of SANDAG, San Diego County’s powerful transportation agency. She is also a member of the county’s Airport Authority and the Regional Solid Waste Association board.

Catherine and her husband Jeremy live in Cardiff with their two teenage children. They enjoy backpacking, biking and harvesting fruit and honey from their backyard.

Joe Kerr has lived in Orange County, California, since 1964 when his family moved here from upstate New York. Joe and his four siblings were raised in a family that truly valued public service; his grandfather, father, and three of his brothers all served in the U.S. military, and after his time in the U.S. Navy, Joe's dad joined the American fire service.  As a young man, Joe decided to follow in his father's footsteps and became a second-generation professional firefighter.  He served with the California Department of Forestry, the Orange County Fire Department, and the Orange County Fire Authority for over 34 years, including 27 years as a Fire Captain.

Over the course of his career, Joe received many awards for his bravery and courage.  He was named Cypress Fire Department's Fireman of the Year in 1979, Overachiever of the Year by the Orange County Firemen's Association in 1984, and the Orange County Fire Department's Fire Captain of the Year in 1986.  In 1981, he was given a Certificate of Merit from the Orange County Board of Supervisors for his role in responding to the Air California jetliner crash at John Wayne Airport.  He was also presented with the Courage Under Fire Award in 1999 for rescuing and successfully reviving a non-breathing occupant who was trapped in a residential structure fire. In 2012, just after he retired, Joe received numerous awards and recognition for saving the life of an 11-month-old baby in his community that had drowned in her family's backyard swimming pool.

Prior to his retirement from the fire service, Joe simultaneously held numerous leadership positions in public safety and labor relations.  He was the first President of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association, a Vice President of the California Professional Firefighters Association, an IAFF District Field Services Representative for the western states (CA, AZ, NM, HI), and a Vice President of the Orange County Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO).  It was while working in these capacities that he discovered a strong knack and a passion for political action.  In 2012, Joe was presented the Samuel Gompers Award for his outstanding contributions and unwavering commitment to the working men and women of Orange County, and now he hopes to continue his commitment to public service by utilizing his expertise and knowledge of the political process to benefit the citizens of California's 38th Senate District.

Joe and his wife China live in Coto de Caza with their teenage son who plans to continue the Kerr family legacy of public service by joining the fire service after college. They enjoy family activities like traveling, golfing and boating.

In a repesentative democracy, engaging in the political process is how we compete and negotiate for our rights, responsibilities, resources, and ideals. When the people elect representatives to create laws and policies on their behalf, they do so with the expectation that those representatives will carry out their will.

That is why I'm running for State Senate.  I believe we need leaders who will make decisions based on doing what is right for our citizens, not based on political favor or expediency. Right now, public safety, affordable housing, local control vs. state overreach, economic equity and recovery, high taxes and the crippling overregulation of our businesses, homelessness, devastating wildfires, climate change and drought are all crises in California that need sustained, focused leadership.

I am a common-sense, creative problem solver with a proven 25-year bipartisan track record of working with legislators on both sides of the aisle to get things done. I have worked in cooperation with 5 CA Governors and 2 U.S. Presidents to get scores of legislation signed and passed at the local, state and national levels, and I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work for the people in CA's 38th Senate District.