When he was 16 years old, Matt Kokkonen emigrated from Finland to the United States. Kokkonen said he knew he wanted to live in America shortly after his father died.
“I dragged my mother down to the U.S. Embassy at Helsinki and went [abroad] by myself,” Kokkonen recalled in a recent interview with the Sun. “I landed in New York with one suitcase.”
The 39-year San Luis Obispo resident has come a long way since that day in the Big Apple: “I like to say I have two suitcases now,” he said.
And if all goes according to plan for Kokkonen come election time, the 33rd District Assembly seat candidate could soon be packing those suitcases and heading to Sacramento.
This isn’t Kokkonen’s first time on the ballot—last year he ran against incumbent Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) in hopes of becoming the new congressional representative for California’s 23rd District.
He may have come in second for that race, but based on a poll sponsored by Farm Team Consulting, a Republican campaign consulting company, Kokkonen could have a good shot at becoming the Republican candidate for 33rd District Assembly.
The poll puts Kokkonen at the top for name recognition (66 percent) and also has him listed as local Republicans’ current choice for the position, with 44 percent of the vote. The next closest candidate is San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Katcho Achadjian with 36 percent of the vote.
“Constituents want a fiscally conservative representative,” Kokkonen said. “They want someone who can cut the spending.
“Everybody cries, ‘Yeah, yeah, we gotta cut spending—but not me, not me,” Kokkonen added. “We have to grow up.”
On top of fixing what he calls “the state budget mess,” Kokkonen said he wants to make sure the state’s rights and funds are protected from national leaders.
“The federal government is usurping states’ power,” he said. “The 10th Amendment doesn’t seem to mean anything to the feds.
“The federal budget is a total fiasco and it’s negatively affecting all state and local governments,” he added. “I want to make sure the federal government—and the state government—don’t balance their budgets on the backs of local governments.”
But the state isn’t just a victim, Kokkonen said.
“The [state] government’s desire for more money is just insatiable,” he said. “And for some reason they keep passing more programs that cost money, and unfortunately the taxpayers have to foot the bill.”
Some of the other items at the top of Kokkonen’s list include upholding Proposition 13 and deregulating business and other developments.
“We absolutely need to keep Prop. 13 alive from both the business and residential perspective,” he said. “Many Californians couldn’t afford to live in the state without it.”
And if taxes increase any more in the business sector, it would become nearly impossible to stay fiscally viable in California, Kokkonen said. He added that things are equally difficult for agribusiness.
“They’re hamstrung by all these enormous, extreme environmental regulations, like all the endangered species we have,” he said. “The fact that the state has designated so many endangered species is a huge hindrance to development and business.”
Kokkonen is also outspoken about educational guidelines and funding.
“Education is extremely important to me because it’s the future of our society,” he said. “But we have to get our standards higher or else we will fall behind in the global competition.”
For example, Kokkonen recently researched and wrote an article comparing American and Finnish scores on high school exit exams.
“It’ll shock people to see how different they are,” he said.
When it comes to funding, Kokkonen said it’s important to “get rid of educational bureaucracy and steer money toward teachers and classrooms and away from administrators.”
But realistically, Kokkonen said, not all school programs are going to get full funding from the state.
“Unfortunately the arts are more likely to get cut from than other subjects like math, science, and reading,” Kokkonen said. “It’s unfortunate but that’s where families need to kick in to provide support.”
Growing up in Finland, Kokkonen studied piano and sang with the Vienna Boys Choir.
He and his wife, Jean, have two children: Dan, a computer engineer, and Jana, a major in the U.S. Air Force stationed in Ramstein, Germany.
Contact News Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 5-12, 2009.