NC TREASURER
NOTE: You may vote for one. Candidates are presented below in the order they appear on your ballot.
Reason for my Endorsement: Frankly, I’m not all in on either candidate’s willingness to go higher risk in the stock market with the state’s pension funds. Cash is king when/if that game crashes. But while MAGA Briner is focused on getting “woke” out of state investments (really?), Harris is at least thinking infrastructure and de-politicizing the office instead.
Wesley Harris (Democrat)
https://www.facebook.com/WesleyHarrisNC/
Harris grew up in Taylorsville, the son of a public school teacher and a banker father. He earned his bachelor’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and his doctorate in economics from Clemson University. Spurred into political activism because of House Bill 2, Harris ran for and won an NC House seat in Mecklenburg County in the Blue Wave of 2018, was reelected twice, and decided to step down this year to run for state Treasurer.
Harris says his priorities are to protect NC’s state bond ratings, increase capacity for investment in infrastructure, and ensure quality healthcare and secure retirement for state employees, de-politicize the Treasurer’s office. He is both complimentary of the past management of the state’s money and critical of its conservatism:
“North Carolina is one of only twelve states with a AAA credit rating, the highest possible. A strong bond rating allows our state to do more for our people, getting better rates as we seek to invest in infrastructure that improves people’s lives, like schools, clean water, and safe transportation. But we’re leaving growth on the table, with a larger portion of our pension fund sitting in cash than any comparable state. As Treasurer, Wesley will use his economic know-how to expand our capacity for investment and make all our lives better.”
Harris is particularly direct in his criticism of current Treasurer Dale Folwell, accusing him of using the Treasurer’s as “a playground for partisan games.”:
“The current Treasurer has worked to deny healthcare to state employees who are part of vulnerable minority groups and to meddle in private companies’ affairs because they supported policies he disliked.”
Brad Briner (Republican)
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556025545952
Briner lives in Chapel Hill with his wife and four children. He was a Morehead-Cain Scholar at UNC Chapel Hill, then earned an MBA at Harvard Business School. He previously worked in Chapel Hill for Morgan Creek Capital and the UNC Management Co., along with stops at ArcLight Capital and Goldman Sachs.
Briner manages investments for New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg, and he was appointed last November to the UNC Board of Trustees by Senate Pro Tem Phil Berger. He’s co-chief investment officer at New York-based Willett Advisors, which he joined in 2012. He lives in Chapel Hill with his wife and four children.
In watching his PBS interviews, I found Briner an excellent communicator, bringing complicated financial facts down to kitchen table discussion. He talks a lot about bi-partisanship and praises the public servants in the Treasurer’s office for their service. He is hopeful he can help the state’s pension plans improve enough to provide adequate raises over time, although I wasn’t persuaded his plans were actually a good idea.
“Wokeness is a radical political movement, not a sound investment strategy. As your treasurer, I’ll get woke politics like CRT, DEI and ESG out of our state’s pension fund.”
So what does WOKE have to do with the State Treasurer’s Office, I thought?
This:
Turns out republicans in state capitals across the country are targeting state investments in what they call “woke” and liberal concepts.
“Describing these investment criteria as “woke” and “misguided activism,” GOP officials argue that by taking these factors into account when making investment choices, financial institutions are putting ideology ahead of making money. Experts on this investment criteria say that it’s the other way around, and that Republicans are losing money for their constituents by unnecessarily narrowing the options of the financial institutions the state does business with.”
Even the extreme-MAGA site, The Daily Haymaker, published attacks on Briner primarily stemming from his work for Bloomberg:
“Briner is as phony as a three dollar bill. He voted in the Democrat primary in 2020, and he is employed by an enemy of democracy, gun rights opponent Michael Bloomberg. He is little more than a Democrat plant, exactly what one would expect liberal Senate boss Phil Berger to have recruited for office.” HA.