It was at a Tea Party protest in Modesto that Jeff Takada finally realized that the movement around him had become significant enough to notice.

A lifelong resident of San Joaquin County, Takada – a 1997 East Union High School graduate (then known as Jeff Wells) – took notice to the fervor of the crowd outside of the Brenden Theater that assembled to protest wasteful government spending and support individual freedom.

It was the first step in his process to make a run at the 11th Congressional District seat held by Jerry McNerney. The race is being contested by six Republic candidates who all hope to unseat the surprise victor of a narrow 2006 election that ousted longtime Washington, D.C. player, and Tracy resident Richard Pombo.

“There was so much energy and so much enthusiasm for economic liberties and personal freedom and the institution of constitutional government,” Takada said. “It showed me that people are interested and people are passionate, and that kind of got things started.”

For the last five years Takada has been a full-time high school teacher with experience in both an inner-city setting in Stockton and a rural agrarian setting in New Jerusalem. Both places, he feels, shed insight into the lives of the people of San Joaquin County.

While there are six people currently vying for the Republican nomination, only three currently reside in San Joaquin County. Takada feels his lifelong residency makes him the perfect candidate to represent the ideals of the Central Valley.

“I know the heart of the people of this area, and there are only three people in this race so far that are from San Joaquin County,” Takada said.

“There should be a person from San Joaquin County elected to represent the 11th district – the bulk of which resides within the county.

“I hear from the parents of my students things that would normally be reserved for a close friend or a priest – concerns about water, taxes, community-based government, and people that they don’t want telling them how to live their lives. That’s not the kind of candidate I want to be in my quest to represent these people in Congress.”

After graduating from East Union High School, Takada earned his master’s degree in cross-cultural education, and he is bilingual in Japanese.

Through extensive world travel, Takada met the woman he would eventually marry in Japan. He went through the legal immigration process with her in order to start a new life together as a family in America. With wife Emi, Takada welcomed his daughter Claire into the world last year.

But while that travel has brought great joy into his life, it has also showed him the extensive horror that can come from an overbearing government.

While in Beijing just before September 11, Takada witnessed the beating of protestors who, he says, were dragged away to awaiting Special Police vans and hauled away.

“It’s a terrifying prospect when you realize what people who don’t have a government that represents constitutional freedom have to endure,” he said. “They suffer mightily because of that.”

When he takes the stage at Crossroads Grace Community Church on Monday, Jan. 11, Takada will be representing his platform to restore the control of America’s constitutional republic to the rightful hands of the citizens.

He proposes this through cutting spending and over taxation, opposing government buyouts of private industry, getting Congress out of the health care debate, and conserving the stewardship and conservation of water in the Central Valley.

Takada also has plans to use his experience as educator to help curtail federal directives and mandates he feels have hamstrung classroom teachers, and opposes illegal immigration. He notes that the open border situation has helped create an underground economy of oppressed people right in the heart of the Central Valley.

“The youth of today are the first generation of Americans that are going to have a lower standard of living than their parents,” he said. “That’s simply unacceptable, and shows that government as we know it is broken and needs to be fixed.”

For more information about Takada’s campaign, or his stance on individual issues, visit his website at www.takada2010.com. Donations will be electronically accepted by the end of the week, and can also be sent to P.O. Box 4207, Manteca, CA 95337.