Janet Cowell: The Treasurer of Wall Street

A review of State Treasurer campaign finance records from www.FollowTheMoney.org shows North Carolina State Treasurer Cowell ranks 3rd in the United States in raising campaign funds from out of state.  Only treasurers from Rhode Island and Iowa raise more campaign funds as a percentage from out of state, and North Carolina Treasurer Cowell actually raised more in dollar terms than both of those states, combined.  

With $782,507, North Carolina Treasurer Cowell raised 10 times the national median from out-of-state campaign contributions.  Which begs the question, "Whose treasurer is she?"  With 40-42% of all of Treasurer Cowell's campaign contributions coming from outside the state of North Carolina, one may conclude Cowell is NOT North Carolina's Treasurer. And, considering Treasurer Cowell even holds campaign fund raisers in New York City, Cowell appears to be the "Treasurer of Wall Street."

				Total Campaign	% Raised	$ Raised
Rank		State	Treasurer	Funds Raised	Out-of-State	Out-of-State
1		Rhode Island	Gina Raimondo	$914,216	50%	$457,108
2		Iowa	Michael Fitzgerald	$303,658	48%	$145,756
3		North Carolina	Janet Cowell	$1,863,113	42%	$782,507
4		Nevada	Kate Marshall	$685,101	36%	$246,636
5		Colorado	Walker Stapleton	$932,353	28%	$261,059
6		Pennsylvania	Rob McCord	$6,070,400	25%	$1,517,600
7		Ohio	Josh Mandel	$5,305,421	23%	$1,220,247
8		Louisiana	John Neely Kennedy	$6,258,801	22%	$1,376,936
9		West Virginia	John Perdue	$1,298,997	21%	$272,789
10		Arkansas	Martha Shoffner	$444,275	21%	$93,298
11		North Dakota	Kelly Schmidt	$37,837	21%	$7,946
12		Connecticut	Denise L. Nappier	$1,235,062	19%	$234,662
13		Idaho	Ron Crane	$212,793	18%	$38,303
14		Massachusetts	Steven Grossman	$1,801,309	16%	$288,209
15		New Mexico	James B. Lewis	$344,286	16%	$55,086
16		Mississippi	Lynn Fitch	$1,038,120	12%	$124,574
17		Wyoming	Joe Meyer	$205,024	11%	$22,553
18		New York	Thomas DiNapoli	$5,811,663	10%	$581,166
19		Missouri	Clint Zweifel	$1,691,315	10%	$169,132
20		Delaware	Chip Flowers	$290,449	10%	$29,045
21		Indiana	Richard Mourdock	$868,400	9%	$78,156
22		California	Bill Lockyer	$21,514,309	8%	$1,721,145
23		Washington	James McIntire	$499,570	8%	$39,966
24		Florida	Jeff Atwater	$6,887,622	6%	$413,257
25		Alabama	Young Boozer	$822,562	5%	$41,128
26		Kentucky	Todd Hollenbach	$314,822	5%	$15,741
27		Arizona	Doug Ducey	$1,191,349	4%	$47,654
28		South Dakota	Rich Sattgast	$64,465	4%	$2,579
29		Oklahoma	Ken A. Miller	$813,623	3%	$24,409
30		Oregon	Ted Wheeler	$747,956	2%	$14,959
31		Nebraska	Don Stenberg	$93,500	2%	$1,870
32		Utah	Richard Ellis	$69,750	2%	$1,395
33		Texas	Susan Combs	$14,995,971	1%	$149,960
34		Illinois	Dan Rutherford	$5,409,346	1%	$54,093
35		South Carolina	Curtis Loftis	$839,471	1%	$8,395
36		Kansas	Ron Estes	$103,355	1%	$1,034
37		Wisconsin	Kurt W. Schuller	$840	0%	$0
38		Vermont	Elizabeth Pearce
				Median	10%	$78,156
		Appointed:  Alaska, Georgia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Virginia
		Elected by legislature:  Tennessee

Within North Carolina, long lists of employees from Franklin Street Partners and Womble Carlyle contributed more than $77 thousand in 2008.  Both firms now have very lucrative contracts with the State Treasurer's office.

A review of North Carolina Treasurer Cowell's campaign finance records downloaded from the North Carolina State Board of Elections website reveals pages and pages of contributions from investment managers.  In states such as California, New Jersey, and Connecticut, such contributions are illegal.  Thus, if Cowell were Treasurer of one of those states, she'd be in jail instead of in office.  

Other findings within Cowell's campaign records shows the Treasurer has held a number of campaign fund raisers in New York City including three events in 2008 and one in 2011. But Treasurer Cowell has also expanded to other areas with two events in Washington DC, one in Atlanta, and one in Austin.  

04/10/2008 - Washington DC

04/25/2008 - New York City

07/31/2008 - New York City

09/24/2008 - New York City

10/09/2008 - Atlanta

10/10/2008 - Pennsylvania

09/19/2011 - Austin, TX

07/19/2011 - New York City

08/18/2011 - Washington DC

So far this election cycle, Cowell has raised 50% of her campaign contributions from out-side North Carolina. Shockingly, Cowell has raised more money from New York City than Charlotte!

In fiscal 2011, the North Carolina State Treasurer's office paid an estimated $250-300 million to external investment managers out of the North Carolina Retirement System's pension fund.  Apparently, North Carolina Treasurer Cowell is deemed so vital to New York City's economic future that an employee of New York City contributed to Cowell's campaign fund on 12/28/2011.  The New York City employee's title is "Director of Long Term Planning and Sustainability."  

www.ElmerForTreasurer.com