State Auditor Diana DiZoglio said Wednesday that her office is preparing a writ of mandamus to try to obtain Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s assistance in DiZoglio’s ongoing standoff with the state Legislature.
In November 2024, a ballot question was passed into law by 72% of voters that explicitly gives DiZoglio the authority to audit the Massachusetts House and Senate. However, leaders in those chambers have indicated that they believe that the new law violates separation of powers protections under the Massachusetts Constitution and do not intend to comply with it.
DiZoglio has repeatedly asked for Campbell to intervene on behalf of the ballot question, but so far the attorney general has balked at doing so.
“Full disclosure, our office is unfortunately drafting a writ of mandamus right now to ask the attorney general to please fulfill the duties of her office,” DiZoglio said on GBH’s Boston Public Radio.
“You’re going to ask a court to force her to take sides? You’re going to court for that?” asked cohost Jim Braude. “Who’s going to represent you if she doesn’t?”
“Well, we have an in-house general counsel right now,” DiZoglio replied. “We have talked to some folks who have volunteered. Nobody’s come on yet. But I will tell you, I would very much love to have the AG’s support on this issue for the people of this commonwealth.
“I have been asking over and over and over and over again, much to the chagrin of madame AG, who I don’t really think has appreciated me consistently and over and over again asking for help, publicly,” DiZoglio added. “But it’s all that we have. Because the formal requests that we’ve been making them, and we have been making them, they’ve gone really unanswered regarding whether or not she’s planning to represent us. We’re at a standstill, I would say.”
In layperson’s terms, mandamus is a court order requiring a public official to exercise her or his responsibilities in a certain manner.
The U.S. Department of Justice describes mandamus as “an extraordinary remedy, which should only be used in exceptional circumstances of peculiar emergency or public importance.”
Campbell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
