Paul Bass photo
Democratic state treasurer candidate Erick Russell at WNHH FM.
GOP candidate Harry Arora.
Erick Russell promises to put Connecticut’s investments to double use: building returns for retirees and “helping families in this state.”
Harry Arora promises to do the first in order to give the legislature more dollars to do the second.
That’s one way to view a core philosophical difference between Democrat Russell and Republican Arora in the race to become the next state treasurer. They face each other in the Nov. 8 general election. Also running for that statewide office are Independent Party candidate Jennifer Baldwin and Libertarian Party candidate JoAnna Laiscell.
They offered those philosophies and detailed their plans in separate appearances on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
The state treasurer is responsible for overseeing Connecticut’s nearly $45 billion in pension and trust fund assets. The treasurer also handles unclaimed property, oversees the Connecticut Higher Education Trust (CHET) college savings plan, and sits on government and quasi-public boards like the state airport authority.
Russell, who lives and grew up in New Haven and has also been endorsed by the Working Families Party, would be the first millennial in statewide office if elected (or one of the first two, if Democratic comptroller candidate Sean Scanlon wins as well). He’d also be the first publicly-identified gay Black state official in the U.S., according to the Victory FUND, an LGBTQ advocacy group that has endorsed his candidacy. He is the first New Havener to appear on the ballot for statewide office on a major-party ticket since 2006. If elected, he would be the first New Havener to hold statewide office since Hank Parker ended his run as state treasurer in 1986.
He is a partner in the law firm of Pullman & Comley. In the firm’s Public and Private Finance Department, he represents municipalities and state agencies in investment and debt restructuring deals; underwriters, banks, and trustees in bond financing deals; and borrowers in connection with the issuance of revenue bonds. That experience prepares him to assume the treasurer’s responsibilities “on day one,” he said.
Meanwhile, his background growing up in a working-class New Haven neighborhood gives him the “broad-based experience” to understand how to make decisions that create opportunities for working families.
Arora, a state representative from Greenwich, worked for two decades in investment management. He said that, combined with his years in the legislature, give him the direct experience necessary to do the treasurer’s job.
Both candidates agreed that the top priority for the treasurer is to maximize returns on investments.
They differed on whether addressing social goals fits into that mission.
Russell has proposed steering state investments toward in-state companies and away from corporations responsible for climate change and opioid addiction.
“That’s not the treasurer’s job,” argued Arora. He said it’s up to the legislature to address social challenges and climate change.
“If I focus on everybody else’s job, I won’t do my job right,” he argued.
When asked in the interview, he declined to support the approach of Republican state treasurers who have withdrawn hundreds of millions of dollars from investment firms deemed too focused on environmental issues. He said he would not follow the lead of a group called the State Financial Officers Foundation that has worked with GOP state treasurers to pressure companies to cease efforts to address climate change.
Yes, the treasurer’s top fiduciary responsibility is to maximize returns, but ESG — Environmental, Social, and Governance — investing need not endanger the state’s investments, countered Russell. He noted that when the current state treasurer, Shawn Wooden, divested pension investments from civilian gun manufacturers, he first went through a review process in conjunction with an investment advisory board to ensure the move would come at no cost to pension funds.
He also argued that investments in fossil fuels are a bad long-term risk even if they’re currently producing short-term profits — and the treasurer’s job is to look at the long term.
Meanwhile, Arora said the treasurer’s office could obtain better returns by increasing from 20 to 50 percent the allocation of investments in U.S.-based public equities. “This is something I know inside and out” from his investment experience, Arora said. Russell said that the treasurer’s office did revisit that allocation equation this year and is making changes. “I’m not running to be chief investment officer,” he added, noting that such a position already exists in the treasurer’s office; he said his role would be to tap the advice of that officer and the investment advisory board while also pursuing a broader vision for the office.
Click on the videos above and below to watch the full interviews with state treasurer candidates Erick Russell and Harry Arora on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
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Russell seems like a talented smart guy - was willing to vote for him right up to the point where he said he'd look at state investments through the lens of ESG. Can I please have a state treasurer focused on one thing - getting the highest return possible? Making the most money possible? Period. Let all that fuzzy headed do gooder stuff fall to other people of whom are legion.