Herb Morgan seeks California controller seat Nov. 3

Republican Herb Morgan is running for California controller in the Nov. 3 general election against Democrat Malia Cohen.

Asked why he is seeking the office, Morgan said in our candidate questionnaire: "California's finances lack the independent, real-time oversight the Constitution assigns to this post. The Controller is the state's chief fiscal officer and auditor, not a policy advocate. That role has not been used to its full extent."

Candidate information

Party: Republican

Family: "Married 35 years, two adult children," Morgan said in our questionnaire.

Education: "My education is a B.A. in Economics with honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz," Morgan said in our questionnaire. According to BallotReady, he holds a high school diploma from El Camino High School.

Background: Morgan arrived in California on his first birthday in 1967, according to his campaign website. He grew up in Westminster and Oceanside and attended local public schools, according to the site.

Experience and public service

Morgan said in our candidate questionnaire: "I am a finance executive and investment adviser with roughly forty years in capital markets. I began on Wall Street with Dean Witter, J.&W. Seligman, Dreyfus, and LPL Financial. In 2004 I founded Efficient Market Advisors, the first ETF-managed-account platform, which grew to about $1.5 billion in assets and was sold to Cantor Fitzgerald in 2017. I remained Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of that division until I retired to run for Controller."

Efficient Market Advisors had approximately $1.1 billion in assets under advisement when Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisors acquired it in March 2017, according to a Cantor Fitzgerald announcement.

Morgan also said in our questionnaire: "I also served on the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System board, appointed in 2009 and reappointed in 2013, and served as both vice president and president of the board."

According to BallotReady, Morgan has served as a board member at The Private Shares Fund since 2023.

On the issues

Asked what accomplishments show he can handle the job, Morgan said in our questionnaire: "I built and sold a regulated investment firm that grew to about $1.5 billion in assets, then remained as chief investment officer after the sale, responsible for process, risk controls, and client reporting. That work required the same discipline the Controller's office demands: custody of other people's money and clean, timely books."

He added: "Those roles are evidence I can read a balance sheet, enforce controls, and state plainly when the numbers do not add up."

On the differences between himself and other candidates, Morgan said in our questionnaire: "I will publish state payments on a public ledger and apply continuous audit tools to high-risk programs so findings arrive while money is still moving. The current approach relies on periodic reports that appear long after the funds are gone."

He also said: "I will report waste, fraud, and control failures in plain language. The test of the office is whether the books are open, not whether the Controller agrees with the spending."

Morgan told CalMatters he proposes creating a system where every time a state-funded nonprofit pays for anything, that transaction goes into a state database, with AI monitoring those purchases and flagging anything suspicious. He also said he would carefully scrutinize the state's spending on homelessness, according to CalMatters.