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Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who is running for reelection, traded barbs with her Democratic opponent Erin McClelland. McClelland also failed to secure the endorsement of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Garrity called for McClelland to “immediately correct her campaign finance report” after finding a mistake of about 10 percent more than McClelland has in cash on-hand.

“Comparing the two reports shows us that – either by error or design – Erin McClelland double-counted the same $10,000, resulting in an incorrect total that misleads the public and represents roughly 10 percent of her campaign’s cash-on-hand,” said Jim Tkacik, Garrity’s campaign manager. “This is simple, basic math. If McClelland can’t get this right, why should voters trust her to oversee $150 billion in taxpayer money?”

McClelland’s records showed $10,000 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 5 dated July 9.

McClelland has made mistakes on her campaign finance reports before, according to published reports. On Feb. 28, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported that McClelland’s campaign improperly spent money on a race for political office without filing the necessary state paperwork.

On May 31, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote formal complaints were submitted to the Federal Election Commission by three Democratic elected officials. Additionally, the story detailed how McClelland has been sued previously for nonpayment of bills.

Stacy Garrity
(CREDIT: Facebook: @garrityforpa)

Asked to comment, McClelland came out swinging and denied there was an issue with her latest finance report.

“I am so glad to see that Stacy Garrity has finally emerged from her media coma,” said McClelland.  “After refusing two televised debate requests and declining the endorsement interview of the Philadelphia Inquirer, it seems the only person in the race for treasurer she believes should be held accountable is me.

“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. Her preposterous accusations have already been twice proven unfounded by the State Bureau of Campaign Finance as well as the attorney general.

“That said, I would be delighted to have a televised debate in which I can elaborate further on the campaign’s decision to amend the cycle three report and move the $10,000 contribution, which she is questioning to the cycle four report to reflect when the check was deposited versus when it was received.

“In turn, I also have some questions on her job performance and questionable investments with taxpayer dollars which she has consistently dodged at every turn,” added McClelland.

“Why does she have a contract with BNY to invest the teachers’ pension dollars in the Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange? How much of the pension fund is in the exchange and which companies is she investing in? Furthermore, the largest company in that exchange is Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia. 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? 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?” asked McClelland.

However, Penn Live reported McClelland has her facts wrong in her criticism of Garrity over Saudi Arabia, noting that the Public School Employees’ Retirement System, the State Employees’ Retirement System (PERS), and the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System (SERS) said their plans have no direct investment in the Saudi stock exchange but rather, have limited indirect exposure to Saudi Arabia through commingled investment funds.

Also, the state treasurer is one board member for both SERS and PSERS. SERS has an 11-member board and PSERS has 15 members.

Tkacik said, “McClelland is not a serious candidate, but she is a serious danger to the commonwealth.

“Pennsylvania’s pensions have no direct investments in the Saudi Arabian stock market, and the treasurer is not empowered to make such investments. McClelland needs to peddle Saudi conspiracy theories because she has nothing negative to say about Treasurer Garrity’s record-setting term in office and to deflect from her own shortcomings.

“The facts are clear: McClelland misreported her campaign’s cash on hand by roughly 10 percent. This is unacceptable for a candidate running to be the commonwealth’s financial watchdog and would equate to a several billion dollar error on the scale of state finances,” he said. “She ran a quack drug rehab center that was cited by the state 20 times and lost $2 million in investment capital. She has been sued for unpaid bills and the FEC had to close down her congressional campaign committee because she stopped filing reports,” he said.

“The only thing serious about Erin McClelland is the danger she poses anytime she gets near other peoples’ money,” Tkacik said.

As for debates, he said, “Erin McClelland needs to get her own house in order” and to stop “wild conspiracy theories and endless excuses for her financial incompetence. These are issues that go directly to matters of fiscal competence and Erin McClelland continues to fail at demonstrating even a basic grasp of these things. Treasurer Garrity will continue to do the job to which she was elected.”

McClelland defeated state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro (D-Erie) in the primary. Bizzarro, the establishment candidate, had attacked Garrity instead of his Democratic opponent.

But McClelland reportedly failed to garner the support of Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), after she criticized Shapiro when Vice President Kamala Harris was considering him as her running mate. Now Shapiro is returning the favor, the Inquirer reports.  

The Democratic governor offered endorsements for Eugene DePasquale and Malcolm Kenyatta, the Democrats running for attorney general and auditor general, but left out McClelland.

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(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty.)

In the run up to the Pennsylvania primary in April in the race for state treasurer the assumption among Democrats and most of the press covering that race was that Erie state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro was going to win the Democratic nomination.

Bizzarro had the endorsement of Sen. Bob Casey, Pennsylvania state House speaker Joanna McClinton, the first female and person of color to hold that powerful position, congressional representatives Matt Cartwright, Madeleine Dean, Dwight Evans, Susan Wild, and Mary Gay Scanlon, to name just a few.

In short, just about everyone who is anyone in the Democratic Party went into election night believing Bizzarro was going to win; his rival in that primary, Erin McClelland, was running for the fifth time for office having already run and lost for congress twice for the 12th congressional district as the Democratic nominee losing to Republican Keith Rothfus as well as losing when she ran in the Democratic primary in 2018 against Conor Lamb for the 18th congressional district before dropping out.

McClelland ran most recently for Allegheny County executive last spring, the first Democrat to file for that primary, before dropping out a few weeks before primary Election Day, after failing to submit signatures to the county election division.

That track record going into her fifth race helped convince everyone Bizzarro would win.

Everyone that is except one person: Mike Mikus, a well-respected western Pennsylvania Democrat strategist who told me two weeks before the primary he had a gut feeling McClelland was going to pull it off, saying, “she is a woman and she is from Allegheny County, that is not something to underestimate.”

Mikus was right. By election night McClelland, a former contractor for the Allegheny County’s Human Services Division, sailed through the contest seemingly effortlessly, stunning the southeast machine of the state by earning 56 percent of the vote to Bizzarro’s 44 percent.

Mikus said in an interview Monday “Geography and gender often have huge impacts on the results in low profile primaries because the candidate’s home county is on the ballot,” he said of advantage Allegheny County had over an Erie county candidate.

The last time a candidate for any party from Erie won a statewide primary was when Republican Tom Ridge won the Republican primary in 1994.

McClelland will face incumbent Republican state treasurer Stacy Garrity, a former businesswoman who served as an Army reservist for 30 years that included three deployments to Iraq. The Democratic nominee has had little scrutiny from the press, mostly because few expected her to win, with the exception of a deeply reported story by Penn Capital-Star that showed McClelland campaigned and accepted donations several months before registering a fundraising committee.

Her public campaign finance reports showed that McClelland both began accepting donations and spent them on the campaign expenses beginning in September however she did not register her fundraising committee with the Department of State until four months later.

McClelland, who is seeking the office of the treasurer, whose duty is to “be the custodian of over $150 billion in Commonwealth funds as well as be responsible for the receipt and deposit of state monies and oversight of all withdrawals and deposits from state agencies” told Penn Capital-Star in February that she and her campaign staff had discovered a number of mistakes.

“Going through all of this we have a whole bunch of systemic learning,” McClelland told the Capital-Star.

At the time of that story, a respected Philadelphia Democrat and election lawyer, Adam Bonin, told the Capital-Star that failures to follow campaign finance reporting requirements, even mistakenly, are particularly concerning for a state treasurer candidate, “Given the nature of the particular public office she’s seeking, I think there’s a strong obligation to get that right,” Bonin said.

Since winning two stories have been written about McClelland;  a breezy piece by Spotlight PA outlining McClelland’s efforts to raise money after a contentious primary and an in-depth Post-Gazette investigative piece by journalist Hallie Lauer that laid out a damning Federal Elections Commission complaint filed in March by three Democratic officials claiming McClelland stopped filing reports required by the FEC related to her campaigns for Congress in both 2014 and 2016.

The FEC complaint also outlined her failure to file eleven consecutive reports until the FEC in 2020 administratively terminated her campaign committee. That final report showed McClelland owed over $50,000 in debt.

McClelland did talk to Spotlight for their story; she did not for the Post-Gazette.

Broad + Liberty attempted twice to chat with her for this piece to profile who she is, how she got here, but also to get some of those questions raised by the Post-Gazette answered about her challenges in filing mundane FEC reports but the interview never got off the ground.

Mikus, who worked on one of her congressional campaigns, said her campaign finance issue is a challenge she needs to address.

“She can overcome it if she gets ahead of it by filing amended reports and files timely an complete reports moving forward,” he said.

What may work to her advantage, said Mikus, in a high-profile election year with chaos all around voters tend to not be moved by process problems, “unless they are not addressed,” he said stressing again that McClelland needs to attend to the problems issue now.

There were three other questions Broad + Liberty wanted to ask her for the story beginning with her decision to have as her state treasurer campaign communications director, Chris Benson, an active reporter for United Press International admittedly doing both jobs at the same time.

In fact Benson did a story about McClelland and Garrity without disclosing in the story he worked on her campaign.

One month after the revelation Benson has remained steadfast he has done nothing unethical and still lists his employers as both UPI and McClelland on his bio on X and despite numerous newspapers across the state reporting on this breech of journalistic ethics she has not given a statement to address this.

The other question worth asking McClelland is her use of former legislator Jesse White, who was disbarred by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on his own consent after allegations he misappropriated over $100,000 with which clients entrusted him in 2017.

White — a Democrat, who was elected to the state legislature from the 46th District in 2006 and served until he was defeated in 2014 — became notorious in 2013 for making online posts under a fake name criticizing his constituents and local elected members of his own party, often going on long rants that included calling former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell a “paid whore” for the natural gas industry.

White now runs a Democratic political consulting and digital management firm called Perpetual Fortitude whose services McClelland used in her primary race against Bizzarro — campaign finance records shows she paid him over $8,000 for political consulting.

While everyone is entitled to redemption, there are former constituents and plenty of Democrats who would like to know why McClelland would choose the services of a man who made the decision to attack members of his own party as well as people who had voted for him, then lost his law license for misappropriating $100,000.

Especially because when White was in office his district covered parts of Allegheny and Washington Counties including South Fayette, Oakdale and Bridgeville, voters that gave McClelland outsized support in the Democratic primary over Bizzarro.

Because of her surprise win for the most part McClelland went under the radar of scrutiny of the press, and in turn the voters, as to who she is, how she would address the circumstances of the state of her campaign filings, and what she believes the role of the state treasurer is.

Her last three posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, were on protecting a woman’s right to choose and abortion rights. Her latest post said, “If you don’t believe women have the ability to make their own choices about their bodies, then I don’t think you have the ability to manage my money in state office.”

Three days after she won the primary over Bizzarro, McClelland posted that as state treasurer, “we can take the shareholder power of the $163 billion in our [state] treasury and make a statement. Let’s do it for our environment, our workers and our society. Let’s be a beacon of humanitarian investment and change the world.”

That statement also raises the question of what she believes the role of the state treasurer is. Let’s hope we get some serious answers to that question and the several others posed in this story.

Democratic state treasurer candidate Erin McClelland wants voters to know she’s “aggressively against school vouchers,” and she’s making her opposition to parental choice in education a centerpiece of her campaign.

“If vouchers are passed, it is the treasurer that writes the voucher. And I can assure you that if that goes through, we’re going to court, and we’re going to fight it on constitutional grounds, and I’ll write the voucher when the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania tells me I have no choice,” McClelland said in a recent interview with abc27.

The debate over how much control Pennsylvania parents should have over their children’s education has been part of the state’s politics for decades. But such adamant opposition is rare from a statewide candidate.

It also shows a lack of understanding about the state treasurer’s job, says Jim Tkacik, campaign manager for incumbent GOP Treasurer Stacy Garrity.

“Erin McClelland is grandstanding. The treasurer’s job is to pay the bills and prudently oversee a $164 billion treasury. For Erin McClelland to suggest that she simply won’t sign treasury checks for programs she dislikes is reckless, illegal, and harmful to the state’s fiscal reputation. If Erin McClelland wants to oppose school choice, she should run for another office.”

It may also not be a winning issue for the Democratic challenger. Polls show that, in the wake of the COVID pandemic, support for school choice has soared. A March 2024 Commonwealth Foundation poll found 77 percent of Pennsylvania voters support Lifeline Scholarships, a state voucher program.

And education choice advocate Corey DeAngelis notes that “Morning Consult polling found 67 percent of Pennsylvania residents–and 74 percent of parents with school-age children–support school choice in the form of education savings accounts.”

“Gov. Josh Shapiro read the tea leaves. As I documented in my new book, ‘The Parent Revolution,’ Mr. Shapiro changed his education platform to include private school choice right before the 2022 election and even reiterated his support on Fox News last year. Joe Biden, who sent his own kids to private school, should follow Josh Shapiro’s lead if he wants to have a chance at winning Pennsylvania,” DeAngelis said.

Jenifer MacFarland. who is spearheading an effort to bring a classical charter school to the West Chester Area School District, said, “The ability for a parent to choose an educational program is critical to creating a highly educated society.  When parents have a choice in programs for their children, competition between the providers improves educational programs everywhere.

“Wealthy parents have always had the option to place their children in private schools, but with school choice through public charters and vouchers for private schools, all children and families, regardless of income,  have an opportunity to access high-quality educational opportunities for their children. Every voter who cares about children and improving educational outcomes for all kids should make it a point to vote their beliefs this Fall and make school choice a reality for the children, who are, after all, the future of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” MacFarland added.

Like most of her fellow Pennsylvania Democrats, McClelland dismisses the value of vouchers.

“I think that they are a very bad Band-Aid,” McClelland said. “That doesn’t solve the greater problem.”

“Sadly, Erin is taking a page from the national Democrats’ playbook: make every race about national politics and about virtue-signaling, whether you’re running for dogcatcher or treasurer,” retorted Republican Guy Ciarrocchi, who is on the board of Pennsylvania Families for Educational Choice.

“She has hit a new low as her target is school children, with a platform so extreme she doesn’t even agree with Gov. Shapiro. Thankfully for taxpayers, Stacy Garrity has done her job as state treasurer well—without partisan politics.”

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Two Democrats, Rep. Ryan Bizzarro and Erin McClelland, are vying to unseat incumbent Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, a Republican.

Bizzarro is not holding his fire until the general election. He’s directing it at Garrity, not his Democratic opponent.

Bizzarro (D-Erie) is running television ads that claim Garrity is an “election denier” and hit her on abortion—two topics unrelated to overseeing the more than $150 billion in the state’s coffers.

Jim Tkacik, a spokesperson for Garrity, said, “Ryan Bizzarro’s TV spots offer no insight into how Treasury operates because he has no idea. Instead, he has turned the contest for a statewide fiscal office into a revenge fantasy featuring lies about the treasurer’s record. He displays no understanding of fiscal issues and no grasp of the truth on other matters.

Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity (R)

“Rather than run against the real Stacy Garrity, Bizzarro has created an imaginary opponent, making up lies about her as he goes along. Frankly, his conduct has bordered on the misogynistic. Not only is Treasurer Garrity, not an election-denier, she was also among the statewide officials to decry the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol, posting as the incident was ongoing. She has never claimed that Joe Biden is not the democratically elected president of the United States.”

McClelland told DVJournal that her life experience makes her the better candidate. She works at the Allegheny County Department of Human Services and previously started a business, an orthomolecular recovery program for addiction. McClelland also ran for Congress in the 12th District in western Pennsylvania.

McClelland said the National Association of State Treasurers supports efforts to improve cybersecurity, and she “is the only candidate in this race that has released a plan to address it.”

“I am the only one in the race who has actually made a payroll and worked in the public sector, seeing how government functions and dysfunctions from the frontline. For me, this job is about the work, not the title,” she said. I would stop direct investments in foreign holdings and restore the standards of pension investments that we followed before George Bush deregulated them.”

Calling the treasurer the state’s chief financial officer, McClelland said, “Commenting on the national economy, inflation, interest rates, and job growth should be a significant part of the treasurer’s interactions with the voters. And providing a sound, well-researched, data-driven investment strategy for the people’s money is an essential aspect of the job.”

McClelland holds a B.A. in psychology and an M.S. in industrial and organizational psychology.

Erin McClelland

Elected to the House in 2013, Bizzarro earned a master’s degree in public service.  Before running for the legislature, he was a victim/witness coordinator in the Erie County District Attorney’s Office. He chairs the Democratic Policy Committee and spearheaded a legislators’ tour of public schools in 2023 to demand “fair funding.” He is “passionate” about animal cruelty and helped pass a law to ensure animal abusers face increased penalties.

Asked about running against negative ads against Garrity, Bizzarro’s campaign spokesman called her “a threat to our democracy who has a record of working to invalidate the votes of millions of Pennsylvanians.”

He claimed she’s an “anti-women’s rights crusader and the state’s highest-ranking extremist.”

“As someone who has helped negotiate many state budgets and has served in the state legislature, Ryan Bizzarro has more relevant fiscal experience than Stacy Garrity has ever had. He has also authored legislation that, when passed, will return more unclaimed property within his first year in office than Stacy Garrity has achieved during her entire term. He is the only candidate with a realistic plan to modernize the Pennsylvania Treasury,” the spokesman said.

Concerning abortion, Tkacik said, “Treasurer Garrity thinks that the existing bipartisan Pennsylvania legislation dating to 1982 has served as a workable regulation that respects the rights of women while ensuring humane guidelines for all Pennsylvanians. She understands that abortion is a very complex and sensitive issue for millions of Pennsylvanians. Rep. Bizzarro, on the other hand, has voted on both sides of the issue – seemingly based on the political winds. His party is the one that supports permitting abortion up to the moment of birth, which is well outside the mainstream of how most Pennsylvanians view the issue.”

Before being elected state treasurer in 2020, Garrity served in the U.S. Army Reserve and was deployed to Iraq. There, she was in charge of an internment camp for enemy combatants and kept the camp secure for American troops without a single complaint of abuse from the Iraqi soldiers held prisoner. The Iraqis called Garrity “the Angel of the Desert.”

Garrity earned a degree in finance and economics from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania and a certificate from the Cornell University Business Management Institute. She was a cost accountant for Global Tungsten & Powders Corp., a worldwide supplier of refractory powders. She worked her way up to become one of its first female vice presidents.

During her tenure s treasurer, Garrity increased the agency’s transparency, allowing taxpayers to see how their money is spent through an online portal; increased unclaimed property returns to its owners, setting a new record of returning $174 million in unclaimed items to 274,000 people; fought waste and brought more accountability to the state pension funds; and has been an advocate for saving for education through PA 529 College and Career Savings Program.

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