Betty Yee brings controller campaign to opponent's home turf

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A crowd of at least 700 attended the annual Labor Day Breakfast. Among those a lot of local elected officials and Democratic Party candidates.

Former Fresno Mayor Karen Humphrey introduced Betty Yee, saying she is the most qualified candidate in the race for State Controller.

"If I was going to design a resume for a controller I couldn't come up with anything better than Betty," said Humphrey.

A San Francisco native, Yee has represented the Central Valley and Northern California on the State Board of Equalization for 30 years and is chairman of the group which, regulates the collection of taxes and fees statewide, but she's hardly a household name. That's one reason she's campaigning in Fresno, where her opponent, Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, is well known.

Yee told Action News, "I consider Fresno County one of the county's we need to pay attention to."

This is Yee's second visit to Fresno since the campaign started. She added, "We feel very strong about the campaign. We will campaign again as we did in the primary, and just put forth my 30 years of public finance experience."

Yee did not criticize her Republican opponent Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, but did question the strength of Swearengin's claims about turning around the city's finances.

"The city's finances have been in trouble for a very long time," said Yee. "The bond ratings have gone down which cost the taxpayers a lot more money."

While here, Yee won the endorsement of Fresno County Assessor Paul Dictos.

"She knows what it is to deal with budgets, huge budgets, billions of dollars and she has been around, experience counts, in this position experience counts," said Dictos.

Swearengin was not campaigning, but spent the day with family and friends. Her campaign spokesman told Action News she welcomed Betty to Fresno, and hopes she comes again.

Yee has another campaign appearance in Fresno scheduled on Sept. 10th and a fundraiser on the 11th.