DiZoglio continues push for Legislature audit, public records referendum

State Auditor Diana Dizoglio speaks at the 2025 MassDem State Convention held Sept. 13, 2025, at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield.
Republican file photo

SPRINGFIELD — The 2026 state election may not be until the fall, but candidates are already making the rounds across the commonwealth to introduce themselves and make their case to voters.

Massachusetts Auditor Diana DiZoglio may be running unopposed, but that does not mean she is without opponents.

On a recent trip to Springfield, she sat down with Reminder Publishing to discuss the role of the auditor and the controversy she has become embroiled in.

DiZoglio said most residents in the state do not know what the state auditor does.

“I’m not the IRS,” she said, referring to the federal Internal Revenue Service. “I don’t audit individual people.” Instead, she said the auditor reviews the expenditures of the state government. She said that for the first time in decades, the auditor’s office completed audits of all departments in the executive branch, as required every three years by law.

While DiZoglio may have auditing the executive branch down to a science, efforts to audit the state Legislature have created controversy and litigation.

DiZoglio has plenty of experience with the Legislature. She served six years as a state representative beginning in 2013, after which she was elected to the state Senate until she was elected to the office of auditor in 2022. DiZoglio said she decided to run for auditor to use what she had learned about state government to ensure Massachusetts operates with transparency and equity.

DiZoglio’s platform at that time included reinstating the ability to audit the Legislature. In 2024, DiZoglio delivered on that campaign promise when a ballot question she championed was passed by 72% of voters. She said she intends to review state contracts, settlements and receipts to see how the state is spending tax dollars, but the leadership in the Legislature, namely Senate President Karen Spilka and her counterpart in the state House of Representatives, Speaker Ronald Mariano, argue that it would violate the separation of powers as laid out in the state’s constitution.

DiZoglio said that argument is “complete baloney,” because it conflicts with history. She said auditing the Legislature was commonplace until the 1990s when House of Representatives Speaker Charles Flaherty blocked Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci from auditing him. DiZoglio pointed out that Flaherty later admitted to conflicts of interest and was convicted of felony tax evasion.

“If you are refusing an audit, what are you hiding?” DiZoglio asked.

DiZoglio has been pursuing litigation against the Legislature, Mariano and Spilka to force them to comply with an audit. Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has objected to this, insisting that her office is the only entity authorized to enter into litigation on behalf of the state. Meanwhile, she has filed a motion to dismiss the suit on behalf of the Legislature.

“Gatekeeping justice is not leadership. It’s obstruction,” DiZoglio said. DiZoglio said the Legislature funds the attorney general’s office, creating a conflict of interest. She cited a 12% increase in the attorney general’s fiscal year 2026 budget as a “quid pro quo.”

DiZoglio sought approval from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to name attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, who is willing to represent DiZoglio, as a special assistant attorney general for the purpose of the litigation. On March 4, Judge Dalila Argaez Wendlandt denied DiZoglio’s request on the basis that she did not provide case law sufficient to support the request, something DiZoglio disputes. Liss-Riordan, who DiZoglio said is working pro bono on her case, lost a bid for state attorney general against Campbell in 2022.

While the litigation is in progress, DiZoglio said, “We have a plan B.” Her office has introduced a ballot question to expand public records requests to include Legislature and governor’s administration with certain exemptions. She said having documents, receipts and records available to the public improves the public’s faith in state government. She said municipalities are subject to public records requests under the law, as is her office. She said the Legislature should be, too.

The attorney general’s office is not the only place DiZoglio thinks Mariano and Spilka are exerting influence. While most of the state representatives in Western Massachusetts have been supportive, she said several legislators who had been in favor of the audit have either gone silent on the issue or have changed their position, specifically citing State Sen. Jake Oliviera as one of the latter.

DiZoglio said Senate and House leadership determine what committee positions legislators have, including who is named chair, which comes with a stipend of about $45,000 on top of the base $82,000 salary. Because of this, she said, leadership can “dictate whether the representatives and senators can pay rent or not.”

For Oliviera’s part, he stated on Reminder Publishing’s “So That Reminds Me” podcast in a July 2025 episode that he believes DiZoglio is so committed to pursuing the audit to be in the public eye because she is “more interested in raising her personal profile than actually doing her job as auditor.”

In response to those who question her motivations, DiZoglio said, “Respectfully, folks are going to say what they want to say. Absolutely, I’m going to tell people what my priorities are,” while running for auditor. However, she insisted she is pursuing the ability to audit the Legislature because it is her obligation as an independent elected official. “We should not be hiding,” she said, and the people who are against the audit “prefer to do business behind closed doors at the State House.”