Firefighter files for Rep. Lim’s House seat

Longtime public servant wants to give city its due

By Michael Ureel

The Gresham Outlook, Mar 14, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (7 Reader comments)

Greg Matthews

contributed photo

ADVERTISEMENTS

A longtime and active Gresham resident threw his hat into the ring for one of the few uncontested state House seats in the May primary.

Greg Matthews is running as a Democrat, uncontested in May, and against incumbent John Lim, R, District 50, in November.

Matthews, 43, has been a lifetime Gresham resident and served as a police officer for 11 years and now is on his 11th year as a firefighter. He also served in the Army as a military police paratrooper.

“I feel like I’ve spent well over half my life defending my country and my community, and this is the next step of serving,” Matthews said. “It’s something I’ve been considering for a great deal of time, and the time is right to do it this year.”

Matthews and his wife, Suzette, own Small World Learning Center day care in Gresham, and they have three girls – Kassidy, 7, Jessica, 4, and Samantha, 2 – in the Gresham school system. He’s also the president of Gresham Firefighters, Local 1062.

“I feel like I’m very connected to this community, and I feel strongly about the livability issues in Gresham,” he said. “It came down to a passion about Gresham and the direction that we need to get into.”

He’s still working out his running platform, but he mentioned several issues important to him, including public safety, schools, and living-wage issues for working families.

According to his campaign pamphlet, he would “fight to make sure the politicians pay attention to East County’s public safety needs.” Regarding taxes, Matthews supports “aggressive audits of state agencies and increased citizen oversight to reduce government waste.”

1 | 2 Next Page >>