As an Arizona criminal prosecutor, a nationally-recognized economic policy expert, and a businessman working with some of America’s top companies, Andrei Cherny has been a leader on the issues confronting Arizona’s economy in the 21st century. As State Treasurer, he'll be "the taxpayers' bulldog" in going after those who misuse government funds whether they're in Wall Street banks or in the state bureaucracy.  He'll work across party lines to use the powers of the office to make safer investments that spur new job growth; use audits to help reform government so that it works better and costs less; and help make Arizona "the Solar State " -- a national leader in solar energy jobs. 

AN ARIZONA STATE PROSECUTOR

From 2006 to 2009, Andrei served as an Arizona Assistant Attorney General. He achieved a 100% conviction rate as a criminal prosecutor in dozens of cases involving multi-million dollar Ponzi schemes, home mortgage frauds, financial crimes, public officials who abused their powers, and illegal alien smuggling rings.

As State Treasurer, he’ll use that experience to go after the abuse and misuse of taxpayer dollars. He’ll crack down on fraud and corruption in state government by following the trail wherever the evidence leads. Andrei will be the taxpayers’ watchdog, but he’ll be more than that – he’ll be the taxpayers’ bulldog.

AN ECONOMIC POLICY LEADER

Coming from an immigrant family where both his parents worked hard but often struggled, Andrei worked his way through Harvard by holding down three jobs at a time. While there he studied economics under President Ronald Reagan's chief economic advisor.  For more than a decade, he’s been on the forefront of creating new economic policies that will bring more opportunity to all our people in this high-tech, global economy. 

When he was just 21, he became one of the youngest senior White House officials in American history when he went to work for Bill Clinton and Al Gore. He was part of the effort to work across party lines to balance the budget, pay down our national debt, reinvent government for a new century, and spread economic growth.

Andrei is the author of The Next Deal: The Future of Public Life in the Information Age, which examined how American government must change to meet the challenges of the 21^st century New Economy. The Los Angeles Times called the book “visionary in scope,” the Financial Times reported that The Next Deal “has become required reading” in the British Prime Minister’s office, and it received bipartisan praise by everyone from Al Gore to Joe Lieberman to Newt Gingrich who called it “one of the most thoughtful books about…the information age to be produced by anyone of any ideological background.”

Andrei has been called a “superstar” by CNN, a “progressive reformer” by Washington Monthly, an “all-round political heavyweight” by Phoenix Magazine, “smart, bold, and thoughtful” by the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne, and one of the “more creative thinkers” on the issues of the future by U.S. News and World Report’s Michael Barone. Andrei has written frequently on economic policy, government, and history for numerous publications including the Arizona Republic, New York Times, USA Today, East Valley Tribune, and Investor’s Business Daily.  

A BACKGROUND IN BUSINESS

Andrei has provided policy and strategy advice to some of America’s most prominent businesses including Microsoft, KB Homes, Advanced Micro Devices, and Cablevision. He has seen what works in corporate America – and what doesn’t. As Treasurer, he’ll make sure we’re wise with our state investments by supporting entrepreneurs and innovators instead of bailouts and bonuses for failed CEOs.

Andrei knows what it means to run an organization and meet a payroll. He was the founder and President of Democracy, a public policy journal and think tank that seeks to spur new ideas on the major issues facing America and the world.  Andrei built Democracy from the ground up, running this multi-million dollar enterprise and its staff. 

Democracy’s ideas on how to make the 21^st century economy work for all Americans have made their way into the national political debate and into legislation in Congress and states across America. Today, Democracy has over 30,000 readers in every state and more than 150 countries around the world. In its first year of publication, Democracy was named “Best New Publication” by the Independent Press Awards. The Washington Post wrote that Democracy is “widely read” in the Obama administration and the Philadelphia Inquirer has noted that “one way to guess what Obama might do” is to look to Democracy.

A COMMITMENT TO SERVING ARIZONA AND AMERICA

Andrei lives in Phoenix with his wife Stephanie, and son Ben (a fifth-generation Arizonan).  He was born and raised in California and worked his way through college at Harvard and law school at the University of California.  Andrei has served on the City of Phoenix Commission on Housing and Neighborhoods and the board of the Arizona League of Conservation Voters.