RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> California Treasurer John Chiang believes he’s the type of hybrid leader that voters need in their next governor.
“I view myself as a progressive who can balance a checkbook,” he told an audience of about 200 people at Universal Technical Institute on Thursday.
“My focus is education, job creation and a clean environment,” Chiang said. “I want to make sure that California remains the Golden State.”
He was in Rancho Cucamonga at the third of three planned events featuring candidates for governor. Previous participants in the Inland Empire Economic Partnership’s Speaker Series included former Assembly Speaker and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who visited Rancho Cucamonga in April, and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who spoke at Riverside City Hall in June. (When a “viable” GOP candidate emerges, the IEEP plans to invite that person to be part of the speaker series, the organization announced Thursday.)
The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Chiang would be California’s first Asian-American governor if elected.
“My dad came to this country with three shirts, two pairs of pants,” Chiang said, “Because this was the best country on Earth.”
Chiang, of Torrance, didn’t take the hard line against the administration of President Donald Trump that others in the state or the gubernatorial race have.
Chiang said that, if elected, his plan was to “assist where we can, resist where we must.”
That said, he took issue with Trump’s hard line on immigration.
“Why would we put up a wall between us and our leading trading partner?” Chiang asked, referring to Mexico. “Why wouldn’t we want the best and brightest, who dream of becoming Americans?”
But he mostly focused on finding ways to improve life for Californians without breaking the bank.
“It is tough if you’re middle income, or lower income, to make it in this state,” Chiang said.
He said the state needs to “rebuild” its educational system, saying different aspects of the system had gotten too walled-off in their own silos.
Chiang specifically said he wanted to look at expanding early education options and means of paying for continuing education for those who had graduated from high school, as well as looking at what gains are being achieved under Gov. Jerry Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula overhaul of educational funding.
Chiang also wants to take dramatic action to tackle California’s housing crisis. He’d like to see a bond on the 2018 statewide ballot to help finance affordable housing and reform the California Environmental Quality Act, which many in the business community say creates an undue obstacle to new construction projects.
“We clearly have to do something with regards to CEQA,” he said.
But most dramatically, he’d roll back Brown’s decision to shut down local redevelopment agencies, which provided state funding to develop in “blighted” regions. The redevelopment agency system used an expansive definition of “blight” that saw some cities as being defined as largely blighted and funneling state dollars to what some alleged were developer giveaways.
“As governor, I would bring back — in new form — redevelopment agencies” to create more affordable housing, Chiang said.
Likewise, he said the ongoing impacts of climate change in California, including drought and increasing danger of wildfires, have to be tackled with input from the business community.
“We have to do it in an intelligent, organized fashion,” he said.
On Thursday, Chiang presented himself as a sober professional who could be trusted to keep California from drowning in red ink.
“Somebody has to be the adult in the room and say, ‘No, bad budget,’ ” he said.
He has the experience and proven record of doing so, he said, noting “I am the only elected official in California history to have served in all three state financial offices.”
Chiang spent a decade on the state Board of Equalization, eight years as state controller and has been treasurer since 2015.
He learned his lessons of frugality at an early age.
“I come from immigrant stock,” Chiang said. “My mother was tough with every single nickel.”
Chiang has an uphill battle to the governor’s mansion.
A poll from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies released June 8 showed Newsom leading among likely candidates for governor, with 22 percent of the 855 likely voters polled statewide supporting him, followed by Villaraigosa with 17 percent, Republicans John Cox and David Hadley with 9 and 7 percent respectively and Chiang at 5 percent, with Democrat Delaine Eastin in the rear with 3 percent. Thirty-seven percent of those polled were undecided.
“We have lots of flashy candidates,” Chiang told the audience. “I deliver.”
Where to see California State Treasurer John Chiang on Saturday
California State Treasurer and 2018 gubernatorial candidate John Chiang will speak be making two stops in the Inland Empire on Saturday, July 15.
Chiang will meet with members of the Redlands Area Democratic Club at 9:30 a.m. at a breakfast meeting at 612 Lawton St. in Redlands. For more information, email RedlandsDems@gmail.com.
Then, at 12:30, Chiang will be the guest of honor at an “Inland Empire for John Chiang” luncheon in Fontana with other local officials at the Hilton Garden Inn at 10543 Sierra Ave. in Fontana.
