John Chiang

Chiang's father, Chiang Mu-tung (江牧東), a Pingtung County native of Hakka descent from Neipu, 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.

John Chiang (born July 31, 1962) is an American politician who served as the 33rd Treasurer of California from 2015 to 2019.

Chiang was born in New York City on July 31, 1962 and grew up in the Chicago suburbs.

He attended Carl Sandburg High School where he served as student body vice-president alongside student body president Dave Jones.

In 1987, Chiang moved to Los Angeles, 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.

In 1997, Chiang was appointed to the California Board of Equalization after incumbent Brad Sherman resigned, having been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1998, Chiang was elected to the office; he was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2002-2006.

He was Chair for three years and represented the Fourth District, primarily serving southern Los Angeles County.

Chiang ran for California State Controller in 2006.

He won the Democratic primary with 53% of the vote, defeating State Senator Joe Dunn.

In the general election, he defeated Republican state assemblyman Tony Strickland by over 870,000 votes.

A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 31st Controller of California from 2007 to 2015 and on the California State Board of Equalization from 1997 to 2007.

Chiang politically took office specifically on January Monday 8, 2007.

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".

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.

In October 2007, the U.S. District Judge found that Chiang's measures "satisfie[d] constitutional due process" and lifted his ban.

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".

Lifelong friends, Chiang and Jones would run again together in 2010 on the California Democratic slate, with Chiang winning reelection as State Controller and Jones being elected Insurance Commissioner, and again in 2014, with Chiang being elected State Treasurer and Jones winning reelection as Insurance Commissioner.

Chiang ran for a second term in 2010.

He was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

In the general election, he had a rematch with Strickland, who had been elected to the state senate in the intervening period.

Chiang defeated Strickland again, by more than 1.8 million votes.

On May 17, 2016, Chiang announced his campaign for Governor of California in the 2018 election.

He did not qualify for the general election, placing fifth in the non-partisan primary.

Chiang was born to Taiwanese parents who immigrated to the United States.

Both would go down in defeat in the 2018 primary, with Chiang coming in fifth place for Governor of California and Jones coming in third place for State Attorney General of California.

Chiang graduated with honors with a degree in finance from the University of South Florida and has a J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

His decision to pursue law was influenced by his maternal grandfather, Shen Rong (沈榮), who was a prominent lawyer in Taiwan.