State Treasurer

Name: Dick Clark

Registered Party: Democrat

District: State Treasurer

Address: 2405 Evergreen Ave., Salt Lake City 84109

Phone: 801-487-3226

Email: DClark@jpturner.com

Website: www.dickclarkforstatetreasurer.com

Candidate Background Information

Occupation: Securities principal, branch manager, registered investment adviser agent (RIA) for a major national firm

Education: - 5 years at BYU although I'm not LDS. I went down on a baseball scholarship and played as catcher for BYU and was a member of a team that went all the way to the World Series.

Prior Experience: 22 years experience in public finance and budgeting; 2 years as an investment banker

Jim Bouton wrote a book in which he said when you figure out how to hold a baseball, you find out it is the inverse, and that is what happened to me. I was playing baseball for five decades. In my fifth decade as adult competitive baseball player, I could still throw the ball within three inches of where I wanted it to go. For me, it was a major part of my life, and it's still part of my life. There are so many parallels to the rest of your life. It's not the game; it's the game within the game. Even though it looks slow, it's not slow. Markets are like a chess game too. You have to figure out where the money's going. Whatever information a hitter is using, you use it against him. Whatever information the hitter gives you, I use against him. And in the markets, whatever information it gives you, you can use to make headway against the markets.

One of things Yogi Berra says is that you can see a lot just by observing.

Questions

The League of Women Voters has made every effort to present accurately the candidates' responses as they were submitted.

1. Whate are the duties of the State Treasurer?

I believe that my job is to keep the barge, which is the state of Utah financial system, between the banks, going up the river and not go aground; to manage the money, to do the best for the taxpayers so they don't have the stress with additional costs. If the state falls short, taxpayers have to come up with the money.

2. What will be your most difficult challenge?

I've just written a white paper about what I see as a major change in the economics in this country involving a change in interest rates. Right now, they are irrational and can't be sustained at this levels. If this occurs where rationality comes back, interest rates will go higher. The most difficult challenge is change. I've done that for 35 years, so this is nothing new. This challenge is significant. It means that after 25 years of rates going lower, we're about to see a change, and I don't think my opponent has a clue about what that would mean to the state and I do. I have ways to deal with that given the constraint of what the state can do to not only save money but maybe even make money for the state, whereas if you're not aware of what that means, it could cost the state dearly. I do have a way of dealing with them.