The candidate who captures Tuesday’s contest for treasurer will be winning his or her first state election.
Republican David McRae, a Ridgeland attorney and managing partner in his family’s business, McRae Investments, and Democrat Addie Lee Green of Bolton, a retiree from an automotive parts manufacturer in Clinton, are vying to replace two-term Treasurer Lynn Fitch, who is running for attorney general.
McRae, has run a primarily self financed campaign, defeating outgoing state Senate Appropriations Chair Buck Clarke of Hollandale in this past summer’s Republican primary. In 2015, McRae ran unsuccessfully against Fitch.
Green ran unsuccessfully in 2015 for the post of agriculture commissioner. She has served on the Board of Aldermen in Bolton and is a local election commissioner. She is on the state’s Democratic Party Executive Committee.
Green, who studied sociology at Jackson State University, has run a financially strapped campaign.
But as treasurer Green said she will be a keen watchdog of the state’s money.
“I want to watch your money like a hawk watches a chicken,” Green said recently at the annual Mississippi Economic Council’s Hob Nob where the state’s business community hears from state officeholders and candidates.
McRae told Mississippi Today, “I’m running because my experience in private sector investing can help maximize our state’s investment returns for the benefit of taxpayers. I’m a businessman, not a politician. That means I’m willing to question the status quo, particularly when it comes to our state’s investments and debts.”
The office of treasurer, one of eight statewide posts, serves multiple functions, including maintaining the state’s financial records and overseeing the investment of state funds. The office manages the state’s college savings plans, which allow parents to invest funds for their children’s tuition, and the treasurer also oversees the state’s unclaimed property.
McRae said he wants to provide more transparency on how state funds are invested and wants to develop “sound financial strategy” of the state’s funds. McRae said he also wants to stress constituent services and work to reduce the state’s debt, though, that largely depends on the amount of debt approved by the Legislature.
Green, who helped organize a union when she worked at a Clinton auto supply manufacturing plant, said she believes more information needs to be provided to the public on the state’s college savings plans and she wants to stop the practice of what she calls “rewriting arithmetic.” She said she is referring to the practice of more money being appropriated than the state has. That also would be determined in large part by the actions of the Legislature.
Mississippi’s general election is Nov. 5. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. unless there’s a line.
For information on all candidates running for statewide office, view our #MSElex Voter Guide.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.