The Democratic challenger running for state treasurer is calling for more transparency from her Republican incumbent opponent while being accused of creating conspiracy theories and unable to accurately complete a campaign finance report.
The race to be custodian of the commonwealth’s money is heating up as the Nov. 5 general election nears. The two major party candidates — incumbent GOP Stacy Garrity and Democrat Erin McClelland — engaged in some political sparring this week.
McClelland said she wants to participate in a public debate with Garrity to air out issues that involve the state Treasury. But she said Garrity refused the two televised debate requests making it seem like “the only person in the race for treasurer she believes should be held accountable is me.”
Garrity’s campaign spokesman Dennis Roddy responded, “When Erin McClelland can get her own house in order then we can talk about a conversation in public. At this point, she’s not a serious candidate. She is at most a serious nuisance.”
He was referring to a discrepancy that was noticed in McClelland’s latest campaign finance filing that has Garrity’s campaign considering calling for an audit.
It noticed McClelland’s campaign finance filing included two $10,000 contributions from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 5’s political action committee, both of which were dated July 9.
McClelland said one of those checks came in shortly after the April primary but it wasn’t deposited in her campaign account until July when a second $10,000 contribution from that same PAC was received.
She reported the first $10,000 contribution in her post-primary filing submitted in May but upon advice from her financial advisers, decided to include it in her most recent filing to reflect the date she deposited the money in her account. She then amended her earlier filing to reflect that change.
“I think it reflects on my ability to handle records meticulously to the point that we were willing to say everything else was reported on predominantly a cash basis and this one check went in on an accrual basis and we corrected that,” McClelland said.
“There was never any misinformation. The donation was reported. We simply moved it to the cycle in which it was deposited instead of when it was received.”
The Department of State advises candidates to report contributions when they are received, said department spokesman Matt Heckel.
McClelland’s explanation doesn’t square with Roddy but besides that, he said it means McClelland possessed a $10,000 uncashed check for two months.
“If she is leaving $10,000 checks laying around uncashed, people ought to worry about the idea of her watching the Treasury,” he said.
This isn’t the first time McClelland has found herself in disputes over her campaign finance filings.
Democratic party supporters accused McClelland of demonstrating a pattern of campaign violations in her prior runs for other public offices. However, investigations into those claims by the state attorney general’s office and the Department of State resulted in no charges being filed.
McClelland accuses Garrity’s campaign of making “accusations of campaign finance impropriety in order to deflect attention from her alarming foreign investments of taxpayer dollars.”
In a campaign video on social media, McClelland blasts her opponent for investing commonwealth funds, specifically school employees’ pension dollars, in the Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange.
“That is not what we should be doing with our state dollars,” she said in the ad.
Officials from the Public School Employees’ Retirement System, the State Employees’ Retirement System and the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System said their plans have no direct investment in the Saudi stock exchange but have limited indirect exposure to Saudi Arabia through commingled investment of funds.
McClelland isn’t convinced. She shared a custodial agreement with the Bank of New York Mellon to invest pension funds in the Saudi stock exchange that Garrity, among others signed. She said she wants to know more about that contract, why it exists, and if any pension funds are invested in Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia that supports its crown prince who had a role in killing Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Garrity’s campaign manager Jim Tkacik said, “Erin McClelland’s Saudi conspiracy theory is further evidence that she has no idea how the state’s pension boards work, nor how treasury functions. … The Saudi Prince theory is the conclusive proof. Stacy Garrity gets her information from experienced financial experts from both sides of the political aisle. Erin McClelland seems to get hers from internet conspiracy sites.”
McClelland said she has other issues she’d like to vet in a debate and looks forward to her Republican opponent agreeing to one.
Other candidates vying for the treasurer’s post are Constitution Party candidate Troy Bowman, Libertarian Nickolas Mark Ciesielski, and Forward Party candidate Christopher Foster.
Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on X at @JanMurphy.