Fiona Ma (simplified Chinese: 马世云; traditional Chinese: 馬世雲; pinyin: Mǎ Shìyún) is the California State Assembly Majority Whip and a San Francisco politician, and a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing district four, the Sunset District from 2002-2006, when she took her seat in the Assembly. Prior to her election to this position, she was a part-time district representative to a state senator. Her campaign for this position focused on improving services for her constituents. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Ma won the Democratic nomination to represent California's 12th Assembly District, which includes western San Francisco and parts of northern San Mateo County, in the June 6, 2006, state primary election. Her campaign against fellow Democrat Janet Reilly was one of the most expensive legislative primary races in the election.^[1]

Ma received 70% of the votes to defeat two opponents for California Assembly in the November 7 2006 general election, Republican Howard Epstein and Green Barry Hermanson. ^[2]

Education

Ma is a CPA. She received an MBA from Pepperdine University and a master’s degree in taxation from Golden Gate University. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology.^[3]

Experience

Before becoming a supervisor, Ma worked on the staff of former state Senate President John Burton as a part-time district representative. Her campaign for this position focused on improving services for her constituents. She was later elected to the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors. While serving on that board, her major legislative push was to shut down massage parlors who illegally trafficked persons into the country and used them to run illegal prostitution rings.^[4]

Career in State Legislature

Although Ma is serving her freshman term, she was appointed the Assembly Majority Whip by the speaker of the Assembly, Fabian Nunez. During her time in Sacramento, her major pieces of legislation have primarily focused on banning toxic chemicals in products for babies and small children, the creation of a state-wide high speed rail bullet train, and giving equal rights to men and women to change their last names when they are married or become domestic partners. She is also a co-author of SB 840, a bill that creates a single payer universal healthcare system throughout California.

Ma currently serves on the Committee on Appropriations, Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media, the Committee on Health, the Committee on Public Safety, the Committee on Revenue and Taxation, and the Committee on Joint Legislative Audit. In addition, she is the chair of the Select Committee on Domestic Violence. In 2006, she was voted Favorite Politician by the publication Asian Weekly.

Controversies

Ma has had minor associations with two convicted felons, long time fugitive Norman Hsu and Tong leader Raymond Chow ^[5] (aka Kwok Cheung Chow, Kwok Chung Chow, "Shrimp Boy"). She received substantial donations from Hsu and his associates in 2007, and her office issued a certificate of honor for Chow in 2006. Additionally, she received money in 2004 from a cement contractor suspected of substandard work. Despite these events, there is no indication of any personal impropriety on the part of Ma.

The Paw family of Daly City (associates of Norman Hsu) made combined donations of $10,000 to Ma on May 20, 2007. On the same day, Hsu gave an additional $5,000 under his own name. ^[6] Donations by Hsu, and Winkle and Marina Paw represent more than 50% of donations by large donors contributing $5000 or more to Ma in 2007. Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have chosen not to keep Hsu's contributions and are reviewing contributions from the Paws. ^{[7] [8]} It is not known if Ma plans to keep donations received from Hsu or the Paw family.

In 2006, a member of Ma's staff presented Raymond Chow a certificate of honor from the Board of Supervisors. This individual has been implicated in attempting to extort $100,000 from Allen Leung, who was murdered after refusing to pay. After Leung's murder, Chow took control of the Hop Sing Tong. Ma said "Raymond Chow says he's learned his lesson the hard way and wants to be a positive influence on the lives of young people. I'm an optimist and want to believe that people mean what they say, but only time will tell." ." ^[9]

Hsu and Chow were part of a criminal nexus based in Ma's constituent area. As an example of this nexus, a car was stopped in 1990 by Foster City police at about 4 am one morning. One of the four individuals was Hsu, who complained that he was being abducted. One of the alleged abductors was Raymond Chow who was then 30 years old and whose name was reported as Kwok Chung Chow. Hsu's girlfriend at the time said he had cigarette burns on his person. Hsu's lawyers later stated that the incident involved debt collection. ^[10]

In 2004 Ma returned campaign contributions from Ricardo Ramirez, the owner of a concrete company whom over the years had contributed to the campaigns of John Burton, former Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante, and former Mayor Willie Brown. After she had collected the contribution, evidence emerged that Ramirez had supplied substandard, recycled concrete for several major San Francisco construction projects, including the rebuild of the Bay Bridge Eastern span. Once this evidence was revealed, Ma returned the contribution given by Ramirez.^[11]

References

Succession Boxes

External links

• Official Assembly web site
• Campaign web site