At the Unite for Arizona Rally on August 27, 2022, State Senator and Democratic Nominee for Arizona Treasurer Martin Quezada told those assembled that he, unlike his opponent, the incumbent Trump Republican Kimberly Yee would not play politics with the people’s money by investing in the whims of the extremist right. Instead, he vowed to “put our money back into you…We need to keep politics out of these investment decisions…every one of these dollars represents your money that has been entrusted to the government to reflect your values: schools, housing, water: these dollars should be an investment in our values, children, and future.”
An attorney, community activist, school board member, and Arizona legislator, Senator Quezada, pledges, if elected to be the next Treasurer this November, to work with the people to:
“Build a Treasurer’s Office that prioritizes the interests of the people first, not special interests.”
In addition to being a pro-constituent steward of the people’s money with no radical fringe agenda, Senator Quezada promised to:
- Promote financial literacy.
- Investing the people’s monies in areas that will move Arizona forward and improve people’s lives.
- Be a transparent Treasurer that will be fully accountable to all Arizonans.
Senator Quezada graciously took to time to respond to questions about his candidacy for the State Treasurer’s office.
The questions and his responses are below.
- Please tell the voters, at least three reasons they should vote for your opponent at Treasury.
“My name is Martin Quezada and I am running to be Arizona’s next State Treasurer. I’m running against the incumbent Treasurer Kimberly Yee.
There are three really important reasons that I think Arizonans need a new voice in the Treasurer’s office.
Number one is her attendance. Treasurer Yee has only checked into the Treasurer’s office ten times in the last six months. That equates to roughly once every two weeks. For someone who’s in charge of managing and investing a more than $23 billion budget, we need somebody who’s actually going to be on the job, earning their full salary that we as taxpayers are paying for. If you aren’t there on a full-time basis, you are not going to be able to make the most responsible decisions regarding the management and investment of taxpayer dollars. So, number one, I’m going to be there full-time. I’m going to be there all day, every day. I’m going to consider it a full-time job. I’m going to be working there in my full-time capacity to serve the people of Arizona.
Number two, right now, Kimberly Yee is really politicizing a lot of the decisions that she’s making with regard to the management and the investment of our taxpayer dollars. When you bring politics into that decision-making process, when you let politics influence, where you invest money, and how you invest money, that takes away from the ability to protect that money. And to make sure you get the best return on that investment because politics become the priority. We need to keep those types of politics out of those investment and management decisions. She’s made a couple of investment decisions where politics has been the motivating factor rather than what is the best return on the value on the investment for the taxpayers and what is just the most responsible use of the taxpayer’s money. I’m going to keep that type of politics out. I’m not going to let politics influence the way that I manage money. My number one duty is going to be protecting our money and keeping it at an appropriate level of liquidity and bringing in a good yield on our investment.
Finally, I believe that Kimberly Yee has not been a good voice for financial matters on any financial issues in the state of Arizona. That office has been completely silent and there has been no output whatsoever about any of the financial issues that are impacting the state of Arizona. I believe that the treasurer’s office should be an advocate for the responsible use of taxpayer money. You should be vocal in the financial matters in the state of Arizona. You should be vocal about proposals that have a financial impact, not only on the state’s economy but on economic stability as well. So, if there’s a policy proposal that’s impacting your personal finances or the state’s finances, the treasurer should be speaking out about that and letting the public know whether that’s a good move or a bad move. Ms. Yee hasn’t been doing that. If I’m in that office, I’m going to be doing that on a full-time basis.”
- Please advise what are at least three main issues in the Treasurer’s race. Please explain.
“The first issue is the use of input data to create a sustainable investing policy. That’s also known throughout the financial world as ESG investing. Our Treasurer, Kimberly Yee is very much opposed to that type of data input. I’m on the other side of the fence on that one, I believe that all data is good data and we should be using all of that data to make responsible decisions about the impacts of our investments, not only for our economy but our environment and on the community that, that those investments serve. So, I’m going to be different in that way that I’m going to be taking in all of that data because I want to make an informed decision about how I invest the people of Arizona’s money. That means I’m going to be considering a lot of factors, not only the length of time of the investment, not only the percentage of the return on that investment, but I’m going to look at how that investment and how that money would impact the surrounding community, how that investment would impact our climate, the environment, and the protection of our water. All of those issues also have financial impacts on the state of Arizona and those financial impacts need to be considered when you decide whether or not to invest.
The second big issue in the treasurer’s race is really just honesty and transparency. Our Treasurer right now is trying to run a campaign where she’s putting out very misleading numbers about the return on her investments and about the strength of the portfolio that she’s created. She’s trying to throw out big numbers to try to imply that we are doing better than we’ve ever done in the state of Arizona. And when you are looking at the accounting world and in the financial management world, the management of public assets, you have to know how do you judge these financial investments. Do you gauge their strength and their success on one factor or on another factor? And she’s using one factor that isn’t necessarily the correct factor. She’s just using just the simple amount of money that comes in, but if there’s a lot of money in our economy, that’s going to create bigger returns on our investment. That’s just math.
It’s not necessarily a reflection of her performance as a State Treasurer. What we should be doing is looking at the rate of return on those investments. And if you look at the rate of return between this year and last year, we may have more money coming in this year. But that rate of return has actually dropped. That means that in prior years we’ve had stronger and more robust portfolios that have performed better than the ones we have right now. If I’m the treasurer, I’m going to be honest and transparent about all of those numbers. I’m going to give, not only the total amount of money that comes in, I’m going to give the rate of return as well so that you can gauge my performance based on all of those factors. I’m not going to try to mislead the public with one number instead of telling the other numbers as well. So really all that comes down to is honesty and transparency and about what the treasurer is doing with the people’s money. I believe that full transparency and full honesty are what we should be doing.
The third major issue is being an advocate for a strong economy. What is the treasurer advocating for? Up to this point, our treasurer has been virtually silent on any of the financial issues that are impacting the state of Arizona right now, everything from the COVID pandemic to the Inflation Reduction Act that just passed through Congress, to the use of APA funds that have come into our state and whether that use is appropriate, and to the management of Arizona’s water. Our treasurer has been silent on all of those issues yet each and every one of those issues has a major impact on our economy and on individuals and the state’s financial stability. So, if I’m the treasurer, I’m going to use that platform to be an advocate for the responsible use of all of that money, so that we can create policies and advocate for policies that are going to strengthen individuals and the state’s financial situations.”
- Please describe your campaign strategy to reach voters, including independents and disaffected Republicans to vote for you.
“I think there are three strategies that I’m going to use to reach independent and disaffected Republican voters.
The first one is just the track record of what has turned into a radicalized Republican party that denies election results, the existence of the pandemic, and all of these radical things like total abortion bans across the nation that they’re trying to implement right now in Arizona, depending on how these legal issues turn out. Those are really radical positions and radical policy ideas that not only Democrats, but independents and even Republicans don’t agree with. So, we have policymakers right now, including our State Treasurer that are on board with the most radical political agenda of the extreme right-wing that’s not reflective of what the majority of Arizonans want. So, I’m going to let Republicans and Independent voters know that I’m a common-sense candidate. I’m not going to lie to them about election results. I’m not going to try to take control of women’s bodies or advocating for that, but I’m going to be about managing responsibly and ethically managing your taxpayer dollars. So really, just being a common sense elected official being a common-sense candidate, and advocating for common sense policies and uses of the taxpayer dollars is what I think Arizonans need and want right now.
The second strategy is to just tie them to Trump. My opponent was one of the first endorsers of Donald Trump when he first ran for office and when he ran for reelection, she took on a national role in his campaign. There’s an Arizona, you know that rejected the Trump ideology in the last election. I think they’re going to do it again and to see that she’s that far on board with that Trump ideology to the point where she was a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention on behalf of Donald Trump, really shows how out of touch she is and how, how much politics.
We need to keep all of those radical politics out and I’m going to be about responsibly managing our money by keeping those politics out, I’m going to be able to bring in more money. When you bring in more money, using the money we already have, that lowers the need for us to ask voters to pay more in taxes. We want to use our money efficiently and wisely so that we can reduce the need to raise taxes on all. Arizonans. No one likes to pay taxes. If you have a good treasurer in that office, you can lower the need for us to ask voters to pay more in taxes.”
- Is there anything that are not covered in the first three questions that you want the voters to know about you and your candidacy for the Treasurer’s Office?
“I believe my track record speaks for itself.
I’ve served in government for the last 12 years. I’ve served on a school board for 12 years effectively and responsibly managing multimillion-dollar budgets in that school district while keeping our taxpayer rates low. I’ve served in the state legislature for the last ten years and I’ve served on all of the committees (appropriations, finance, education, judiciary, government,) that have an impact on people’s personal financial situations and our state’s financial stability.
So, I know the way that our government finance system works. I’ve worked on these budgets for the last ten years. I know how this whole system works. I know how to balance the politics of the legislature and the politics of the whole political scene. I know how to balance that with the institutional needs of the State Treasury and know how to get the job done without letting politics take too big of a role in that office as well. I’ve done that. As a legislator, I’ve done that as a school board member, and I have a legal background as well. I’m a practicing attorney for the last 13 years and having that legal background as well is going to be critically important in the Treasurer’s Office because the number one thing that the treasurer has to do is ensure that we are using the people’s money responsibly, ethically, and legally. And there are a lot of legal, complications that can be involved in that type of management of public money. I will be able to handle that with my legal background. My opponent doesn’t have that legal background whatsoever and so I’m hoping that the voters will, trust me with the office of state treasurer come November.”
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