Your guide to the California controller race: Incumbent Cohen vs. challenger Morgan

The controller is the state’s fiscal watchdog, responsible for auditing government agencies, administering payroll for state employees and reuniting abandoned assets with their owners.

The controller also serves on dozens of boards, including those of the nation’s two largest public pension funds, California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS).

Incumbent Malia Cohen is endorsed by the California Democratic party, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate Pro Tem Speaker Monique Limón. Her challenger is Herb Morgan, a Republican from San Diego who promises a more aggressive approach to the job.

California’s general election takes place on Novemer 3. Learn about L.A.’s city and county races as well races for state office.

Cohen was elected in 2022 after serving as a member of the state Board of Equalization from San Francisco.

Cohen touts her work supporting Assembly Bill 2353, which was signed into law in 2024 and helps nonprofit affordable housing developers avoid making unnecessary property tax payments.

State Controller Malia Cohen leaves the stage after speaking at the California Democratic Party State Convention in February. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

She also said she helped modernize the state’s escheatment process and has increased the amount of funds returned to their rightful owners. The state is on track to return $1 billion worth of funds this year, she said.

Cohen also said 25% of her department’s contracts have gone to small businesses owned by women or minorities, a goal set by a 2023 state law.

Morgan, a finance and investment advisor, argues that his background will help California find waste and fraud.

He started an investment firm that managed $1.5 billion in assets and was sold to Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisors in 2017. He served as Cantor Fitzgerald’s chief financial officer for almost 10 years and also as chair of the board of administration of the San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System (SDCERS).

As a candidate in 2022, Cohen said she’d conduct audits of homeless spending, the Department of Motor Vehicles and Employment Development Department if elected. However, her office didn’t do audits of homeless spending, a spokesperson said.

Cohen said her office sought funding from the governor and the state to conduct homeless audits but was denied. Her office clarified the request was for money for high-risk audit investments but didn’t specifically mention homelessness.

Cohen also acknowledged that she didn’t conduct reviews of the DMV and EDD, because, she said, other agencies were doing those audits and she didn’t want to duplicate their efforts.

After Cohen’s election, her office found itself in a public dispute over the state’s annual comprehensive financial report, a summary of California’s spending.

The report, published each year by the controller’s office, is used by credit agencies to monitor the state’s fiscal health and for years has been published months after it is due. Cohen blames other departments’ delays in turning over data as part of the reason for its chronic lateness.

The state auditor, a separate agency that reports to the state Legislature, launched its own audit about the timeliness of the report. In a 2025 letter, the auditor accused the controller’s office of spending more than a year “resisting an independent review” of the delayed report, which almost led to a legal showdown between the agencies.

Cohen, in an interview this year, said she succeeded in getting the report published closer to its due date. Her office also disputes the state auditor’s version of events.

Also this year, Cohen’s press officer secretly was recorded by a woman who pretended to be on a date with him. In the recording, the officer is heard saying that the office’s auditing team was cut by the state and that the office doesn’t have the resources to proactively perform audits. The recording was procured by conservative activist group O’Keefe Media.

Cohen called the recording illegal and declined to comment. The officer didn’t respond to The Times’ request for comment.

Morgan promises to bring a real-time reporting system that would use blockchain technology and artificial intelligence, allowing the public to review the price and recipients of contracts and highlight any conflicts of interests.

Questions remain about its price tag and functionality, given that state departments have different ways of recording contracts and payments.

Morgan also promises more audits focused on “high-dollar, high-risk programs” and for ongoing oversight, not “one-time reviews.”

Herb Morgan high-fives supporters during Steve Hilton’s town hall in Santa Monica in May. (Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

He also vows more accountability when it comes to ensuring that all payments overseen by the controller’s office are cross-referenced to ensure that the work was performed.

He criticized Cohen, whose office recently received approval by the state Legislature and the governor to hire a chief financial officer and two other top positions. Cohen sought to create a CFO position “to elevate public accountability and improve taxpayer trust,” according to a spokesperson.

Morgan pointed out that Cohen’s reelection website calls her the state’s “chief financial officer” and said she shouldn’t be hiring someone to do her job.

Proposed legislation to streamline California’s ability to seize abandoned stocks and mutual funds is drawing opposition from business groups and dividing Democratic lawmakers.

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Dakota Smith is a staff writer in the Los Angeles Times’ Sacramento bureau, where she covers state government and politics. She was part of the team that won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for reporting on a leaked audio recording that upended City Hall politics. She joined the newsroom in 2016 and previously covered City Hall for the Los Angeles Daily News. She is a graduate of Lewis & Clark College.

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