Strickland mailer misleads over CalPERS crack down

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Republican Tony Strickland’s campaign for state controller has stuffed voter mailboxes with a mailer accusing incumbent Controller John Chiang, a Democrat, of not doing enough to stave off corruption at CalPERS, the state’s giant pension fund, on whose board Chiang sits.

“John Chiang should have done something about it – but didn’t,” the mailer says, touting Sen. Strickland, as the man who “authored the law” to crack down on investment problems at the pension fund.

But the legislation Strickland cites, AB 1743, was actually sponsored by Chiang and state Treasurer Bill Lockyer and introduced by Assemblyman Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina). Strickland signed on as a co-author weeks after the bill’s introduction. The bill, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, requires any middlemen seeking a pension fund investment to register as a lobbyist, among other provisions.

‘I think it’s shameless,’ said Chiang campaign adviser Parke Skelton. ‘It’s absolutely insane that Tony Strickland would be citing a bill sponsored by John Chiang as one of (Strickland’s) accomplishments.’

Republican consultant Joe Justin, who designed the Strickland mailer, disagreed that the mailer was deceptive. “Are you asserting what I wrote was not truthful?” Justin said.

Justin did not dispute that Chiang had sponsored the legislation and that Strickland later signed onto as a co-author. But he said Chiang, as a board member of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, had not done enough to root out corruption at the pension panel.

“This is someone who was in the room when millions of dollars was changing hands,” Justin said.

Skelton said ‘no one played a more aggressive role’ in addressing conflict-of-interest problems at CalPERS than Chiang.

-- Shane Goldmacher in Sacramento

(Image of the mailer provided by the John Chiang campaign)