On Beacon Hill, it’s DiZoglio versus nearly everybody, including Healey

Massachusetts has led on clean energy, and we can’t afford to fall behind. Staying on track with planned solar and storage expansion will deliver major customer savings, reduce dependence on expensive gas, and boost grid reliability — with 44% of the benefits coming during winter. See the latest data.

Small in number on Beacon Hill, Republicans appeared to make up a sizable portion of attendees last October at a legislative reform rally on the State House steps, headlined by Auditor Diana DiZoglio, and focused on auditing the legislature, expanding the public records law, and overhauling Beacon Hill’s stipend system.

Two of the three GOP candidates for governor were there, and all three have in recent months touted their support for the stalled audit-the-legislature law, as DiZoglio has clashed with State House leaders and Attorney General Andrea Campbell, her fellow Democrats. It makes political sense for them to glom onto the issue.

“All I hear anywhere I go is where’s the audit and don’t give up,” DiZoglio told MASSterList via text in an interview yesterday. Over the weekend, DiZoglio promoted her audit effort to Kayleigh McEnany, a former Trump administration official turned TV host on FOX News.

That may all provide fodder for her foes inside the State House, but DiZoglio, who hails from a historically conservative region of the state, says she’s still a Democrat. “The Democrats love what I’m doing for the most part,” she says. “It’s the Beacon Hill powerbrokers who want to get rid of me. They’re not like us.”

Us against them is a powerful populist message, one that DiZoglio has used to create a league of her own in Massachusetts politics. She spearheaded the audit-the-legislature ballot question, which won with 72%. Top lawmakers say they oppose the audit on constitutional grounds.

A self-described “theater kid,” DiZoglio hopes for an encore with a ballot question placing the legislature and the governor under the state’s public records law, on top of securing a second four-year term.

“Beacon Hill wants to divide us, the working people, from each other by keeping us focused on party politics instead of on their insatiable appetite for power,” she added, offering up a faint echo of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive Democratic powerhouse. “We need everyone to help beat down the closed doors on Beacon Hill and that means sucking it up and talking to people we might vehemently disagree with on other issues.”

The “them” apparently extends to Gov. Maura Healey, one of the state’s top Democrats. Pressed by a voter about the audit while on the campaign trail Monday, Healey noted that she voted for the 2024 ballot question. “It’s between the auditor and the legislature,” she added.

The auditor had asked the governor to “stand with me to demand the Legislature comply and the AG enforce the law so she wouldn't get hit with political shrapnel so to speak with respect to the Legislature's lawbreaking,” DiZoglio said. “I wish she would've helped us with this but as it stands she hasn't returned my calls in over a year."

In response, a Healey spokesperson said, “Governor Healey has been clear that she voted for the audit and believes it should happen. She is happy to talk to the Auditor at any time.”

The monthly meetings between governor and auditor also stopped, according to DiZoglio. Separately, the now-former executive director at the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority told her he had to cancel meetings over an audit because he was instructed by the governor’s office not to meet with her, she added. (A Healey aide disputed DiZoglio’s MCCA claim.)

There was chatter about a DiZoglio run for governor last year, but she officially kicked off her reelection effort this week as Healey campaigned for her own. Come November, Healey and DiZoglio will be on the ballot together, just a few lines apart. Same ballot, different leagues.

Asked who is getting her vote for governor, DiZoglio responded with uncharacteristic restraint. “Field isn’t set yet,” she messaged back.

Correction to yesterday’s newsletter: The MCAS ballot question took place in 2024. Answer to yesterday’s trivia: While governor in 2004, Mitt Romney set out to recruit and campaign for dozens of Republican legislative candidates. Republicans lost three seats, per AP. Follow-up trivia: What was Romney known for placing outside his office? Send answers here: [email protected].

Jobs continue below the fold — post a job

…Gov. Maura Healey attends the National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C….

9:00 | Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll speaks at the One SouthCoast Chamber breakfast. | 66 State Road, Westport

11:00 | Marine Corps League hosts its annual Iwo Jima Day services, marking the 81st anniversary of the bloody World War II Pacific Theatre battle that claimed thousands of lives. This year's honorees include Rep. Joe McGonagle, David Porter of the U.S. Marine Corps, and Sarah Sweeney from the Military Friends Foundation. | Memorial Hall, State House, Boston

12:00 | U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Rep. Marjorie Decker are expected to join 32BJ SEIU in support of Harvard University custodians rallying ahead of the first bargaining session in two months for two contracts covering over 800 cleaners at Harvard. | 124 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge

1:00 | The Division of Insurance holds a public hearing on proposed prior authorization regulatory reforms. Gov. Healey on Jan. 14 unveiled plans to scrap prior authorization requirements for most routine and essential services, simplify approval processes and standardize practices across the health care system. | More Info and Access

3:00 | U.S. Reps. Jim McGovern and Seth Moulton visit Lynn Senior Services for the fifth stop on McGovern's End Hunger Now tour. Press conference is planned for 3:55 p.m. | 8 Silsbee St., Lynn

7:15 | Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll welcomes the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated at the 95th North Atlantic Regional Conference Public Meeting. | 415 Summer St., Boston

Tara Smith, press secretary for the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, and Mohammed Missouri, executive director of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s Office of Neighborhood Services, on Feb. 17 welcomed their first child, Mehdi Jude Missouri, who arrived three weeks early at 6.1 pounds, just in time to observe Ramadan and celebrate Michael Jordan’s birthday. Missouri reports Smith and the baby boy are doing well.

Join us for Keller @ Large LIVE in conversation with House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka on Wednesday, February 25, at the MCLE. Register!

SHORTSLEEVE TACKS RIGHT: A former Charlie Baker aide turned gubernatorial candidate, Brian Shortsleeve has shifted rightward as he seeks the Republican nomination in the three-way primary. – WBUR

SNAP OVERSIGHT: Senate Republicans sent a letter to Post Audit and Oversight Chairman Mark Montigny asking to convene a hearing after the identification of $34 million in public benefits fraud over a three-year period. – State House News Service

DISMISSAL SUIT: Elizabeth Chen, the former head of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs under Charlie Baker and Maura Healey, is suing over her firing and says anti-Asian bias may have played a role. – Boston Globe

OFFICE CONVERSIONS: Central Massachusetts is receiving $4.9 million from the Healey administration for two office-to-housing conversion projects, including the former Fallon Health headquarters in Worcester. – MassLive

MEDICAL MALPRACTICE: Patients in Massachusetts who have been harmed in hospital are limited in how much they can receive in medical malpractice and other liability awards. – Boston Globe

SECOND SHOT: Cambridge-based vaccine maker Moderna made a deal with the FDA, which is reversing course and allowing a flu vaccine to advance for approval this year. – Boston Business Journal

REMEMBERING JESSE JACKSON: Aides and reporters who were there for the 1988 presidential campaign recall when Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson faced off for the Democratic nomination. – GBH News

‘PREGNANCY RESOURCE CENTERS’: A federal judge ruled that states have rights under the First Amendment as he dismissed a lawsuit against anti-abortion clinics that opposed a state ad campaign on “pregnancy resource centers.” – Universal Hub

ICE RESTRICTION: A group of citizens in Plymouth is pressing for a new bylaw at Town Meeting that would ban cooperation with federal immigration efforts. The proposal would codify a police policy. – Plymouth Independent

WORLD CUP PREP: France is the only World Cup team so far that has announced plans to be based out of Massachusetts. Others are turning to Oklahoma City and North Carolina as summer approaches. – Boston Business Journal

Former DOJ lawyers rip voter registration lawsuit

Markey to boycott Trump’s state of the union speech

‘Specialty court’ proposed for dealing with Mass. and Cass

Two out of every three Boston skyline buildings are customers of clean energy company Vicinity

Do you have an open job you'd like to feature here? Click here to place a job board order, or email Dylan Rossiter at [email protected].

Campaign Manager, Dr. Mariah Lancaster for Congress

Lead Code Enforcement Officer, Town of Amherst

Procurement Support Analyst, Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General

President & CEO, FamilyAid Boston

Division Chief, Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General

Special Assistant, Office of Congressman Seth Moulton

Select Board Executive Assistant, Town of Southborough

Senior Research Associate – Education and Workforce, MassINC

Administrative & Operations Associate, Providers’ Council

Comptroller, Massachusetts Association of Approved Special Education Schools

VIEW ALL JOBS