Massachusetts Auditor Diana DiZoglio is taking to social media to forcefully protest a House plan that would dilute her newly formalized ability to audit the state Legislature’s finances and performance.
“I need the support of the people, to ensure that Beacon Hill follows the law that they just passed,” DiZoglio told GBH News. “And while I used to, when I was a [state] senator, have the opportunity to take to the Senate floor and speak on behalf of an issue of concern, I no longer have that ability.
”Social media is the place where we were able to get out the word very quickly that legislators were seeking to stymie efforts regarding the legislative audit yesterday,“ DiZoglio told GBH News. ”[It’s] a clear effort to try to ignore the will of the people, maintain the status quo. So it was imperative that we call that out.“
Earlier this month, Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly approved Ballot Question 1, which amends state law to explicitly give the auditor the aforementioned authority. The new law is slated to take effect 30 days after the Nov. 5 Election Day.
When DiZoglio, who previously served in both the Massachusetts Senate and House, ran for auditor in 2022, auditing the Legislature was a key part of her campaign pitch. But legislative leaders have refused to comply with her efforts to do so, which they contend violate the separation of powers under the Massachusetts Constitution.
On Thursday, the House voted to change its internal rules to give the auditor the right to select an outside firm to examine its finances — a move DiZoglio likened in a post on “X” to “slapping voters in the face.”
“If you strip away the ability for our office to conduct the audit, you give yourselves the ability to control the scope of the audit, by an outside firm, since you’ll still control how much you pay for the audit, what you will allow [its] scope to be, and what you will allow them to examine or not examine,” DiZoglio wrote. “[Y]ou’ll be giving yourself control over every aspect of the process which will be overseen by you, and not our office, exempting yourself from oversight.”
Over the course of Thursday afternoon and evening, DiZoglio published several more posts denouncing the House’s move and urging other politicians to support her in her ongoing standoff with legislative leaders.
“I am asking for help from both @MassAGO [Attorney General Andrea Campbell] & @MassGovernor [Governor Maura Healey] because we legitimately can’t stop legislators from messing with Question 1 without their FULL support,” DiZoglio wrote in one. “@MassAGO please represent the people in court to enforce the law, old and new. @MassGovernor pls take a public position and call on them to follow the law that they’re planning to outright ignore.”
Campbell, the state’s attorney general, said before the passage of Question 1 that DiZoglio lacked the power to audit the Legislature under existing state law.
On Friday, a spokesman provided a statement in which Campbell said: “I respect the will of the voters to pass Question 1 and change the law. My office has no outstanding outreach from the Auditor regarding her efforts to audit the Legislature under the new law, and we encourage her to reach out to us directly on this matter.”
DiZoglio told GBH News that, as of Friday afternoon, her office was in the process of doing exactly that.
“Our formal letter requesting [the attorney general’s] support is being sent out today,” she said.
“We are asking the attorney general for her support moving forward in whatever way it’s possible,” she added. “We understand that the law doesn’t technically take effect until 30 days after the vote, but we would like to start working together with her office in the interim to ensure that as soon as that compliance is mandatory, that legislators comply.”
Governor Healey’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a post published Friday morning, DiZoglio pushed back against critics who she said had questioned her entreaty for support from the governor and attorney general.
“The amount of calls I’ve gotten saying don’t position @MassGovernor or @MassAGO,” DiZoglio wrote. “Let’s be clear. Asking colleagues who have the power to help — to help — is not 'positioning’ them. This is no longer a ballot question — it’s the law. I do need my sisters in service, whom I respect, to help ensure it’s followed.”
In several other posts, DiZoglio specifically called out House Speaker Ron Mariano, who described the rules change as “an opportunity to acknowledge the 70-30 vote of the electorate” while adding: “I’m not going to allow her to come in here and make the pronouncement that she can do this.”
Mariano “parks right behind me & has refused to speak a word to me for the last 2 years — not even a hello,” DiZoglio wrote. “Here’s what he said today: ‘We’re willing to work with the auditor. She wanted some input on the audit; she now has it.’ Sure, Mr. Speaker. I’ll wait by the phone.”
DiZoglio also suggested Thursday that she could mount another campaign aimed at pressuring the Legislature to accede to her newly codified authority, writing: “I thought legislators saw quite enough of me in their districts — apparently not. Guess I have to start going back to all their neighborhoods to break down to voters exactly what just happened and why it matters.”
On November 8, shortly after Ballot Question 1 passed, DiZoglio wrote to legislative leaders announcing her intention to conduct an audit of the Legislature’s performance with her newly formalized authority.
“We have an opportunity to really make the bold and meaningful change that voters ask us to make,” she told GBH News. “But it is incumbent upon us as elected leaders up on Beacon Hill to get together around the table and to work through this law ... So I am hoping that that will happen sooner rather than later.”
