BOSTON (WWLP) – Just last week, Attorney General Andrea Campbell made her decision on whether Auditor Diana DiZoglio had the power to audit the legislature.
Attorney General Campbell announced that she believes the auditor does not have the power to audit the legislature. However, that isn’t stopping DiZoglio. Auditor DiZoglio served in both the House and the Senate, where she publicly clashed with leadership over things like transparency.
In March, she announced her plans to audit the legislature but she was immediately hit with resistance from both Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano. In July, she wrote to Attorney General Campbell for her support, which she did not receive.
DiZoglio stated that the Attorney General’s opinion was simply just that, her opinion, and she plans to challenge it. She is continuing in the push to audit the legislature, even if top leaders don’t agree to cooperate.
“We will be making it crystal clear what information we requested from legislative leaders and what information they denied to the general public through that audit. But, we will continue on conducting the same audit we’ve been conducting, and making the same requests for documents, again to make sure that the general public is no longer left in the dark about what is happening up on Beacon Hill behind these closed doors,” said DiZoglio.
DiZoglio is also putting much of her efforts behind her ballot question, which she filed in her capacity as a private citizen. The ballot question would change state law to make it explicit that the auditor can in fact audit the legislature.
DiZoglio said they are within striking distance with the campaign gathering more than 50,000 signatures already. Now, ballot question supporters must gather over 70,000 signatures by November 22nd to get to the next step in the ballot process.
Ellen Fleming is a reporter at the Boston State House who has been a part of the 22News team since 2022. Follow Ellen on X @EllenFlem and view her bio to see more of her work.
