Pennsylvania

Pa. Treasurer Rob McCord Steps Down

Pennsylvania state Treasurer Rob McCord is stepping down from the job after six years, although the Democrat who pumped $2.2 million of his own money into his unsuccessful run for governor gave no indication Thursday about his future plans.

In a statement and letter released by his office, the former venture capitalist listed his accomplishments and said only that it is time for him to return to the private sector.

"It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve the citizens of the commonwealth as their elected state treasurer for the past six years," McCord wrote in a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf. "But with my goals at Treasury now achieved — and with a new governor now in office to appoint my successor — it is time for me to return to the private sector, where most of my life's work has been."

Of note, McCord said, was shoring up Pennsylvania's Tuition Account Program and increasing revenue to the state from unclaimed assets.

His pending departure follows soon after his lawsuit with Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman against the NCAA resulted in college sports' governing body restoring 112 football wins it had stripped from Penn State over the Jerry Sandusky child-molestation scandal. The lawsuit also succeeded in getting other lingering penalties dropped and keeping Penn State's $60 million fine in Pennsylvania for child-abuse prevention efforts.

McCord, 55, who lives in the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr, will leave office on Feb. 12 with two years left in his final term. It will be up to Wolf to nominate a successor, with Senate confirmation, to fill the job through the 2016 election.

In a statement, Wolf thanked McCord for his dedication to the job, wished him well and said McCord had served "honorably and diligently." Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said McCord had helped the state through "some very rough economic waters."

House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, praised McCord's work.

"He steered Pennsylvania's treasury through the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression," he said.

McCord was elected in 2008 and 2012 to four-year terms in the office and ran unsuccessfully for governor last year, losing in an expensive and bruising primary to Wolf.

The campaign sowed some hard feelings.

McCord had heated words during the Democratic Party's winter meetings as he mounted an aggressive, but unsuccessful, effort to capture the Democratic Party's endorsement.

He also raised the issue of race by connecting Wolf to a former York mayor who had been charged with murder, and later acquitted, for allegedly inciting white gang members to kill a black woman during York's 1969 race riots. A stepbrother also emerged to criticize McCord's portrayal of himself as the disadvantaged child of a single mother.

Still, he won The Philadelphia Inquirer's endorsement and the backing of several major labor unions. In his last campaign finance report filed with the state, McCord listed the $2.2 million he spent on his campaign as an unpaid debt.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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