/ October 22, 2022

ICYMI: A Clean Sweep! The San Francisco Chronicle Joins Every Major Newspaper in California in Endorsing Lanhee Chen for Controller


The Chronicle’s endorsement for California controller
By The Chronicle Editorial Board
October 21, 2022
Link

Lanhee Chen, a policy expert at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, is a throwback fiscal conservative in the vein of Mitt Romney, who has promised an “audit a day” to keep tabs on state programs that are spending big bucks but don’t seem to be, in his view, working — such as those surrounding homelessness. He also favors reworking the controller’s website to offer you a clearer window into how your tax dollars are being spent.

Chen is smart and polished. And the idea of electing a sensible Republican as an aggressive check on government waste in a Democratic-run state offers a surface-level appeal.

If California were a country, its budget would make it the world’s fifth-largest economy. Despite this, the homelessness crisis is growing, urban areas face massive housing shortages and more than a third of Californians live in or near poverty. It’s clear we need better oversight over our spending and a critical review of the status quo.

But when faced with these two candidates in November, we’re putting the priority on accountability. Chen is our pick.

Read the full endorsement here.

-###-