Money management quarrels take over treasurer’s race

(The Center Square) – In the contentious race for Pennsylvania treasurer, candidates campaign against each other’s money management, or lack thereof.

It’s not an unsurprising strategy given the office’s primary role as keeper of the state’s multi-billion dollar taxpayer-funded bank accounts.

The vitriolic messaging, however, stands apart from other statewide office campaigns.

Erin McClelland, the Democratic nominee challenging incumbent Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity, says the decorated military veteran makes politicized investment decisions that border on immoral.

“Stacy Garrity has repeatedly made accusations of campaign finance impropriety in order to deflect attention from her alarming foreign investments of taxpayer dollars such as her contract to invest the Teachers’ pensions in Saudi Arabia as well as numerous failures in the performance of her duties,” McClelland said in an email to The Center Square. “Her preposterous accusations have already been twice proven unfounded by the State Bureau of Campaign Finance as well as the attorney general.”

Garrity’s campaign said the false accusations amount to a lot of tough talk from a candidate unwilling and unable to manage campaign finance contributions without breaking the law.

“We understand that financial mistakes happen. Especially when Erin McClelland is involved,” said Jim Tkacik, Garrity’s campaign manager. “But this is someone who wants to take charge of the Pennsylvania Treasury Department, which oversees every dollar spent by the commonwealth. You’d think she might be able to get her own campaign finance report correct.”

The allegations stem from a duplicated entry on her latest campaign finance report filed Tuesday. On it, two $10,000 donations from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 5 in Pittsburgh appear, contradicting a political action committee report filed by the same union disclosing only one such contribution.

Tkacik said the mistake, made by “either error or design … misleads the public and represents roughly 10% of her campaign’s cash-on-hand.”

“This is simple, basic math,” he said. “If McClelland can’t get this right, why should voters trust her to oversee $150 billion in taxpayer money?”

Dennis Roddy, a campaign consultant for Garrity, told The Center Square the oversight means she had a $10,000 check lying around unnoticed for two months – an explanation he doesn’t believe.

He also pointed to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission in March that says McClelland knowingly missed 11 reporting deadlines during her failed campaigns for the U.S. House in 2014 and 2016, going well beyond an honest mistake.

“For years, Erin McClelland for Congress demonstrated its awareness of its obligation to continue filing reports after Erin McClelland lost her elections,” the complaint reads. “But after Erin McClelland for Congress filed two late reports in 2020, she stopped filing at all, missing the next 11 report deadlines until the FEC administratively terminated the committee. Erin McClelland for Congress’s failure to timely file so many reports is reason alone for a legal enforcement action.”

McClelland told The Center Square it’s just more dodging from Garrity’s campaign regarding questions about the office’s Middle East investments, support for a small business savings program described as risky by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and “bombastic” statements about the war between Israel and Palestine.

Throughout the campaign, McClelland has said Garrity politicized the office by spending $20 million on Israel Bonds in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on the country. The Treasury also stewards investments for the Public School Employees Retirement System and the State Employees Retirement System, which has contracted with BNY Mellon as its portfolio manager. The company has the ability to invest in the Saudi Arabian stock market.

McClelland told The Center Square the exchange’s largest company is Aramco, a government-owned oil company.

“Has she made direct investments in a foreign oil company supporting the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who murders and dismembers reporters?” McClelland asked. “Does she not feel that we, as Americans, should stand in solidarity with the victims and affected first responders of 9/11 who have filed a lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, listing evidence that Saudi intelligence assets were instrumental in planning the 9/11 attacks?”

In a recent email to The Center Square, Garrity’s campaign disputed those claims as misleading, noting that the Treasury is required by law to steward those funds on behalf of the pension systems.

Roddy said BNY Mellon has the right to invest in any country’s stock market, though it has never exercised that option in Saudi Arabia.

“Nor is it likely to be,” he said.

Still, McClelland wants her questions answered. She told The Center Square the Garrity campaign has declined offers for two televised debates and an endorsement meeting with the Philadelphia Inquirer, adding that “it seems the only person in the race for treasurer she believes should be held accountable, is me.”

“Now that we have awakened Ms. Garrity from her media slumber, I look forward to her finally committing to accountability to our taxpayers and discussing both of our concerns in a public debate,” she said.

Roddy said McClelland must change her demeanor, which he says is unprofessional and deceitful, before Garrity would agree to a debate.

“She’s going to have to clean up her act if she wants to be taken seriously,” he said.