Decision ’94 / SPECIAL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA’S ELECTIONS : Statewide Races : STATE TREASURER

THE OFFICE

As the state’s banker, the treasurer cashes the state’s checks, manages the state’s deposits and investments and borrows money on behalf of the state by issuing billions of dollars in bonds. The treasurer serves on numerous boards and commissions, including the boards of the public employee and teacher pension funds, which together manage the largest pool of retirement accounts in the country.

MAJOR PARTY CANDIDATES

MATT FONG, Republican

* Born: Nov. 20, 1953, Oakland

* Residence: Hacienda Heights

* Current position: Member of the State Board of Equalization representing Los Angeles County

* Education: Bachelor’s degree, United States Air Force Academy; master’s degree, Pepperdine University, law degree, Southwestern School of Law

* Career highlights: 1991 appointed as member State Board of Equalization; attorney specializing in international business law; service in Air Force; founded a small import/export company; managed the successful 1982 campaign of his mother, March Fong Eu, for secretary of state before switching from Democrat to Republican; 1990 defeated in a race for controller, co-chairman of both of George Bush’s campaigns for President in California.

* Family: Married to Paula Fong; two children

* Background: For much of Fong’s term on the five-member State Board of Equalization, Republicans have been in the minority and he has been powerless to influence its direction. Nevertheless, after the board lost a court suit challenging the way it assessed property owned by utilities, Fong is credited with engineering a settlement agreement that saved counties from having to give the utility companies nearly $1 billion in tax refunds.

In his Los Angeles district, Fong was also able to save the state an estimated $1 million a year by consolidating seven offices into four. During his tenure, he improved the efficiency of his office, substantially reducing the time taxpayers had to wait for service. He made himself vulnerable to attacks from his opponent, however, by choosing to lease office space from development interests who then gave him a free office for his campaign.

*

PHIL ANGELIDES, Democrat

* Born: June 12, 1953, Sacramento

* Residence: Sacramento

* Current Position: President and owner of River West Developments, a land development/site construction management company

* Education: Bachelor’s degree, Harvard University

* Career highlights: Housing administrator for former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.; chief of staff for former Assembly Majority Leader Michael Roos (D-Los Angeles); headed Sacramento land development company, later formed own development company; 1990-93 state Democratic Party chairman.

* Family: Married to Julie Angelides, three children

* Background: Like his opponent, Angelides has never won an elected office. His only other attempts at seeking public office came when he was in his early 20s and twice ran unsuccessfully for the Sacramento City Council. He was co-chairman in California of the campaigns of Michael Dukakis for President in 1988 and Dianne Feinstein for governor in 1992. In 1991, as state Democratic Party chairman, he was given credit for bolstering the party’s fund raising and increasing party registration. Angelides drew national recognition for the design of Laguna West, a large-scale planned community in suburban Sacramento. The development includes a town center and requires front porches, bicycle paths and access to mass transit. The development became an issue in the Democratic primary this year when former Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) accused Angelides of bailing out of the project to escape financial trouble. Angelides maintained that he divested himself of interest in several dozen ventures in order to run for office.

MINOR PARTY CANDIDATES

* JON PETERSEN, 56, Libertarian, financial systems developer

* JAN B. TUCKER, 39, Peace & Freedom, licensed private investigator

* GEORGE M. McCOY, American Independent, trade school instructor

The Issues

The two major candidates bill themselves as businessmen who would bring better fiscal management to the treasurer’s office as well as state government. In the final days of the campaign, they have unleashed a multimillion-dollar advertising barrage against each other.

JOBS

Both candidates promise to create more jobs by pushing the two state retirement systems to invest at least 3% to 4% more of their funds in California. Fong said his plan would produce 250,000 more jobs while Angelides said his would produce 100,000 jobs.

BORROWING

Both candidates vow to use the power of the state treasurer’s office to put the brakes on state borrowing. Angelides said he would not allow the governor and Legislature to continue short-term borrowing to relieve the state’s budget shortages. “I do not intend to afford the Legislature and the governor with an open-ended credit card,” he said. Fong said he would slow the sale of bonds, limiting them to those revenue measures that target critical areas such as education and prisons. “The treasurer can say ‘enough is enough’ on bonds,” he said.

WASTE

Both candidates say they plan to streamline the operation of the state treasurer’s office. Angelides said, “My gut tells me that I will not have trouble cutting 10% to 20% from the operation.” Fong said he would eliminate waste in the operation too but does not use a specific percentage.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Angelides has accused Fong of accepting campaign contributions from business interests who appeared before him on the Board of Equalization after promising that he wouldn’t. Fong has said he never made any such promises and has criticized Angelides for accepting campaign money from bond houses that may do business with the state treasurer’s office. Angelides said that the contributions were only a small part of his total collections--1%--and that they would not influence his decisions. Fong refused to accept bond house contributions.

INVESTMENTS

Each has said he would urge the two pension boards to pressure corporations in which they have invested heavily to stop giving huge compensation packages to top executives, especially when earnings are soft.