Here’s Gov. Maura Healey’s dilemma.
She can side with the people who voted to open the books of the Legislature, or she can side with the State House politicians who want to keep them closed.
That means she can support the 2,282,333 voters who approved the ballot question in 2024 opening the books or come down on the side of the 200 members of the Legislature, most of whom are opposed to it.
She cannot side with both. Nor can she continue to avoid the issue, particularly in an election year.
While her support of the will of the people and transparency in government should be a no-brainer, Healey must also appease Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano if she plans to continue to have a working relationship with them.
Both Democrat leaders oppose the audit on the grounds that the Legislature is a separate body of government that they claim audits itself.
Healey so far has walked a tightrope on the issue. While she said she voted for the measure, the problem “is between the auditor and the Legislature.”
It was, but it isn’t anymore.
It is again emerging as a hot issue in 2026, just as it was in 2024 when 72 % of the voters, in an era of transparency and accountability, voted to grant state Auditor Diana DiZoglio the authority to audit the Legislature.
Since then, the will of the people has been stymied, first by the Democrat leadership in the Legislature and, more importantly by Attorney General Andrea Campbell.
Campbell, siding with the Legislature, has refused to represent DiZoglio to get the courts to compel the Legislature to comply.
The Legislature, in turn, has rewarded Campbell with significant increases in her budget.
In a most recent and unusual development, DiZoglio is attempting an end run around Campbell by petitioning the Supreme Judicial Court to appoint an outside attorney to represent her office in court.
Campbell, DiZoglio said, has “acted capriciously and scandalously.”
The lawyer DiZoglio wants appointed is well known progressive attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who ran against Campbell for attorney general in the three-way 2022 Democrat primary.
The third candidate was Quentin Palfrey, a former unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor.
Campbell won that primary in her campaign to succeed Healey who was running for governor. But she did so only after Healey, in an unusual move, endorsed and campaigned for Campbell in the three-way race.
Healey, in a further boost to Campbell, prevailed upon Palfrey to drop out of the primary and endorse Campbell in the last week of the campaign, which Palfrey did. Campbell won and later defeated Republican Jay McMahon in the election.
Hardly had she become governor than Healey appointed Palfrey to the newly created, $160,000 a year position of director of Federal Funds and Infrastructure.
The bottom line is that Campbell owes Healey. Campbell is Healey’s lawyer–and does her bidding. If Healey said “Jump,” Campbell would ask, “How high?”
If Healey told Campbell to represent DiZoglio and the voters, Campbell would represent DiZoglio and the voters.
But she has not. Instead, she is attempting to ride out the issue, maintain the status quo, and hope the matter will go away.
But it won’t go away. In fact, support for the audit is growing.
Liss-Riordan, for instance, has already donated $3,500 to DiZoglio’s appeal campaign to keep the issue alive in a campaign year.
And three Republicans running for governor—Mike Minogue, Mike Kennealy and Brian Shortsleeve– will make Healey’s lack of leadership on the matter a major issue.
Minogue, a successful businessman, has already offered to cover the outside costs of DiZoglio’s appeal.
The ball is in Healey’s court. She either speaks for the people on the issue, or she speaks for the politicians. But she has to speak.
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
