John Chiang (California politician)

Background and early career

Chiang is the son of immigrants from Taiwan. Chiang's father, Chiang Mu-dong (江牧東), a Taipei native, relocated to the United States in 1950 to pursue graduate studies at Cleveland State University, after graduating with a degree in chemical engineering from National Taiwan University. Chiang's mother, Shen Yin-hsiang (沈吟香), was a Tainan native, who studied abroad in Japan before immigrating to the United States to pursue further studies. Chiang's parents met at the University of Notre Dame, and soon married.

Chiang was born in New York City and grew up in Chicago. Chiang attended Carl Sandburg High School where he served as student body vice-president alongside student body president Dave Jones. Lifelong friends, Chiang and Jones ran again together in 2010 on the California Democratic slate, with Chiang winning reelection as state controller and Jones being elected California Insurance Commissioner. He graduated with honors with a degree in finance from the University of South Florida and has a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. Chiang's decision to pursue law was influenced by his maternal grandfather, Shen Rong (沈榮), who was a prominent lawyer in Tainan. He moved to Los Angeles in 1987 where he got involved with the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley and the West LA Democratic Club.

Chiang began his career as a tax law specialist for the IRS. He worked as an attorney for then-California State Controller Gray Davis, and also worked on the staff of California Senator Barbara Boxer. He was appointed to the California Board of Equalization in 1997 after incumbent Brad Sherman resigned after being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Chiang was then elected to the office in 1998 and elected to a second four-year term in 2002. He was Chair and represented the Fourth District, primarily serving southern Los Angeles County.

California State Controller (2007-2015)

Chiang ran for California State Controller in 2006. He won the Democratic primary with 53%, defeating State Senator Joe Dunn. In the general election, he defeated Republican State Assemblyman Tony Strickland by over 870,000 votes. Chiang was inaugurated on January 8, 2007.

Chiang ran for a second term in 2010. He was unopposed in the Democratic primary and faced a rematch with Strickland in the general election, who had been elected to the State Senate in the intervening period. Chiang defeated him again, by over 1.83 million votes.

Health benefits for retired state employees

In May 2007, Chiang released a report that found that the state of California "would have to pay an additional $2.2 billion annually" over 30 years in order to pay for health benefits for all currently retired state employees and current state employees who will be retiring. Chiang's actions were praised as having "gotten a needed discussion reignited".

Seizing unclaimed property

In June 2007, a U.S. District Judge banned the State Controller's office from seizing unclaimed property because the State was not giving "fair notice to the owner and public". Because a ban could cause the State to lose $300 million per year in revenue, Chiang took steps to improve the notification of people whose assets were about to be seized, including sending them notices, and to improve the ability of people to recover their assets once seized. By October 2007, the U.S. District Judge found that Chiang's measures "satisfie[d] constitutional due process" and lifted his ban.

State worker salaries

In July 2008, former Governor of California Schwarzenegger was reported to be planning to "slash the pay of more than 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum of $6.55 per hour," among other measures, due to a lack of an approved state budget. Chiang defied the order, characterizing Schwarzenegger's idea as "a poorly devised strategy to put pressure on the Legislature to enact a budget" and stated that he would continue to pay state workers their full salaries. He issued IOUs for everything from contractors’ payments to tax refunds. Chiang claimed that he had "both constitutional and statutory authority" to continue payments and that Schwarzenegger was trying to make Chiang "do something that's improper and illegal". He received support from the Democratic leadership in the state Senate and Assembly. When Schwarzenegger issued a formal executive order, Chiang sent a formal letter to Schwarzenegger "reiterating his position". At a rally of state workers in Los Angeles, Chiang called them "innocent victims of a political struggle".

California State Treasurer (2015-since)

Chiang was elected California State Treasurer in 2014, defeating Republican businessman Greg Conlon by nearly 1,250,000 votes (58.8% to 41.2%). He was sworn into office by California Supreme Court Associate Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar on January 4, 2015, succeeding term-limited Democratic incumbent Bill Lockyer.

Wells Fargo

Chiang imposed a 12-month ban from investment work on Wells Fargo in September 2016, barring the bank from underwriting California's state debt for a year. This was in response to the federal report announcing that Wells Fargo employees had opened up to 2 million unauthorized accounts in an attempt to raise Wells Fargo profits. However, just 8 months later, Wells Fargo won a competitive bid to sell $636 million of general obligations in California. This is due to a state law that requires Chiang to accept only the lowest bid at an auction. A spokesman for Chiang said they were "were pleased with the price," and "it doesn’t reflect our feelings about their behavior toward their customers."

2018 gubernatorial bid

On May 17, 2016 Chiang announced his intentions to run for Governor of California in 2018.

Personal life

Chiang has two younger brothers, Roger and Bob, and one sister, Joyce, who was murdered in 1999.