Mar. 21—Mark Metcalf, one of the three Republican candidates running for State Treasurer, made a stop in Pulaski on Tuesday, discussing his views on the office, his expected role if elected, and his thoughts on the current financial crisis facing several U.S. banks.

Metcalf is currently in his sixth term as Garrard County Attorney, and will be facing O.J. Oleka and Andrew Cooperrider in the May 16 treasurer's race primary.

The winner of that contest will go on to face Democrat Michael Bowman in the November election.

With his background being one of law, prosecution, and U.S. defense, Metcalf said that he has been asked several time why he has decided to run as head of the state's financial office.

"The role of the treasurer has been enlarged — and strongly enlarged, necessarily so — by Allison Ball," Metcalf said. "She has proven that in that position we can make certain Kentucky's investments do not become 'woke investments' and depreciate the value of our pension funds. Pushing back against the woke movements is a pillar of my campaign."

What does he believe is part of that concept of "woke investments?"

"I want to make certain the Treasure's Office pushes back against the woke movements that tell us we can't invest in fossil fuels," he said. "[Congressman] Harold Rogers represents one of the largest coal producing congressional districts in the nation. And I want to make certain for the Fifth Congressional District that mining coal, drilling oil and harvesting natural gas remains strong."

Metcalf's connection to Rogers goes way back, as Metcalf said his first job out of college was to work for the U.S. Representative folks refer to as "Hal."

Metcalf was born and raised in Garrard County and earned both a B.A. and his law degree at the University of Kentucky.

He then started out as part of Rogers' congressional campaign staff. "I was also on his first congressional staff," he said.

"He was always kind, and always gave us interesting work to do," he added about the congressman. At Rogers' urging, Metcalf took training at the United Nations. Then in 1990 he served his first term as Garrard County Attorney.

He served two terms at that time, then faced off against Ernie Fletcher for U.S. congress in 1996. "I lost that race by four votes," he said, and promptly endorsed Fletcher for the office. "I think he was a fine congressman and a fine governor."

Metcalf said that from there, he was appointed to the U.S. Justice Department, where his first job was to work on election reform — right after the 2000 election that saw contention between presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore.

The sometimes-confusing election, which saw Gore receive a larger number of popular votes but Bush winning the Electoral College numbers, was punctuated by problems, especially in the Florida election and subsequent recounts that led to deadline confusion and the U.S. Supreme Court halting the process at one point.

Metcalf said he worked on the bill that aimed to prevent such confusion.

"The name of the bill was the Help America Vote Act, and we're still using it today — the purchase of technology and maintenance of voting standards as to machines, as well as making certain we're keeping the voting franchise open to all that are valid and are certified votes," he said.

Metcalf then served more than two years as an appointee to the U.S. Immigration Court, as well as working as part of overseas defense.

"My Army unit was sent to Iraq in 2011 — we were mobilized on Veterans Day on 2010," he said.

"... We closed American operations there. We took 3,000 over, and we brought 3,000 home." There were casualties, he said, but no fatalities among the unit.

Around the same time, in 2010, Metcalf was elected to his third term as Garrard County Attorney, and he has remained there since.

"I've had a very good career, I am a grateful person and I'm humbled by the opportunities I've had," he said.

He said he believes his experience working in the county attorney's office will help him run a state office efficiently.

"If I'm elected Treasurer, I want to slow down and stop as much as possible the growth of government which intrudes into our lives more every day," he said.

He said that he reduced the size of his county attorney's office staff by 20% during his time there, through replacing people with other highly-skilled people or not replacing staff who had retired.

"Recruiting very talented people has enabled me not to have to increase or return the staff to the size it had been," he said, a skill he believes will help as treasurer.

He also noted the expanded skills of the office of treasurer, as Treasurer Ball's focus on her office's own cybersecurity concerns has led to the department being connected to rooting out fraud as well as working with state finances.

"As county attorney in Garrard County, I experienced our EMS and our dispatch services being attacked by ransomware, and so we lost all of our records," he said. "We didn't pay the ransom. We reconstructed our records. It took a long time to do it, but as we were doing it we lost evidence for court, and we'd also lost records that helped us with our [EMS] billing cycle. ... These crimes are real, and the victims are real. What I want to make certain of is that Kentucky counties have the same access to the best technology to prevent the same things happening to them."

He continued: "As we move into this expansion of cybercrime away from large banks and businesses towards homes — especially the elderly — it means we have to have some leadership to make certain that families and local governments know there is a place they can turn to for assistance. Not in the prosecution, but to combat the threat."

In talking about large banks and businesses, discussion led to the current state of banking in the United States, and the concerns investors have when looking at the recent failure of two domestic banks — Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

"As the story's unfolded, the banks, in many respects, had invested almost entirely all of their monies in low-yield promissory notes or low-yield treasury notes. When interest rates went up, they didn't get the higher-yielding instruments or the higher-yielding securities. That's a mismanagement issue," Metcalf said.

"The other mismanagement issue is that they were focused more on putting LGBTQ people on boards who fit a certain identity rather than hiring on the basis of merit," he said. "It was revealed last week that Silicon Valley Bank had placed two people on the board whose sole qualifications were the large checks they wrote to Hillary Clinton when she ran for president. They're more concerned about diversity, equity and inclusion than they are about the qualifications of a person to serve. And we can find among our people [those] who are from all walks of life to put on these boards, but let's make merit part of the equation. Experience. A background in banking. A background in finance. An educational background in accounting."

Metcalf said that he was raised in the Presbyterian church, and said is a firm believer in the Second Amendment and that he has been endorsed by the Kentucky Right To Life organization.

Carla Slavey can be reached at cslavey@somerset-kentucky.com