Arizona treasurer candidates both say their opponent will put the state’s money at risk

Both candidates running to be Arizona’s next treasurer said in a debate Wednesday that their opponent will put the state’s money at risk.

If elected, either Republican Elijah Norton or Democrat Nick Mansour would have a huge role in managing the state's assets. They each say the other would take actions as state treasurer that put those assets at risk.

Norton said Mansour’s plan to shift more of the state’s Permanent Land Endowment Trust Fund to stocks instead of bonds proves his point.

“We can’t have a treasurer that wants to gamble with your tax dollars. And that’s the exact plan that my opponent is talking about,” Norton said.

Mansour said his plan is fiscally responsible and Norton is mischaracterizing it. He said he wants to invest roughly 20%-30% in bonds and the rest in stock index fund investment portfolios, which he said would yield more money.

Both Norton and Mansour said outgoing Republican Treasurer Kimberly Yee could have done more to better manage the trust fund.

Mansour recently served as the chairman and CEO of the Arizona College of Nursing. This is his first time running for public office. Norton is the former treasurer of the state Republican Party and he’s the founder of an insurance company.

Mansour said it’s telling that prominent Republicans, including Yee, have not endorsed Norton.

Yee endorsed Norton’s primary opponent and hasn’t endorsed either candidate in the general election.

Mansour said Norton plans to fire all the “politically appointed” people in the treasurer’s office if he’s elected.

Norton vehemently denied ever having said that, but he did say it in an interview on the Speak Out radio talk show on May 7.

“Every single person who’s affiliated with the current treasurer will be fired,” Norton said 25 minutes into the interview. “If they’re a political appointee 100%. I’m gonna get good competent investment professionals. So, if you're listening right now and you work in the treasurer’s office, and you’re a political hack you’re outta there. … I’m gonna hire good competent people just like Donald Trump did when he was president of the United States in 2016 and this time.”

Politicization of the office

Mansour said Norton will inject politics into the job by refusing to invest in companies with certain policies he doesn’t approve of.

“Elijah believes Arizona’s investments should be in companies that provide a good or service and make a profit — not engage in political activism or racial activism — of any type,” Norton’s campaign website states.

“He will serve as a watchdog over taxpayer dollars, eliminate waste, divest from woke and leftist causes,” the website also states.

Norton said on the debate stage and said he won’t invest in companies with racially motivated hiring practices, talking about “diversity, equity and inclusion.” He said it’s not about right or left, but about what’s right or wrong.

Mansour said a substantial number of companies have some form of DEI policies in place, to the point that it is irresponsible to avoid dealing with all of them.

“His [Norton’s] plan would mean we would not invest in over 400 of the Fortune 500 companies. This is a bad idea. It will increase risk and it will result in bad returns,” Mansour claimed.

Norton denied that.

He said it’s Mansour who is the political candidate and claimed he’ll divest from oil to support green energy, which Mansour categorically denied.

Prop. 123

Arizona voters passed Proposition 123 in 2016, which raised the distribution rate from the land trust for public education to 6.9%.

Mansour said he recommends 6.9% is the absolute highest the state should go with the distribution rate going forward.

That’s less than what Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is proposing. She wants to raise the rate to 8.9%.

GOP state lawmakers also advocate for a 6.9% rate, but Yee said that’s too high and recommended the state keep it around 4.5%.

Norton said it would be bad for students to slash the amount from 6.9% to something lower straightaway.

“If we sold 1.2 million acres of those [state] lands which are adjacent to developed areas, we would have over $18 billion in the permanent land endowment trust fund,” he said.

If the state can make that happen, Norton said it could then lower the rate to some degree.

Private school vouchers

The treasurer is responsible for the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account fund. The office has the responsibility of managing the contract to run the ESA program and oversees the platform vendor, which is ClassWallet.

Norton said he’s met with both ClassWallet and Odyssey, the software provider for the program. From those conversations, he said the state can implement new software that doesn’t take ESA families to a separate website to make purchases, which he said will mitigate fraud.

“There are many tools that the ESA technology vendors have that can help us combat fraud,” he said.

Mansour said the software should be improved and updated, but that the real problem is where the money is going, citing reports of fraud.

As treasurer, Yee fought against 12News in court when the outlet requested records with detailed data on spending in the ESA program.

A judge ruled earlier this year that Yee was in the right by refusing to hand over all the records.

Norton said information about how ESA tax dollars should be spent should be released, but not confidential information.

Mansour said the office absolutely needs to protect student information, but should release all the information they can on the ESA program so that people can see where taxpayer dollars are going. He said he's not opposed to the ESA program, but he is opposed to the fraud in it.

Personal business attacks

Towards the end of the debate, Mansour stated that Norton’s clients have sued him over 100 times, which shows Norton can’t be trusted.

“When it happens over and over and over again you have to start wondering, is this the person we want managing our money?” Mansour asked.

Norton said he has 5 million customers, so even if that's the case, it’s a tiny fraction.

“This is someone that should be nowhere near our money,” Norton said of Mansour.

Then, Norton went on the attack and said Mansour’s college was sued multiple times for taking advantage of nurses and was fined for committing Medicare fraud.

Mansour said he was only involved with the company for eight months and the lawsuit happened years after he left.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct Elijah Norton's former position with the state Republican Party.