As of midnight Tuesday with 85 percent of the vote in, Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin trailed Democrat Betty Yee in her bid for California state controller.
The results showed Yee with 52 percent of the vote and Swearengin with 48 percent.
Swearengin spoke to her supporters, family and friends around 8 p.m. The event took place at the home of Fresno State Board of Governors member Kristine Walter.
“I’m just so thankful for all of the support that we gathered around the state, through small business owners, family, friends ”” so many people around California,” she said. “Every major newspaper around the state ”” almost every major newspaper has endorsed our candidacy. It’s been a very rewarding experience and I’m grateful to be at this stage.”
The controller, one of the more obscure state office positions, is the state’s chief fiscal officer and manages the budget’s expenses, holds the ability to audit how tax dollars are spent and serves on 81 state boards and commissions.
Around 45 percent of California’s registered voters are Democrats like Yee, 56, while about 30 percent are Republicans. Swearengin, 42, spoke about the support her campaign received in the Central Valley and throughout the state, while adding she is “anxious to get back to work” full time as mayor regardless of the final outcome.
Bay Area resident Yee, 56, currently serves as one of five members on the State Board of Equalization. The agency’s main priorities are tax administration and fee collection in California. She was re-elected in 2010, representing over eight million Californians in the First Equalization District. The district is comprised of 21 counties in northern and central California.
Before being elected to the board in 2006, Yee was chief deputy director for the state department of finance, helping lead the development of the Gov. Gray Davis’ budget and provided fiscal analysis of legislative actions and proposals, amongst other duties.
While growing up in San Francisco, Yee handled her Chinese immigrant parents’ laundry and dry cleaning business. She earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from University of California, Berkeley and her master’s in public administration from Golden Gate University, San Francisco.
The mayor touched on some plans she will be working on for the rest of the calendar year with councilmembers. Swearengin said she plans to stay busy in November and December by helping move forward the city’s general plan for adoption by the city council ”” a general plan adoption that hasn’t been updated since 2002.
The general plan is a blueprint of policies and programs for the physical development of Fresno. The update will be for development through 2035. Another focus of hers will be bringing forward a new development code, one that hasn’t been streamlined nor updated in the last 60 years, Swearengin said.
“We still have major policies to still get adopted for this calendar year,” Swearengin said. “We’ll be hard at work making sure that happens as soon as the campaign is over.”
Swearengin also said she wishes Yee the best of luck if the Democrat wins the position as state controller.
“She certainly has my well wishes and my support and we’ll hope she’s very successful in the position,” Swearengin said.
Fresno councilmember Steve Brandau of District 2 said Swearengin would be successful as controller.
“She’s done great by the city of Fresno,” Brandau said. “It’s right in her wheelhouse, it’s really what she does best. I’m very supportive [of her] and she would make a fantastic controller.”
