Race to watch: Contested race for Pa. treasurer

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The Pennsylvania Treasury Department is the steward of more than $150 billion in state assets. The treasurer oversees the purse and administers financial programs.

The role began as an appointed job in 1704. It evolved into an elected office in 1872. Today, the department employs more than 300 people.

In the race for treasurer, five candidates are on the ballot this November.

Incumbent Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity was first elected in 2020 and sworn into office in 2021. Garrity broke a long streak of Democratic command over the agency. She did not face a primary opponent.

Democrat challenger Erin McClelland emerged from the primaries after pulling off an upset over the party’s endorsed candidate, state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro. McClelland, a former substance abuse and mental health counselor, also worked for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services as a project manager.

Forward Party candidate Chris Foster, Constitution Party candidate Troy Bowman and Libertarian Nickolas Ciesielski will also be on the ballot.

Major party candidates

Incumbent Republican Stacy Garrity

Prior to becoming Pennsylvania’s first Republican treasurer in 16 years, Stacy Garrity served as a colonel in the Army Reserve.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Athens, Pennsylvania native earned the nickname “the Angel of the Desert” and received praise for her treatment of Iraqi prisoners in a U.S.-run detention camp.

Garrity is a Bloomsburg University alumna. She later received a certificate from the Cornell University Business Management Institute. She was previously vice president at Global Tungsten & Powders Corp.

As treasurer, she has altered the PA 529 college savings program, removing the minimum dollar requirement to open an account. Garrity has championed the growth of the PA ABLE program, a savings initiative for people with disabilities. During her first term, Pennsylvania’s unclaimed property system experienced a major transformation and she announced the return of roughly $274 million worth of unclaimed property last year. Garrity’s opponents have categorized the figure as “deliberately inflated.”

Garrity advocated for returning veterans military decorations stored within the treasury’s vault. She has also worked with former Democratic Treasurer Joe Torsella, accusing a state pension fund of suppressing information.

Her critics have lambasted her for undermining the 2020 presidential election and participating in a Harrisburg election denial rally — just one day before the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Garrity’s investment of an additional $20 million in Israel Bonds amid the Israel-Hamas War and a growing Palestinian civilian death toll have garnered criticism.

Garrity is a critic of President Joe Biden and his administration, demanding he dismiss his pick for the federal government’s highest ranking banking supervisor. She also slammed the Biden administration for pushing financial institutions into divesting from coal, oil and natural gas companies and co-signed a letter sent to then-special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry.

The Pennsylvania Republican Party has endorsed her.

Garrity’s campaign is focused on growing PA ABLE, creating a tax-deductible 401k-style retirement savings program for uncovered Pennsylvanians and pushing for the General Assembly to grant her the power to automatically return unclaimed property to its owners.

Democratic challenger Erin McClelland

Erin McClelland received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1997 and her masters from Chatham University in 2002.

She began her work in substance abuse and mental health treatment. McClelland started at the Institute for Research Education & Training in Addiction, where she served as an opiate addiction consultant on the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s 25 Cities Initiative.

She eventually became the executive director of Arche Wellness — the first Orthomolecular Addiction Recovery Program in Pennsylvania.

In 2015, McClelland began working as a consultant and project manager within the Allegheny County Department of Human Services. In 2014 and 2016, she launched failed bids for Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District. In 2022, she announced her intention to run for Allegheny County executive, but later dropped out of the race.

In February, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported alleged mistakes on her fundraising committee reports for her treasury bid. The Pennsylvania Department of State determined there was no unlawful conduct.

She is critical of Keystone Saves, a bipartisan-backed program that was recently passed in the state house, calling it “Stacy Garrity’s George W. Bush Recession Starter Kit.” McClelland also opposes investing pension money in Israeli bonds.

McClelland pulled off an upset victory in the Democratic primaries over state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro. Her campaign was primarily self-funded. McClelland, who has positioned herself as an outsider, also broke with party leadership by taking shots at Gov. Josh Shapiro while he was under consideration to be a vice presidential candidate for Kamala Harris’ White House bid.

Her campaign is focused on rebuilding the supply chain, enforcing labor and environmental standards, improving contract oversight and ending pension privatization. McClelland released an eight-page campaign prospectus.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed starting and operating a small business and working to improve government systems, processes, and policies while advocating for our public-sector workers,” McClelland said on her website. “My experience has taught me that in any large complex adaptive system, it doesn’t matter how good our intentions are if we don’t have viable systemic answers to two fundamental questions: What problem are we trying to solve and what is the root cause of this problem?”

Minor party candidates

Forward Party candidate Chris Foster is a Pittsburgh native. He graduated from Marist College in 2011 with a degree in psychology. Between 2017 and 2019, he worked at the University of Michigan Medical School.

He currently works in real estate. Over the past two decades, he has been a self-described “tennis professional,” with his LinkedIn page saying that he does tennis instruction. Foster, a lifelong Democrat prior to 2024, said on his campaign website that he wants to break down partisan barriers.

“If elected, my promise is to provide a transparent and efficient accounting of state financial assets and obligations,” Foster said. “I aim to implement innovative solutions to streamline processes, maximize returns on investments, and ensure that taxpayer dollars are utilized responsibly and effectively.”

Constitution Party candidate Troy Bowman doesn’t appear to have a campaign website. He is the chairman of the Lancaster County Constitution Party and he is the treasurer for the state party.

Libertarian candidate Nickolas Ciesielski holds a mechanical engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon University. His campaign website said he was inspired to step into party leadership by “government overreach” during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. If elected, he wants to “privatize,” “energize” and “monetize” Pennsylvania into “prosperity.”

“As your Treasurer, I will advocate for the privatization of as many government-run services as possible,” Ciesielski said on his campaign website. “By reducing state control and promoting private sector efficiency, we can cut costs, improve service quality, and free up resources to pay down debt. Government monopolies have no incentive to provide good customer service and reasonable prices. Their failures and shortcomings only result in increased taxes, fees, and prices.”