State Controller Candidate John Chiang is "Victim of Political Drive-by Shooting" Says Speaker of the Assembly: Read the Facts Behind This Charge, It May Affect Your Vote.

Another IE committee, Team 2006 funded by $9.1 million in contributions from casino-owning Native American Tribes, disclosed yesterday that they had begun buying TV time to defeat Chiang. Their initial purchase was for $917,000. These tribes have substantial tax issues that come before the Board of Equalization and the Franchise Tax Board. The Controller sits as the swing vote on both of these tax policy boards.

“The Controller is California’s fiscal watchdog,” stated Chiang’s consultant Parke Skelton, “But we have wealthy special interests that want to put a muzzle on that watchdog. California needs an independent Controller who will fight for California’s families.”

“It is truly appalling that a couple of wealthy groups can, in a day, pump much more money into this critical race than both of the candidates have raised in over two years of work,” Skelton concluded.

The Times reports in that article that:

The same tribes have spent $122,000 boosting Strickland's wife, Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks), although she is in a safe GOP district. Both husband and wife have been reliable votes for tribal casino interests.

The tribes and Intuit each have one reason to support the GOP nominee: taxes.

The state controller sits on the Franchise Tax Board, a three-member panel that oversees state income tax policy. But the controller's influence over tax policy goes beyond that post.

The controller also serves on the five-member Board of Equalization, which oversees sales and property tax issues. Additionally, the controller votes for that board's chairman, who also sits on the Franchise Tax Board. Whoever wins the controller's race Nov. 7 will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the boards.

Intuit has inserted itself into the controller's campaign as part of its fight to block the Franchise Tax Board from simplifying the state income tax filing process. From his post on the Board of Equalization, Chiang embraced "ReadyReturn," a program designed to remove some of the agony of tax season by having the government complete low-income Californians' tax returns.

The program alarms Intuit. If it were to be fully implemented, ReadyReturn could threaten sales of one of the company's most successful software programs: TurboTax. Facing a fierce lobbying effort by Intuit, the Legislature this year blocked the state from spending money on ReadyReturn.

Neither Chiang nor Garamendi voted on or had anything public to say about the massive tribal gaming pacts that Republicans tried to shove through the legislature at the last minute at the end of the session. You can read about the politics of the end of session where Republicans attempted to pass the largest expansion of casinos in California and perhaps United States history without a public hearing on most of them.

The Times concludes their article:

By siding with Strickland and against Democrat Chiang, political experts believe, the tribes are taking a backhanded swipe at Assembly Democrats. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, negotiated compacts for major expansions of the tribes' gambling operations. Assembly Democrats blocked the deals in August; Chiang had no role in the action.

"If the intent is to send a message to me, it is a damned weird way of doing it," Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) said Wednesday. "This is a political drive-by shooting. The guy did nothing to hurt them."