Phil Ting
Philip Yu-Li Ting (born February 9, 1969) is an American politician currently serving in the California State Assembly. He is a Democrat representing the 19th Assembly District, which encompasses western San Francisco and northwestern San Mateo County. Prior to being elected to the Assembly in 2012, he was the Assessor-Recorder of San Francisco. Career. Ting began his career as a real estate financial adviser at Arthur Andersen and CB Richard Ellis. He also previously served as the executive director of the Asian Law Caucus, as the president of the Bay Area Assessors Association, and on the  board of Equality California. Assessor-Recorder. In 2005, Ting was appointed San Francisco Assessor-Recorder in 2005 by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom, becoming San Francisco’s highest-ranking Chinese-American official at the time. He was then elected to the post in November 2005, garnering 58 percent of the vote. As Assessor-Recorder, Ting cleared a five-year assessment backlog, which resulted in the collection of more than $200 million in unpaid property taxes. In February 2012, Ting commissioned the country’s first real study of mortgage fraud that spurred national action, uncovering "widespread mortgage industry irregularity" in San  Francisco foreclosures. Specifically, Ting commissioned an audit of nearly 400 homes in the city that had been foreclosed upon in 2009-2011. The results of the audit, which demonstrated that more than 80% of the sampled foreclosures contained at least one clear legal violation, provided documented support for the state legislature to push for increased oversight of the mortgage industry. Ting was re-elected Assessor-Recorder in 2006 and 2010. Mayoral Election. Ting ran in the San Francisco Mayoral election of 2011 but was defeated by incumbent Mayor Ed Lee. Ting set a California record for highest campaign expenditures per  vote after spending $500,000 on his 2011 campaign for San Francisco Mayor only to finish in 12th place. The majority of the money came from the city's public campaign financing system which provided Ting's campaign with over $300,000. State Assembly. In 2012, he was elected to the California State Assembly, comfortably defeating fellow Democrat Michael Breyer, son of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. In 2014, Ting announced his support for a $100 million property tax-break for large corporations in San Francisco's Mid-Market District. A Democrat, Ting represents the state's 19th  District, which includes the west side of San Francisco, in addition to Broadmoor, Colma, Daly City, and South San Francisco. Ting is currently Chair of the Assembly Committee on Budget and is first Asian-American to hold the position. He previously served as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation and Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus. Personal life. Ting lives in San Francisco's Sunset District with his wife and their two daughters. His parents are immigrants from Taiwan. On June 20, 2020, Ting admitted to having a "years-long" affair with Carmel Foster, a domestic worker  whom he had met through a dating website. Foster had previously testified before the California State Assembly in favor of AB-5, a bill which Ting supported. Ting later released a statement denying that the affair had any influence on his voting record.