And Takano, a fourth generation Japanese-American, is running in an inland district that was settled in two waves: in the 1930s by Grapes-of-Wrathian whites escaping the Dust Bowl and again in the '70s and '80s by young middle class whites and Hispanics looking for California real estate they could afford. One hundred miles inland, California, so the saying goes, is Arkansas.
But the political winds seem to be blowing favorably for Takano.
Takano like many of this year's unconventional candidates has become a minor celebrity, and thus won more conventional support. House Majority leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) even visited Riverside to stump for Takano last week.
Like many of this year's outsiders, Takano has won support because he is not a creature of party politics. He disagrees with Democratic proposals for national health care and stands firmly against Bill Clinton's idea of a middle class tax cut.
And he's not a slick politician who has tailored the issues he discusses to what's on the people's minds. In fact, Takano seems to enjoy nothing more than discussing technical solutions for public education or the fuel cell as a way to improve energy efficiency.
Takano has made minor compromises. He takes money from political action committees, he says, because he could not compete in fundraising and because some PACs "give a voice to small people."
"If I didn't have access to certain PAC money, I would be susceptible to my opponent, who can collect $500,000 checks from local developers," he says.
On the advice of his campaign staff, he's traded in the bow ties he wore teaching school for standard neck wear. And, as his few critics point out, Takano is not entirely a political novice, having won a seat on the board of trustees of Riverside Community College two years ago.
But these are minor concessions to make for the chance to be a part of the 103rd Congress, which has a unique opportunity to change the country. The next Congress, Takano believes, will be led by newly elected members, many of whom will have unconventional approaches like his own.
"We're going to have a tremendous incentive to grapple with the deficit and the debt and the economy," Takano says.
Takano says he believes in the idea of citizen legislators, and if elected, he doesn't intend to stay too long ("I don't have the megalomaniac Harvard complex," he says). He says he expects to one day return to the classroom, just as soon as he can win the reforms he wants in education and the environment.
"I don't pretend to be hip to the ways of Washington," says 1992's Mr. Smith. "I'm not going to go to Washington on a high horse, or even a pony."