Former Philadelphia City Controller Alan Butkovitz to announce bid for state treasurer

Former City Controller Alan Butkovitz left elected office nearly six years ago but still has a hankering for politics, especially when it comes to keeping an eye on public funds.

Butkovitz, 71, on Wednesday plans to announce his candidacy for state treasurer in the 2024 Democratic primary.

“I know about this kind of office, how to handle the financial issues, the decisions to be made,” Butkovitz said in an interview. “I love this.”

He will become the third Democrat seeking to challenge Republican Stacy Garrity, who won the seat in a very narrow 2020 victory and is seeking a second term.

Butkovitz hopes to paint Garrity as “an extremist Republican,” noting her support for former President Donald Trump’s repeated lies about how he lost the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania, along with her opposition to abortion access and disapproval of banks that make strategic business decisions with issues like climate warming in mind.

Dennis Roddy, a spokesperson for Garrity’s campaign, was not impressed, noting that Butkovitz’s last campaign was a failed 2019 attempt to stop Mayor Jim Kenney’s bid for a second term.

“I’m at as big a loss for words as Mr. Butkovitz was at a loss for votes for mayor,” Roddy said. “If he’s planning to run against Donald Trump, then he’s in the wrong race.”

Butkovitz, the Democratic leader of the 54th Ward in Northeast Philadelphia for three decades, served eight terms as a state representative and then three terms as city controller.

He was defeated in the 2017 primary for controller by Rebecca Rhynhart, who then won a second term in 2021 before resigning last year to run for mayor. She finished second in May’s nine-candidate Democratic mayoral primary.

State Rep. Ryan Bizzarro, an Erie County Democrat, announced his campaign for treasurer last month. He, too, is trying to cast Garrity, a retired U.S. Army Reserves colonel from Bradford County, as an extremist with ties to Trump.

Erin McClelland, an Allegheny County Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2014 and 2016 and briefly for county executive earlier this year, has also launched a bid for treasurer.

Butkovitz hopes to enjoy a regional advantage as the only Democrat from Philadelphia if he faces two primary foes from western Pennsylvania.

Former U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, chair of the Democratic City Committee in Philadelphia, is chairing the campaign, Butkovitz said.

Butkovitz is an attorney but said most of his work in recent years has been in helping the Democratic Party in local, state, and federal elections.

The state treasurer manages more than $150 billion in state funds while receiving taxes, paying state bills, and managing investments.

Garrity in 2020 unseated Joe Torsella, a Montgomery County Democrat, by a margin of less than 1% of the more than 6.7 million votes cast.