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Matthew Harper

Member of the California State Assembly

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ16732149 ↗
Source-derived summary

Matthew Harper (June 27, 1974) served as the 59th Mayor of Huntington Beach, California (2013-2014). Harper was elected to three terms to the Huntington Beach Union High School District Board of Trustees (1998-2010), one term to the Huntington Beach City Council (2010-2014) and two terms to the California State Assembly (2014-2018).

Early life

Harper was born in Long Beach, California, and lived briefly in Colorado, but grew up in Westminster and Huntington Beach. He is a graduate of Huntington Beach High School.

Education

Harper attended Orange Coast College in

Costa Mesa, California. Harper earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Policy and Management from USC in Los Angeles, California.

Career

Harper was first elected to the Huntington Beach Union High School District (HBUHSD) in 1998, re-elected with the most votes in 2002, and named to an uncontested third term in 2006. There are five governing board members, or trustees, that are each elected at-large by HBUHSD voters. The HBUHSD serves the secondary education needs of the Orange County communities of Huntington Beach, most of Westminster, most of Fountain Valley, a portion of Garden Grove and all of unincorporated Midway City. Four separate feeder elementary school districts serve the primary education needs of the territory served by the HBUHSD. High schools in the district include: Huntington Beach High School, Westminster High School, Marina High School, Fountain Valley High School, Edison High School, Ocean View High School, Valley Vista High School, Coast High School, Community Day School, and Huntington Beach Adult School.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Matthew Harper” is member of the California State Assembly. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Matthew, Harper and Member, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1974, 2013, 2014, 1998—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1974-06-27. For this dossier, Matthew, Harper and Member is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “member of the California State Assembly” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16732149. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1974, 2013, 2014 and 1998.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Matthew Harper”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Matthew Harper primary sources, Matthew Harper archive and Matthew research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Matthew Harper”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Matthew Harper” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.