LUCAS WILLARD: WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes joins us now. Hello Josh!
JOSH LANDES: Hello Lucas.
Let’s start with State Auditor Diana DiZoglio. What’s the story with her ongoing effort to audit the Massachusetts legislature?
When the Democrat and former state senator initially ran for office in 2022, it was as an outsider intent on shedding light on the famously secretive Massachusetts State House. DiZoglio often cited her own experience with sexual harassment on Beacon Hill, which she says ended with her being required to sign a non-disclosure agreement that barred her from discussing what happened in the state’s halls of power when she worked there as a legislative aide. Since taking office, practically the rest of the state’s Democratic Party has disputed and blocked her legislative audit, including state House and Senate leaders as well as fellow Democrat Andrea Joy Campbell, the state attorney general, who says she lacks the legal authority.
In 2024, an overwhelming number of voters supported a ballot question affirming DiZoglio’s right to audit the legislature, though little progress has been made since.
Last month, she explained to WAMC why she’s attempting to use the courts to establish her right to audit the legislature:
“If we clear this next hurdle, what it will do is essentially grant us access to the documents that we have requested, which is access to financial receipts and documents and state contracts. That's all we've asked for this audit. It's been said that we're trying to access legislative powers, or that we're trying to exercise the power of the legislature. That's complete nonsense. Our office is full of CPAs and accountants who are simply trying to access some of these financial records right now, with respect to how the legislature is spending our tax dollars, and we're also trying to take a look at how they engage in state contracting using millions of dollars in taxpayer funds.”
Earlier this month, a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court judge decided against DiZoglio’s request for an outside lawyer to represent her office in the ongoing legislative audit effort. The auditor has pledged to fight on regardless.
So, what happened this week between Attorney General Campbell and Auditor DiZoglio?
On Wednesday, the AG addressed the feud over the audit while speaking on Boston public radio station WGBH.
Campbell acknowledged that she - in a way - has taken a side in DiZoglio’s lawsuit against the state legislature intended to force them to comply with her audit, and is moving to dismiss it:
“We are representing the legislature in that suit. Why? Because the auditor and any other state agency does not have the authority under our constitution or laws to file an unauthorized lawsuit without the permission of me and my office. That's my job to enforce the law of the commonwealth. So, when I represent state agencies, they need permission before they go to the court. It's been around, the laws, for centuries, so we are defending that. That will do nothing to move the audit forward. If anything, it's going to delay it, and that's unfortunate.”
The attorney general says the auditor has moved the goalposts on the audit’s scope, and placed the blame for the effort’s tortured journey at the feet of her rival:
“In the beginning, when she said she was going to do this audit, she kept really referring to it as a performance audit, even in the correspondence to her office, and we made it clear that that is sort of legislative business and affairs, there are constitutional limitations on the auditor to getting some of that information. But most recently in Worcester, when I saw her in Worcester, she has changed that. She said she was doing, wanting to do more of a financial audit, and wants the financials and possible state contracts, those two things.”
Campbell maintains that she supports the audit, and repeated that she herself voted for it along with the 72% of Massachusetts residents who supported it at the ballot box in 2024. But she says that while she can see a legal path forward for the audit, it’s DiZoglio who isn’t working with her to clearly articulate it:
“She does not have unlimited authority to audit whoever or whatever she wants. And in the context of the legislature, there are constitutional limitations. And my job is to enforce the constitution.”
Not long after the AG’s comments, the auditor struck back.
So, what did DiZoglio have to say about Campbell’s statements on WGBH?
The same day, the auditor’s office put out a press release claiming that the AG had violated the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct by directly calling DiZoglio on her personal cellphone after the SJC ruling about the outside counsel request, instead of going through a legal representative per state law. I spoke with the auditor this afternoon, who says that the move is particularly inappropriate given that Campbell is actively litigating against her:
“What is happening right now is the Attorney General is seeking to get me, a non-attorney, on my own in a private, shadow conversation out of the eyes of the public, out of the eyes of my legal counsel, and trying to get me on my own to have a private conversation where nobody can hear what is being said between the two of us, and therefore anything about that conversation can then later be claimed pertaining to what is a very serious matter before the highest court in the commonwealth right now.”
In a statement, Campbell’s office described DiZoglio’s charges as “false and baseless,” and that “if the Auditor is interested in a solution, the AG is available to speak with her or the Auditor’s staff can speak with our office – but as it stands, her office refuses to engage with us directly on a path forward.”
WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes. Thanks, Josh.
Thank you, Lucas!
