Garrity and McClelland face off in Pa. treasurer race

Running for state treasurer against incumbent Republican Stacy Garrity, Democrat Erin McClelland said the No. 1 question voters ask as they travel around the Commonwealth is not: What does the treasurer do?

This is: Does this state have a treasurer?

It is a long learning journey that the candidate must overcome.

State treasurer happens to be a position with power and consequences. But in a year in which Pennsylvania is receiving undue attention due to its status as a swing state in the presidential race – along with significant contests for seats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives – Garrity, a staunch conservative, and McClelland, a moderate, are not enjoying great interest.

“It’s like I’m painting on a blank canvas,” said McClelland, 49, a resident of Harrison Township in Allegheny County and a businesswoman who has worked in addiction and mental health counseling. “But when I explain to voters that we have a treasurer and what that person does, that information is usually very welcome.”

Experts say that when candidates find themselves in a less prestigious election like this, they will do and say things to get to know each other better. This breed that has become controversial is no exception.

“What you’re doing in a race that most people aren’t following is related to broader political fights,” said political scientist Chris Borick, director of Muhlenberg College’s Institute for Public Opinion. “Try to find the issues that voters really care about and put them into campaigns.”

Perhaps that’s why candidates running for Commonwealth CFO have nonetheless argued over the war between Israel and Hamas, as well as the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump, during the current campaign season.

“You bring up things like that,” Borick concluded, “and maybe then you generate interest and support.”

OK, first of all: what does a treasurer do?

Pennsylvania state treasurer is the fiscal supervision authority of state assets. The Treasurer, the custodian of over $150 billion in Commonwealth funds, is responsible for receiving and depositing state money and overseeing all disbursements and deposits from state agencies. Garrity said in an interview that the treasurer has the authority to invest up to $50 billion in state funds.

In his role as state banker, the treasurer is also responsible for reuniting the citizenry with what it is today $4.5 billion in unclaimed state property. The office is also responsible for career and study management savings programs.

The Treasurer may hold this position for a maximum of two four-year terms.

Garrity was elected in 2020 after upsetting Democratic incumbent Joe Torsella. She became the first Republican woman to hold this position in 16 years.

According to the latest financial data, Garrity’s campaign has raised $1,198,143.21, of which $265,290.75 has been spent. McClelland’s campaign raised $148,674.21, including $100,000 of McClelland’s own funds. The campaign spent $52,499.13.

How does Garrity present himself to voters?

Garrity, 60, from Athens, Bradford, said she did not consider herself a politician. “I am simply calling for strikes and strikes in the fiscal interests of the Commonwealth,” she said.

On her website, Garrity describes herself as a “Desert Angel” – a nickname she received while serving in Iraq with the U.S. Army Reserve in 2004, according to National Public Radio. There she supervised a camp of Iraqi prisoners of war. Neither of them filed a complaint of abuse, and Garrity, according to NPR, was a humane caregiver, which earned her the nickname.

Garrity retired as a colonel and continued working at Global Tungsten & Powders Corp.where she eventually became vice president. The company produces industrial ceramic materials designed to withstand high temperatures.

One of the main themes of her re-election campaign is ensuring that she has set a fresh record for returning candidates in a single year almost $274 million in unclaimed property to over 174,000 Pennsylvanians for the tax year ending June 2023.

She also said she has renewed the PA 529 college savings program, rejecting the minimum dollar requirement open an account and save families $11 million.

Garrity re-election campaign is focused on creating a public-private partnership that would establish a tax-deductible 401(k)-style retirement savings program for Pennsylvanians without them, called Keystone Saves.

How does McClelland present his case?

Without the support of the state’s Democratic establishment in the primary, McClelland defeated state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro (D., Erie) in the spring, despite being outreached 5-1. Bizzarro had already run ads about Garrity before the primary, noting her support for former President Donald Trump.

“We have an electorate that is very, very tired of being driven by rage,” McClelland said after the election. “They are looking for all their elected officials to just do their job.”

McClelland previously ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives in southwestern Pennsylvania in 2014 and 2016 against former U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus. She also withdrew from the 2018 U.S. House primary and the 2023 Allegheny County executive race.

While working for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, McClelland also operated Arche Wellness, a mental health and addiction treatment center in Blawnox, Allegheny County, from 2006 to 2014.

She said that during her successful career, it was clear in the first rounds that she would have to win without a lot of cash. “I felt like I was running with nothing,” she said in an interview. “Only my ideas, perseverance and four good tires.”

In his campaign against Garrity McClelland claims that if elected, she will “fight” school vouchers all the way to the state’s highest court. McClelland insists that aggressive pre-payment checking is the treasurer’s responsibility.

She said she would make municipal government cybersecurity part of the treasurer’s purview because hacking is “killing our local governments.”

McClelland would also require Pennsylvania companies to verify that their supply chains are free of goods from countries with records of human rights abuses, and would deny them state contracts unless they can show they have severed ties with those countries.

What controversies plague the race?

Regarding her position on the supply chain, McClelland criticized Garrity for the $20 million purchase Israeli bonds days after the Hamas attack in October 2023, saying: “We should not invest in any country’s foreign wars.”

Asked to respond, Garrity said: “I’m not sorry. Israel is our most reliable ally, has never gone bankrupt and pays more than the market rate of return. This is a great investment for the Commonwealth.”

McClelland also condemned Garrity for giving an election denial speech at a Harrisburg rally on January 5, 2021, the day before the Capitol insurrection. At the party Garrity, Who supports former Trump said last week that people have “the right to question the integrity of the election,” adding that “the election will be forever tarnished.” Democrats pouncedclaiming she was using her platform to promote election lies.

McClelland added: “I have no idea why she would claim that the election she won was fraudulent.”

Garrity responded that she never disputed the fact that President Joe Biden defeated Trump and added, “my speech was not about the outcome of the presidential election.” She said she disagreed with then-Gov. Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for their decisions on how mail ballots has been compiled.

McClelland in an interview denounced Garrity’s Keystone Saves program as a “scam,” saying it was high risk and susceptible to fraud. Garrity, who called McClelland’s ideas “odd at best,” rejected that characterization, saying there was robust demand for such an initiative and pointing out that Democrats including TorsellaI supported it.

As part of the campaign, Garrity is distributing a document mentioning the February star in Pennsylvania’s capital report that McClelland campaigned and accepted donations for several months before registering a fundraising committee with the Pennsylvania Department of State, a requirement for any candidate running for state office.

The Department of State stated no violations. McClelland said her campaign went through “a whole bunch.” systemic learning” to deal with the problem. And Muhlenberg’s Borick said the oversight “doesn’t rise to the level of exorcising voters.”

More notably, McClelland came into conflict with her own party’s leaders after she endorsed North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper for Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro to become vice president candidate Kamala Harris. McClelland referred to the sexual harassment scandal involving Shapiro’s former colleague.

“I want to elect a vice president who will be confident enough to be second to a woman, who will be content to be vice president and who will not undermine the president in maneuvering his own elections, and who will not sweep sexual harassment under the rug.” McClelland wrote on X in July.

Shortly after McClelland took over, Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Sharif Street said yes “resentful” by her comments. Borick said the case created “significant tensions” between McClelland and Shapiro. Shapiro’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Chuck Pascal, McClelland’s campaign chairman, said in an interview that McClelland would speak out whenever she had a difference with someone on politics, no matter who.

“Unlike the Republicans, we are not followers of a personality cult,” he said, referring to Garrity’s statements full throat support for Trump as “the only man I trust to do his job.”

In an interview last week, JJ Balaban, a Democratic strategist, said: “When you win a surprise Democratic primary, your first mission will be to expand your base of public support. It’s not clear to me what happened based on it [McClelland’s] comments about the popular governor.

At the beginning of September, a construction fair was held in Philadelphia he supported Garrity over McClelland. “They tended to support the Democrat,” Balaban said. Representatives for groupan organization of 50 trade unions, did not respond to requests for comment.

Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.