Stacy Garrity

Stacy L. Garrity (born May 17, 1964) is an American politician, businesswoman, and soldier. She is currently serving as Pennsylvania Treasurer as a Republican, a position to which she was elected in 2020. She previously served in the United States Army Reserve for 30 years and through three deployments during the Gulf War and Iraq War, where she was called "The Angel of the Desert" by other US military officers. She left the Army Reserve in 2016 at the rank of colonel. Garrity worked at Global Tungsten & Powders Corp. from 1987 to 2021, where she reached the level of Vice President. In 2019, Garrity entered politics and ran for the Republican nomination for a special election in Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district, but lost to Fred Keller, who went on to win in the general election.

In 2020, Garrity ran for Pennsylvania Treasurer against incumbent Democrat Joe Torsella, winning the Republican nomination unopposed. She defeated Torsella in the general election in an upset, having been outraised financially and consistently down in the polls.

Early life

Garrity is a native of Athens, Pennsylvania in Bradford County. She attended Sayre Area High School in Sayre, Pennsylvania and later graduated from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania with a degree in finance and economics, later earning a certificate from the Cornell University Business Management Institute.

Military career

Garrity served in the US Army Reserve from 1986 to 2016, reaching a final rank of colonel. While in the Army Reserve, Garrity acted as a Military Police officer. Garrity was deployed three times during her military career: in 1991 for Operation Desert Storm, and in 2003-2004 as well as 2008-2009 for the Iraq War.

Garrity was stationed at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq during the Iraq War. In her first deployment in 2003 and 2004, Garrity worked to process detainees, manage family visitations, and act as a Red Cross liaison. In her second deployment in 2008 and 2009, Garrity ran Camp Bucca as Acting Battalion Commander. It was here Garrity obtained the nickname "The Angel of the Desert" or "The Angel of Camp Bucca" for her affection when dealing with the prisoners housed at the camp. The "Angel" nickname was given to her by other US military personnel, not the prisoners whom she oversaw. Garrity earned two Bronze Stars and the Legion of Merit before retiring in 2016.

While campaigning for Pennsylvania Treasurer, Garrity claimed that there were "zero risonerabuse allegations" while she ran the Camp Bucca. While Garrity ran Camp Bucca in 2008 and 2009, six Navy sailors working at the camp were convicted of abusing prisoners after beating them and sealing them in a room full of pepper spray. In 2004, while Garrity was in charge of personnel administration at Camp Bucca, the International Committee of the Red Cross produced a report documenting "brutality" against prisoners by camp staff, including several Geneva Convention violations. The Red Cross described violations at Camp Bucca as a "broad pattern" of abuse. A US Army report also documented prisoner abuse at Camp Bucca while Garrity was an administrator there in 2004. Despite the prisoner abuse during both of Garrity's deployments as a camp administrator, her Treasurer campaign claimed that Garrity had a "perfect record" at Camp Bucca. Garrity has continued to claim that there was no abuse at Camp Bucca during her tenure there since being elected as Pennsylvania Treasurer.

In 2004, Garrity was reprimanded for violating Camp Bucca's alcohol policies while stationed there.

During Garrity's two stints as an administrator of Camp Bucca, the camp served as the "birthplace of ISIS," as terrorist leaders detained in the camp built relationships with each other and radicalized other inmates, leading to the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Observers blame Camp Bucca's administrators for allowing this networking and radicalization to take place. Historian Jeremi Suri called Camp Bucca a "terrorist university" and said, "The radicalization of the prison population was evident to anyone who paid attention. Unfortunately, few military leaders did." In 2014, former CIA officer Patrick Skinner said, "Everybody could see what was happening t Camp Bucca but nobody could do anything about it." Iraqi general Ahmed Obeidi al-Saedi estimated that 80 percent of inmates released from Camp Bucca went on to work for terrorist organizations.

Business career

Garrity worked at Global Tungsten & Powders Corp. (GTP) from 1987 to 2021. GTP is a producer of tungsten and metallurgic products based in Pennsylvania. Before leaving GTP to become Pennsylvania Treasurer, Garrity's final position at the company was Vice President for Government Affairs and Industry Liaison.

While at Global Tungsten & Powders, Garrity was a board member of the Munitions Industrial Base Task Force, a defense industry lobbying organization. The Task Force has spent more than $2 million on federal lobbying while Garrity held positions at GTP.

In 2018, while Garrity managed government affairs for Global Tungsten & Powders, she successfully lobbied Congress to ban the US military from purchasing any tungsten from China, where most of the world's tungsten is produced. According to Garrity, GTP is the largest smelter of tungsten in the "western world"; as such, the company would benefit if the military were required to purchase its tungsten from American sources.

In 2017, Global Tungsten & Powders was sued in federal court by a competitor company, Tungsten Heavy Powder and Parts, for defamation. Tungsten Heavy Powder and Parts alleged that Garrity spread defamatory statements about them at an industry event.

Political career

Congressional campaign

In 2019, Garrity ran for the Republican nomination in a special election for Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional district after the resignation of incumbent Tom Marino. Garrity lost the nomination to Fred Keller, who eventually won the seat. According to Garrity, she was snubbed by President Donald Trump, who supported Keller for the nomination over her. After losing the Congressional nomination, Garrity pursued the open 2020 race for Treasurer. Despite her rapid transition from the Congressional campaign to the Treasurer campaign, Garrity criticized incumbent Democratic Treasurer Joe Torsella for supposedly seeing the Treasurer's office "as a step on the political ladder."

Pennsylvania Treasurer

Election

Garrity challenged incumbent Democrat Joe Torsella for Pennsylvania Treasurer in January 2020, winning the Republican nomination unopposed in June. Garrity charged that Torsella was mainly interested in the office to boost his profile and run for higher office, such as the state's governorship. She criticized Torsella's management of the office and alleged a lack of transparency, citing a D− rating given by the Public Interest Research Group in 2019.

On November 10, 2020, a week after election day, Torsella called Garrity to concede the race, with Garrity leading by 78,000 votes at the time of his concession. It was the first time a Republican had unseated an incumbent Democrat for a statewide office in Pennsylvania since 1994.

Tenure

In May 2021, Garrity joined a critical letter sent by several Republican state treasurers to the Biden administration, charging that the administration was inappropriately encouraging financial institutions to stop supporting fossil fuels. The letter said that the government should not "bully corporations into curtailing legal activities," but it also threatened that the state governments represented by the signatory officials may divest their state funds from any banks that no longer support fossil fuel projects. Garrity's participation in this letter was criticized by an editorial of the '' Hazelton Standard-Speaker''.

In honor of National College Savings Day in 2021, Garrity had the Pennsylvania Treasury offer $100 to families that opened 529 college savings plans.

In 2021, in her ex-officio capacity on the board of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, Garrity joined a group of "dissident" board members opposing the contemporary management of the pension fund's investments, arguing instead that the pension fund should invest in low-fee, public investments. After failing to dismiss the fund's managers, the dissident group of board members, including Garrity's predecessor Joe Torsella, successfully blocked an investment strategy proposed by the fund managers in September 2021. In her 2020 election campaign, Garrity pledged to focus on eliminating waste in pension management fees.

In 2022, Garrity opposed Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf's proposal to award state employees with five days vacation from work if they got vaccinated for COVID-19, claiming that it would cost the state government one-hundred million dollars. The Wolf administration claimed that Garrity's cost estimate was seriously exaggerated. Pennsylvania Secretary of Administration Michael Newsome, whose position reports to the governor, estimated the cost of the vacation incentives to be $45 million.

On May 6, 2022, Garrity appeared at a rally with former president Trump and 2022 U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz in Greensburg, at which she endorsed Trump's false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election.

References

External links

Government website

Campaign website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrity, Stacy
1964 births
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania alumni
Candidates in the 2019 United States elections
Living people
Military personnel from Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Republicans
People from Bradford County, Pennsylvania
State treasurers of Pennsylvania
State cabinet secretaries of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Women in Pennsylvania politics
21st-century American women