Sharp contrasts mark race between Stacy Garrity, Erin McClelland in race for Pa. treasurer

By Ford Turner / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette /

The election contest for state treasurer — a mostly behind-the-scenes yet influential position in Harrisburg — features sharp contrasts between a Republican incumbent with on-the-job accomplishments, and a Democratic challenger who trounced a sitting veteran state representative in her party primary.

Treasurer Stacy Garrity and challenger Erin McClelland will be joined on the Nov. 5 ballot by three other candidates: Troy Bowman of the Constitution Party, Nick Ciesielski of the Libertarian Party, and Chris Foster of the Forward Party. But the contrasts between Ms. Garrity and Ms. McClelland have garnered attention, as have some bumpy stretches for Ms. McClelland’s campaign.

The state treasurer makes about $197,000 a year, oversees more than 300 employees and is steward to about $160 billion in assets.

Ms. Garrity was unopposed in the Republican primary. She was a political newcomer when she won the treasurer’s job four years ago by beating Democratic incumbent Joe Torsella.

Ms. McClelland won the Democratic primary over state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro of Erie. Previously, she ran two unsuccessful campaigns for a seat in Congress and dropped out early in a third one. Last year, she said she would run for Allegheny County Executive but did not submit signatures required to appear on the ballot.

Ms. McClelland has publicly criticized Ms. Garrity for being a supporter of former President Donald Trump. On the social media site X, she called Ms. Garrity “a lapdog for the establishment.” She also said Ms. Garrity’s practice of having Pennsylvania invest in Israeli bonds was wrong.

In an interview, Ms. Garrity said Ms. McClelland’s platform makes it “clear she doesn’t understand what the office does.” Ms. Garrity said Pennsylvania treasurers of both parties have put Pennsylvania money into Israeli bonds for decades, without defaults, and they have above-market returns.

Erin McClelland

Ms. McClelland’s campaign has been cast in a less-than-positive light several times.

In the spring, it was reported that her campaign communications director was also working as a journalist and had referenced the treasurer’s race in an article — a mixing of roles that experts questioned. Separately, some Democratic officials filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission concerning past campaign finance practices of Ms. McClelland.

More recently, it came to light that Gov. Josh Shapiro — a high-profile figure in the national Democratic Party — had decided not to endorse anyone in the treasurer’s race. Observers said it appeared to be tied to events earlier in the year, when Ms. McClelland and her campaign manager both criticized Mr. Shapiro on social media.

Chris Borick, a political science professor and pollster at Muhlenberg College, traced the Shapiro-McClelland dynamic back to before the primary.

“She wasn’t the clear favorite of a lot of Democratic officials, all the way up to the governor, and when she won she had some significant resentment,” Mr. Borick said.

Mr. Shapiro, he said, is “highly engaged in supporting Democratic candidates — with one exception.” He added, “That is a pretty challenging set of circumstances for [Ms.] McClelland.”

Ms. McClelland also faces a money gap. Recent campaign finance reports show Ms. Garrity’s campaign had about $933,000 in the bank, while Ms. McClelland had about $96,000. And Ms. McClelland already has loaned her own campaign $100,000.

Ms. Garrity, who is 60, lives in Athens Township, Bradford County, the same county where she went to high school. After graduation, she earned a degree from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania and, later, a certification from Cornell University Business Management Institute.

She worked for Global Tungsten & Powders Corp. in Towanda for decades — eventually becoming a corporate vice president — but also served a full career in the Army Reserve, taking part in three deployments: Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, and Operation Enduring Freedom in 2008. 

Approaching the 2020 election cycle, she made her first run for elective office against Democratic incumbent state Treasurer Joe Torsella, who previously had held an ambassador-level position at the United Nations, among others.

“I wasn’t supposed to win,” Ms. Garrity said. “I just went to as many events as I could. I went all over the place. And you know, every time somebody said, ‘We like you, you have a great resume, but you can never win,’ I just worked a little bit harder.”

With more than 6.7 million votes cast, Ms. Garrity beat Mr. Torsella by less than 53,000 votes

Since then, she said, the treasurer’s office under her leadership has returned the most unclaimed property ever in a single year; returned the most military decorations of any treasurer; and reduced fees and obtained a better rating for the state college savings plan, among other things.

Ms. McClelland, 49, lives in Harrison. When she faced off against Mr. Bizzarro early this year, the 12-year House member had Mr. Torsella’s endorsement and was already pointing criticisms at Ms. Garrity, even though his primary opponent was Ms. McClelland.

She beat Mr. Bizzaro by a margin of about 54% to 46%. The gap was more than 80,000 votes, and Ms. McClelland scored big in the six-county region centered on Allegheny County: In that region, she beat Mr. Bizzaro by a count of 172,689 votes to 67,205.

Reached by phone and asked for an interview, Ms. McClelland said, “No comment.”

Her website says Ms. McClelland is a Western Pennsylvania native who was born, raised, and still lives in a “working class steel mill town” and that she has benefited from generations of organized labor. It says she has bachelor’s and master’s degrees and has worked in multiple counties doing substance abuse and mental health counseling.

The website says Ms. McLelland learned “supply chain logistics and lean process improvement strategies to eliminate errors, increase effectiveness, reduce waste, and improve outcomes in large systems” when she trained under the direction of former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill. It says Ms. McClelland designed, obtained licensure for and operated “the first and only orthomolecular recovery program for addiction” in Pennsylvania. 

During a PCN interview in March, asked why she wanted to be treasurer, she said, “There is so much more that you can do with this office than we have ever seen before. There is a lot of opportunities policy-wise, money-wise to get outside the office and do things in the community. So, I always say I am not going right, I am not going left, I am going local.”

Other candidates on the ballot

In interviews, the other three candidates for the office described their views from outside the two-party dynamic.

Mr. Ciesielski, the Libertarian Party candidate, is 32 and lives in Hempfield. He is making his first run for elective office. He graduated from Shady Side Academy, received a degree from Carnegie Mellon University and works in mechanical engineering.

Mr. Ciesielski said he was troubled by the “rampant money printing” undertaken by the federal government after the pandemic hit. His campaign, he said, is intended in part to draw attention to his belief that rising prices are caused not by what some call “greed-flation” but by misguided practices of federal monetary officials.

“You put more money in circulation and prices go up. It is simple economics,” Mr. Ciesielski said.

Forward Party candidate Chris Foster, 35, lives in Highland Park and works in real estate sales. He graduated from Upper St. Clair High School, earned a degree at Marist College, and is making his first run for elective office.

Mr. Foster said his run is rooted in “concern for how the political process is going.” He previously was registered as a Democrat but came to believe “people don’t think the two-party system is working for them.”

When former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, created the Forward Party, it struck a chord with Mr. Foster. He said the state treasurer should be independent of political concerns and work for the people.

Troy Bowman, 57 and a Lancaster County resident, is the Constitution Party candidate. He works in information technology, served in the Air Force and Air National Guard and worked on aircraft hydraulics systems, and ran an unsuccessful campaign for Lancaster County prothonotary years ago.

The major parties, Mr. Bowman said, spend a lot of money trying to keep outside candidates off the ballot. His campaign, he said, is not an active one but is “symbolic” of the need for change.

“The two-party system is taking us off the cliff,” Mr. Bowman said. “There are not enough politicians and people in government who are looking out for the people.”

Ford Turner: [email protected]