Pat McCarthy
Pat McCarthy (Democratic Party) is the Washington State Auditor. She assumed office on January 11, 2017. Her current term ends on January 13, 2025.
McCarthy (Democratic Party) is running for re-election for Washington State Auditor. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024. She advanced from the primary on August 6, 2024.
Biography
McCarthy began her career in public service as an elected school board director for the Tacoma School District, a position she held from 1987-1999. She then became the deputy auditor for Pierce County in 1999. She was then elected and served as county auditor in 2002 and 2006. She served from 2003-2008.[1]The Pierce County auditor oversees elections and licensing.[2]
In 2008, McCarthy was then elected to serve two terms as Pierce County executive, from 2009-2017.[1] As county executive, McCarthy was tasked with running the daily operations of the county, including overseeing a $900 million budget and managing 3,000 employees. She was ineligible for a third term as county executive due to term limits.[2]
Education
B.A., University of Washington, Tacoma[1]
Political career
Washington State Auditor (2017 - Present)
McCarthy was elected Washington state auditor on November 8, 2016. She assumed office on January 11, 2017.[3]
Elections
2024
See also: Washington Auditor election, 2024
General election
General election for Washington State Auditor
Incumbent Pat McCarthy and Matt Hawkins are running in the general election for Washington State Auditor on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
 | Pat McCarthy (D) | |
 | Matt Hawkins (R)  | |
| ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Washington State Auditor
Incumbent Pat McCarthy and Matt Hawkins advanced from the primary for Washington State Auditor on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Pat McCarthy (D) | 59.2 | 583,607 |
| ✔ | | Matt Hawkins (R) | 40.8 | 402,016 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 870 | ||
| Total votes: 986,493 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Campaign finance
Endorsements
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2020
See also: Washington Auditor election, 2020
General election
General election for Washington State Auditor
Incumbent Pat McCarthy defeated Christopher Leyba in the general election for Washington State Auditor on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Pat McCarthy (D) | 58.0 | 2,260,830 |
 | Christopher Leyba (R) | 41.9 | 1,633,956 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 3,316 | ||
| Total votes: 3,898,102 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Washington State Auditor
Incumbent Pat McCarthy and Christopher Leyba defeated Joshua Casey in the primary for Washington State Auditor on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Pat McCarthy (D) | 47.4 | 1,134,077 |
| ✔ | | Christopher Leyba (R) | 41.1 | 982,411 |
 | Joshua Casey (D) | 11.4 | 273,198 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 2,278 | ||
| Total votes: 2,391,964 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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2016
- Main article: Washington Auditor election, 2016
McCarthy filed to run as a Democrat in the 2016 election for auditor of Washington. Washington uses a top-two primary system, meaning that the two candidates who receive the most votes in a primary election advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation. McCarthy's opponents in the primary included fellow Democrat Jeff Sprung and Republican state Sen. Mark Miloscia, as well as independents David Golden and Mark Wilson.[4] McCarthy placed second in the August 2 primary election and competed with Miloscia, who placed first, in the November general election.
General election results
Pat McCarthy defeated Mark Miloscia in the Washington auditor election.
| Washington Auditor, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Pat McCarthy |
52.31% | 1,597,011 | |
| Republican | Mark Miloscia | 47.69% | 1,455,771 | |
| Total Votes | 3,052,782 | |||
| Source: Washington Secretary of State | ||||
Primary election results
Mark Miloscia and Pat McCarthy defeated Jeff Sprung, Mark Wilson, and David Golden in the Washington primary for auditor.
| Washington primary for auditor, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican | Mark Miloscia |
36.71% | 481,910 | |
| Democratic | Pat McCarthy |
29.09% | 381,828 | |
| Democratic | Jeff Sprung | 23.94% | 314,290 | |
| Independent | Mark Wilson | 7.39% | 96,972 | |
| Unaffiliated | David Golden | 2.87% | 37,727 | |
| Total Votes | 1,312,727 | |||
| Source: Washington Secretary of State | ||||
Campaign finance
| Pat McCarthy Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| To date | As of November 4, 2016 | $ | $163,743.80 | $(143,970.53) | $ | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $163,743.8 | $(143,970.53) | ||||||||
Endorsements
| Key endorsements | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pat McCarthy (D) | |||||||||
| Former Washington Governor Christine Gregoire (D) | |||||||||
| Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn (D) | |||||||||
| Speaker of the Washington House of Representatives Frank Chopp (D) | |||||||||
| U.S. Congressman Denny Heck (D) | |||||||||
| U.S. Congressman Derek Kilmer (D) | |||||||||
| Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (D) | |||||||||
| EMILY's List | |||||||||
| IBEW Local 483 | |||||||||
| What is a key endorsement? | |||||||||
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
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2020
Pat McCarthy did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Noteworthy events
Audit of state unemployment fund (December 2020)
In December 2020, a news release from McCarthy announced that a preliminary audit report showed a “major fraud scheme that targeted Washington state’s unemployment benefits” during the spring of 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. An April 2021 follow-up release covering more comprehensive audits of the state’s Employment Security Department (ESD) revealed there had been at least $647 million in “known misappropriations” and an additional $461 million in “questionable payments,” defined as “claims that were flagged by ESD for review, but not yet investigated.”[5][6]
Reasons listed for the misallocations included: “ESD lacked a proactive anti-fraud unit, and in early 2020 some tools within its fraud-prevention portfolio were not working, for example, checking identities against state prison registers before issuing payments.”
“Our goal as auditors was to establish the facts surrounding a massive fraud that targeted our unemployment insurance system,” McCarthy said.[5]
Data breach during investigation of unemployment insurance fraud (February 2021)
During an investigation of what McCarthy later referred to as “massive fraud” in the state’s unemployment insurance spending, hackers breached a software provider used by the auditor’s office to transfer data and stole the personal data of 1.4 million individuals who had used the unemployment system. The theft of the state’s Employment Security Department data occurred in December 2020 and was revealed in February 2021. During the breach, the hackers obtained access to unemployment claimant names, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank information, and places of employment.[5]
McCarthy’s response to the breach was criticized by state lawmakers investigating the incident.
“Was it truly necessary for the audit of ESD to include all this personal financial data from ESD claimants?” asked state Sen. Karen Keiser (D), chair of the committee with oversight of ESD. “If so, why did the auditor’s office not make sure its vendor could be trusted to provide adequate data security?”[7]
In March 2021, Keiser and other lawmakers investigating the breach criticized McCarthy for insisting on a confidentiality agreement before providing them with a briefing. McCarthy said the secrecy was needed because her office was facing lawsuits in relation to the hack.
Keiser, who had been a state lawmaker since 1996, told the Seattle Times that she had never before heard of such secrecy being necessary from a state agency and that she would not comply with McCarthy’s terms.
“I could not abide by an attorney-client privilege conversation, and then hold oversight hearings,” Keiser said. Trying to “keep a wall between what I know [from the briefing] and what I ask about [at a public hearing] doesn’t work.”
“I am willing to participate,” said state Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D), another lawmaker investigating the hack. “It’s outrageous that this is their approach, but it’s vital to understand what is going on.”
State Sen. Joe Nguyen (D), a program manager for Microsoft, said he asked to speak to the auditor’s technical staff and was told he could not do so without agreeing to the secrecy agreement. “The fact that we both have lawyers talking to each other and not, you know, the technology experts is very telling,” Nguyen said.[8]
Audit reveals potential poaching by state wildlife director (September 2021)
In September 2021, McCarthy released a performance audit of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) that revealed 10 percent of the department employees interviewed claimed to have witnessed another employee “commit legal or ethical violations” during the prior year. Among the violations claimed were excess game harvesting, improper issuance of hunting permits, and accusations of nepotism.
The audit findings were internally investigated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the findings of the WDFW investigation were forwarded to the Ferry County (Washington) prosecuting attorney. In January 2022, a Spokane-area television station reported that a WDFW regional director had turned himself in and had been charged with offenses related to poaching.[9]
See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Washington State Auditor |
Officeholder Washington State Auditor |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Pierce County, Washington, "Pat McCarthy," accessed July 15, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The News Tribune, "Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy to run for state auditor," accessed July 15, 2016
- ↑ Northwest News Network, "Women, Gen Xers Prepare To Take Statewide Office In Olympia," December 21, 2016
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedcandlist - ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Office of the Washington State Auditor, “Vulnerabilities in federal law, gaps in state fraud detection led to losses in unemployment insurance program, audits find,” April 13, 2021
- ↑ Office of the Washington State Auditor, “Auditor McCarthy releases first audit on unemployment fraud,” December 18, 2020
- ↑ Seattle Times, “Banking, Social Security info of more than 1.4 million people exposed in hack involving Washington state auditor,” February 1, 2021
- ↑ Seattle Times, “Lawmakers frustrated by secrecy surrounding massive data hack at Washington state auditor’s office,” March 3, 2021
- ↑ KREM-2, “Documents: Washington Fish and Wildlife regional director accused of poaching,” January 12, 2022
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Troy Kelley (D) |
Washington State Auditor 2017-Present |
Succeeded by - |
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State of Washington Olympia (capital) |
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