Meet the 2 men putting New York’s $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years

On paper, New York State Comptroller is a sleepy job. No press secretary emerges from the office to spin the Sunday shows. No Twitter feuds, no viral moments. A recent poll found that 65% of New York Democrats have never heard of the man who has held the position for two decades.

What Thomas DiNapoli actually controls is another matter entirely. As sole trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund—the third-largest pension fund in the United States—he manages nearly $300 billion without a board, without a cosigner, and without, until very recently, a single Democratic opponent. For the first time since DiNapoli was handed the job in a backroom Albany deal in 2007, two challengers are making a case that the office has been asleep at the switch—and that New Yorkers are paying for it.

Fortune talked to both of them, Drew Warshaw and Raj Goyle, and the two longtime acquaintances, if not friends, had a clear message: The time for ...