Academic Lanhee Chen, a GOP policy advisor to recent presidential candidates, announced Tuesday he was running for state controller, hoping to break the Republican Party’s inability to win statewide office for well over a decade in California. Chen, who turned 43 on the Fourth of July, is hoping his resume and his pitch to be a counterbalance to the Democrats who have a stranglehold on state government can persuade voters who may be skeptical of his party to select him to be the state’s chief financial oversight officer.