Republican Herb Morgan seeks California controller seat

Republican finance executive Herb W. Morgan wants to put every California state payment on a public ledger if elected controller on Nov. 3, 2026. He faces Democrat Malia Cohen.

Asked why he is running, Morgan said in our candidate questionnaire: "I am seeking the office of State Controller because 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."

Morgan also said in the questionnaire that he would "publish state payments on a public ledger, apply continuous audit tools to high-risk programs, and report waste, fraud, and control failures in plain language."

Candidate information

Party: "Republican," Morgan said in our questionnaire.

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. BallotReady also lists a high school diploma from El Camino High School.

Experience and public service

Morgan described his career in our 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."

Cantor Fitzgerald's press release described the firm as having approximately $1.1 billion in assets under advisement at the time of the March 2017 acquisition. The two figures differ. According to BallotReady, Morgan served as senior managing director and chief investment officer at Cantor Fitzgerald from 2017 to 2026.

Morgan also said: "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."

On the issues

Qualifications: 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."

Differences from opponent: Morgan said in our questionnaire: "My opponent has treated the post as a platform for broader political priorities and has not delivered continuous, public scrutiny of how state dollars are spent."

Morgan also said in the 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."

Government reform: Morgan proposed creating a system where every time a state-funded nonprofit pays for anything, that transaction goes into a state database, then using AI to flag anything suspicious, according to CalMatters.

Homelessness spending: Morgan said he will carefully scrutinize the state's spending on homelessness if elected, according to CalMatters.