HARRISBURG — Pennsylvanians will head to the polls on Nov. 5 to choose who they want to serve as their state treasurer for the next four years.
Republican incumbent Stacy Garrity will face Democrat Erin McClelland and third-party candidates.
The state treasurer is one of three elected row officers in the commonwealth, and plays a crucial role in managing state dollars. They can serve a maximum of two four-year terms.
Learn more about Garrity below:
A native of Bradford County, Garrity graduated from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.
The retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel was nicknamed “the Angel of the Desert” for her service at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, according to a 2004 NPR story, which quoted a former detainee as saying that under Garrity’s oversight, “Nobody could feel it’s like a prison.”
A decorated soldier, Garrity was deployed three times, in Operation Desert Storm (1991), Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003), and Operation Enduring Freedom (2008). She received two Bronze Stars and the Legion of Merit award.
The following year, Garrity began working at Global Tungsten & Powders — a Pennsylvania-based company that makes powders used to manufacture electronics and tools. She stayed at the company until she was sworn into office in 2021.
At the time she left the company, she was serving as the vice president of government affairs and industry liaison.
In 2019, she ran in a special election for a congressional seat in Western Pennsylvania, but lost in the Republican primary to then-state Rep. Fred Keller (R., Butler.)
She was elected treasurer in 2020, ousting Democrat Joe Torsella.
In her bid for a second four-year term, she has focused on transparency, pledged to return unclaimed property, and said she wants to reduce wasteful state spending.
Garrity has said one of her key accomplishments was upgrading the Treasury’s transparency portal to enhance public access to state budget and spending information.
She has also touted her efforts to give back unclaimed property. The Treasury facilitates the return of these financial assets (which are often abandoned as a result of relocation or oversight) through targeted outreach and a searchable online database. Garrity has overseen a significant upgrade of the system for returning property, which began under Torsella.
Currently, the Pennsylvania Treasury holds $4.5 billion in unclaimed property. Garrity says she oversaw the return of $550 million during her four years in office. In an email to Spotlight PA, her campaign quoted her as saying that under her leadership, the Treasury has “set all-time records.”
Bizzarro and Garrity tangled over unclaimed property during the primary. Bizzarro argued Garrity’s claims of breaking records are misleading because her calculations don’t include the new unclaimed property that Pennsylvania receives on an ongoing basis. He contended she oversells the scale of her accomplishment.
Calculated differently, he argued, Torsella’s numbers were better.
Garrity disagreed. “I’m much more interested in the number of claims being paid out and the amount of money being returned,” Garrity said this spring. “People are still being hit hard by inflation, so I think we should focus on the impact we're having on families across the state, not some abstract percentage calculation.”
The Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization recently reviewed all 50 states’ records on returning property and sorted states into four tiers. Pennsylvania was in the top tier of states with the highest reunification rates, a communications consultant for the organization told Spotlight PA.
“So no matter what method you use to judge it, here's the bottom line: Under my watch, Pennsylvania's unclaimed property returns are better than ever,” Garrity said earlier this year.
This summer, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed legislation proposed by Garrity that next year will allow the Treasury to return some unclaimed funds without requiring someone to first file a claim. An additional $600,000 will be claimed in the first fiscal year due to the change, according to a legislative estimate.
McClelland has largely stayed out of the unclaimed property spat, telling Spotlight PA that the issue is an “easy sell [that] doesn't take a lot of thought or really aggressive analysis on a complex system.”
As treasurer, Garrity oversees the 529 college savings program. Under her oversight, it was upgraded to a gold rating, making Pennsylvania one of only two states to achieve that rating.
Morningstar, the financial services firm that rates college investment plans across the country, says that the new rating was partly due to the Treasury’s “effective oversight” and lower fees.
During her first term, Garrity eliminated the minimum deposit to open an account and reduced the minimum contribution.
Garrity also took action on foreign policy issues. She voluntarily divested $3 million in Russian holdings when the country invaded Ukraine. Soon after, a bill that required the Treasury to do so became law. She also sold nearly all of the Treasury’s $394 million investments in Chinese-associated securities, citing “geopolitical risks” and “human rights violations” as her justification.
Following the October attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas, Garrity increased state investments in Israel.
Garrity has been criticized for her connections with former President Donald Trump, particularly for speaking at a rally that sought to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 election, a day before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S Capitol.
Garrity says she attended the event to critique the election process, and on social media denounced the violence at the Capitol.
“My appearance at a January 5th rally in Harrisburg was to state that the election process had been tarnished by unelected bureaucrats who ignored the election law as written,” Garrity said in an email from a campaign official.
Garrity has been outspoken about controversial issues during her first term, even those that don’t strictly fall under the treasurer’s purview.
She publicly opposed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative — an interstate cap and trade program to reduce carbon emissions — and supported Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s immigration policies, including his decision to send the Texas Army National Guard to the southern border. On Facebook, Garrity celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
She’s also advocated for a state-run retirement savings program to be administered by a third party and made available to people whose employers don’t offer one. Garrity worked with Republican lawmakers to introduce legislation to create such a program. The bill, also known as the Keystone Saves program, passed the state House with bipartisan support. However, state Senate Republicans have not called it up for a vote.
Garrity additionally says on her website that she wants to expand PA ABLE — a savings program that allows people with disabilities to save money in a tax-exempt account without risking the loss of benefits.
Endorsements: the Pennsylvania Republican Party, Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, IUPAT District Council 21, Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, Philadelphia Firefighters IAFF Local 22, Pennsylvania State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police, Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Constables, Boilermakers Local 154, IUPAT District Council 27, Pennsylvania Laborers' District Council, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, Pittsburgh Fire Fighters IAFF Local 1, Steamfitters Local 449, Steamfitters Local 420, the Philadelphia Building Trades, more than two dozen county commissioners.
>>READ MORE: Your guide to the candidates for treasurer
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