News Stories

Friday, October 10, 2008
The Penn
Angie Marie Woody

Rob McCord, Democratic candidate for State Treasurer, visited IUP Tuesday to encourage students to consider their votes on all levels, not just presidential.

McCord was raised by a single mother who taught in Montgomery County. As the treasurer is in charge of teachers' pensions as well as financial aid, he felt it was important to talk to students about these issues.

"I care a lot about higher education and Indiana County, as well as economic development," McCord said. "There's a lot here with the new suites and Performing Arts Center."

He addressed his key concerns as a candidate. Helping students to get financial aid, creating more environmental green collar jobs, and protecting teachers' pensions are a few of McCord's priorities.

McCord said he intends to push for inflation control for students and parents of students who have invested in state-run college plans, such as 529 plans, tax-advantaged savings plan authorized by section 529 of the Internal Revenue code.

He expressed concern for graduates who are entering a market in which career and job opportunities are reduced and problems with student loans are unresolved.

His said his goal is to change those conditions within six months, strengthening the economy and creating opportunities in southwestern Pennsylvania.

One facet of McCord's plan is to create new green collar jobs that "cannot be outsourced," he said, and would "increase energy independency, thus reducing the cost of energy."

Another aspect is to help all seniors with retirement security, which McCord said affects students "whose taxes may be raised to help pay for the pension of seniors."

McCord asked for students to remember that their vote can positively affect the lives of people in Indiana County in these tough economic times.

He said he hopes that students will exercise their right to vote Nov. 4.

Source: http://media.www.thepenn.org/media/storage/paper930/news/2008/10/10/News...

Thursday, October 9, 2008
The Times Tribune
David Singleton

Democrat Rob McCord is an independent business leader who has managed more than $1 billion in investments and helped fund startup companies that have created more than 2,000 jobs in Pennsylvania.

Republican Tom Ellis is a public finance attorney who, as a Montgomery County commissioner, oversaw a government with 3,500 employees and a $500 million annual budget.

In January, one is almost certain to become Pennsylvania’s next state treasurer. The two will meet in the Nov. 4 general election in a race that also includes Libertarian candidate Berlie Etzel.

The victor will succeed incumbent Robin L. Wiessmann, who agreed not to seek a full four-year term when Gov. Ed Rendell, in 2007, appointed her to finish the term of Bob Casey Jr., who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006.

In separate interviews Wednesday with The Times-Tribune editorial board, Mr. McCord and Mr. Ellis laid out similar visions for the treasurer’s office that include greater transparency in state pension investments and increased opportunities for parents to invest in college savings plans for their children.

Both men acknowledged the new treasurer will take office at a time when Pennsylvania’s major pension plans — the State Employees’ Retirement System and the Public School Employees’ Retirement System — are likely to be reeling from the turmoil on Wall Street.

“If there is not enough money in there for the pensions, the taxpayers are going to have to pay,” said Mr. Ellis, 49, of Cheltenham. “That is going to be a major thing the treasurer has to look at — what’s there, what’s the deficit there, and where do we go from here.”

Mr. McCord, also 49, of Lower Merion, said with the commonwealth already looking at a major deficit next year, how the treasurer’s office responds to a potential pension shortfall in the state employee pensions will reverberate far beyond Harrisburg.

“This is incredibly important work,” Mr. McCord said. “People don’t wake up in the morning thinking about it, but it touches a lot of their lives.”

Mr. McCord, who describes himself as “something of a policy nerd,” said he believes the treasurer can help guide economic development and job creation, particularly for “green-collar jobs,” using evidence-oriented innovation that has worked in other states.

But his top priority, he said, would be retirement security for Pennsylvanians.

“I want to be evaluated on: Did he help with pension security and retirement security, including helping middle-aged people get on a better track?” he said.

Mr. Ellis said he would offer the services of the treasurer’s office to help municipalities shore up their struggling pension systems. He would also promote campaign finance reform to limit political contributions by individuals who deal with the treasurer’s office.

“Given the state we’re in today, where people have so little faith in Harrisburg and Washington, which is not good for democracy, we have to install confidence that decisions are being made for the right reasons,” he said.

Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com

Source: http://www.scrantontimes.com/articles/2008/10/09/news/sc_times_trib.2008...

Monday, September 29, 2008
PolitickerPA.com
Dan Hirschhorn

Republican state Treasurer candidate Tom Ellis has a little more than $87,000 in cash on hand with Election Day just over a month away, the campaign told PolitickerPA.com.

The candidate's fundraising numbers pale in comparison to his Democratic opponent Rob McCord, who has $2 million on hand. Ellis acknowledged as much in an interview last week.

Since mid-May, the Ellis campaign said, the campaign has raised more than $137,000. It has spent more than $120,000.

Source: http://www.politickerpa.com/danh/1931/ellis-has-87k-hand

September 25, 2008
Associated Press
Marc Levy

Political figures, labor unions, major business groups, billionaires and the candidates themselves all helped make the races for Pennsylvania's three row offices a multimillion dollar affair this summer.
Rob McCord upped his personal stake in his campaign for state treasurer by another $400,000 and a national GOP fundraising group continued its streak of generosity to Attorney General Tom Corbett, giving his campaign $100,000, according to documents filed this week with the state elections bureau.

More than $3.7 million flowed to races for the state's three row offices—attorney general, auditor general and treasurer—not counting donations to two GOP candidates, whose reports were not on file with the elections bureau by Thursday afternoon, two days after the deadline.

The reporting period covered May 13 through Sept. 15, although candidates could report contributions right up until Tuesday's filing deadline.

Auditor General Jack Wagner relied heavily on organized labor, with one in every five dollars he raised since May 13 coming from unions. His biggest contribution, $25,000, came from John S. Middleton of Bryn Mawr, a Philadelphia Phillies part-owner and scion of a family cigar making business.

John Morganelli, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, received a $50,000 boost from a national Democratic donor, Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos. Morganelli, the district attorney of Northampton

County, also routed another $25,000 to himself from a political action committee he started to finance efforts against illegal immigration.
Reports from Tom Ellis, the GOP candidate for auditor general, and Chet Beiler, the GOP candidate for auditor general, were still not yet available from the state or their campaigns.

By far, the biggest fundraisers in the races are Corbett and McCord.

Corbett raised $1 million, getting his biggest donation, $100,000, from the Republican State Leadership Committee, which had already given him at least $745,000 since 2004—the year he was elected to his first term. The Alexandria, Va.-based group listed donations from the College Republican National Committee and New York lawyer Andrew J. Entwistle, among others.

Corbett found support from bedrock Republican donors, law firms and the political action committees of major Pennsylvania businesses and industry associations, including the Pennsylvania Automotive Association, oil refiner Sunoco Inc. and Comcast Corp.

More than $50,000 came from conservative philanthropist Dr. John M. Templeton Jr., as did $25,000 apiece from GOP national committee woman Christine Olson, 84 Lumber Co. founder Joseph A. Hardy III and the Pennsylvania Future Fund, which is steered by GOP national committeeman Bob Asher.

From labor, Corbett received $50,000 from the Philadelphia council of carpenters and joiners. He also received $10,000 from a nationally known donor to Republicans and Democrats, New York businessman and billionaire John Catsimatidis.

Rob McCord also tapped similarly prolific Democratic donors and fundraisers, including Philadelphia investment banking heir Peter L. Buttenweiser, Hollywood billionaire studio investor Haim Saban and Philadelphia lawyer Richard L. Shiffrin.

With his $400,000 loan to his own campaign, McCord, a venture capitalist, has now pulled $1.4 million from his own pocket for the race. Some major Democratic politicians in the state also pitched in, including political action committees controlled by Philadelphia state Sen. Vincent J. Fumo and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato.

Organized labor was generous: McCord received at least $180,000 from the Laborers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

McCord drew heavily from executives at financial and investment firms, as he did in the primary when he spent $3 million to win a three-way race. He also received $55,000 from Scranton businessman Leonard P. Vergnetti, and $40,000 apiece from Philadelphia lawyer Daniel Berger and University of Scranton professor Steven J. Szydlowski.

Source: http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_10557925

Monday, September 22, 2008
Associated Press
Marc Levy

A bond lawyer and a venture capitalist are competing for the open seat of state treasurer—and with it the power to manage billions of taxpayer dollars—in the Nov. 4 election.
Both Republican Tom Ellis and Democrat Rob McCord would be first-timers in Harrisburg, having never served in office at the state level. Both are Ivy League products who are 49 years old and live a mere 10 miles from each other in Montgomery County.

Neither is a stranger to the political world—Ellis is a former Montgomery County commissioner and McCord worked as an aide in Congress. And while the treasurer's office can be a steppingstone to higher political office, both men say they share a passion for public finance.

For now, Ellis and McCord are spending much of their campaign time showing up at party events and piggybacking on appearances by candidates for other offices, trying to stir interest in a race for an office stuck with a low profile and no hot-button issues.

Neither has run television advertisements and the candidates have not agreed to a debate schedule.

The man who wins will oversee a department with a budget of $60 million and more than 500 employees responsible for managing the state's cash and cutting checks. The salary is $141,000.

Incumbent Treasurer Robin Wiessmann agreed not to seek election to a full four-year term when Gov. Ed Rendell appointed her in April 2007 to finish the term of Bob Casey, who won a U.S. Senate seat in 2006.

McCord spent more than $3 million and saturated the airwaves to win a three-way Democratic primary, his first election ever. Ellis captured the state GOP endorsement in February and sailed through an uncontested primary.

McCord's ability to raise millions—he also drew at least $1 million from his own wallet—brought a challenge from Ellis to bar professional money managers from getting a contract to invest state dollars if they donated to the winning candidate in the treasurer's race.

"It gives confidence back to our residents that money is being invested for the right reasons and not because somebody gave a large political contribution," Ellis said.

McCord, who has raised hundreds of thousands from financial professionals, responded that Ellis could just as easily award a contract to a money manager as a favor to a major donor.

Rather than play a "gotcha game," he said, he would set up an advisory board that would clearly document who is managing the state's money and why they qualified for the job.

"We'll make sure we're earning the public trust by showing how we vet things and how we avoid bias," McCord said.

McCord worked in Washington, D.C., for a decade, where he got exposure to the technology sector, first as an aide to then-U.S. Rep. Norman Mineta, who represented California's Silicon Valley in Congress, and later as the CEO of the nonprofit Congressional Institute for the Future. He went to work for Safeguard Scientifics Inc., learning the craft of venture capitalism before helping start four private enterprises that fed capital to technology and biotech firms.

Among his investors were pension funds and the state of Pennsylvania. He found success, he said, in helping tech startups get loans, and has compiled a rolodex of wealthy investors and money managers.

McCord said he believes the state can do more with its money—for instance, getting better returns while doing economic good by investing in, say, innovative energy conservation projects that cut electricity use in apartment buildings for lower middle-lass residents.

"I will be a sleeves-up manager of assets," he said.

Ellis has worked in public finance for the same law firm—the politically connected Philadelphia firm, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll LLP, that also employed Rendell—since he graduated from law school in 1985.

Much of his time has been spent helping towns, school districts, counties and universities borrow money in the bond markets. He helped set up a pension bond program for municipalities needing to meet retiree obligations, and he helped introduce a one-stop shop for colleges and universities that wanted to borrow money, but didn't know how.

In politics, he served 12 years as a Cheltenham Township commissioner and four as a Montgomery County commissioner, including two as chairman.

He touts a record of cutting taxes, in part by refinancing the county's debt to save money, and setting up task forces to study greenhouse gas reduction and campaign finance reform. As treasurer, he said he believes he can make college more affordable by getting state schools to offer discounted tuition to parents who are paying out of their investments in the state's 529 college savings program.

"We have to do everything we can to make college more affordable and the state treasurer can have a role in that," he said.

Also running is Libertarian candidate, Berlie Etzel, a retired college mathematics and science professor and elected constable from Clarion County.

Source: http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_10523667