Middleboro Review 2: POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: DiZoglio's show of force

Monday, September 25, 2023

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: DiZoglio's show of force

ACTIVISTS VS. ESTABLISHMENT — Democrats never did take up a resolution at their convention that would have put the party on record as either supporting or opposing Diana DiZoglio’s effort to audit the Legislature.

The auditor’s backers still got their message across, though. Loud and clear.

DiZoglio commanded the convention hall from the moment she strode onstage to “Walking on Sunshine” clad in yellow from her ruched-sleeve blazer to her ballet flats. When she spoke of the “roadblocks” Democratic legislative leaders have put up to her proposed audit of their practices and procedures, activists booed. When she burst into the ballad she wrote encouraging legislative transparency, they cheered. Cellphone flashlights waved from the bleachers, creating a concert-like atmosphere.

Auditor Diana DiZoglio at the MassDems convention on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023, in Lowell. | Lisa Kashinsky/POLITICO

“What makes them so special that they shouldn’t be audited?” Danvers Democrat Vincent Malgeri told Playbook, after giving DiZoglio a standing ovation. “It’s not a negative thing,” he added. “It seems like [legislative leaders are] making it a negative thing, and it doesn’t have to be that way.”

While DiZoglio’s audit is reuniting Republicans , it’s publicly dividing Democrats. DiZoglio and her team spent hours at the convention collecting signatures and signing up volunteers to help advance a ballot question that would specifically grant her the authority to crack open lawmakers’ books.

But Democratic legislative leaders who claim DiZoglio doesn’t currently have that power continue to stymie her efforts on and off Beacon Hill — even as DiZoglio says lower-ranking members are helping collect signatures for her ballot effort. Senate President Karen Spilka, who spoke shortly after DiZoglio at Saturday’s convention, didn’t address the audit in her speech. She avoided taking questions from reporters afterward.

So, too, did Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who’s yet to publicly weigh in on whether DiZoglio can sue the Legislature into complying with her audit. DiZoglio said Campbell’s office has recently started asking “clarifying questions” about the legal memo she submitted in July in hopes of winning the attorney general’s approval to take another state agency to court.

“We will have a decision soon,” Campbell said on WCVB’s “On the Record, ” in an interview taped before the convention. “This is a serious decision. I know the passion that is coming from the auditor and the passion from the other side, and we will do our part to put out a decision that is thoughtful but also that is substantive and really relies on legal precedent.”

DiZoglio’s convention reception shows legislative power-brokers may be out of step with the party’s grassroots on this one. “This could have gone one way or the other,” a relieved-sounding DiZoglio told reporters after her speech. “I’m really, really excited, actually, that we saw such tremendous support on the floor.”

But top House and Senate Democrats are unlikely to face any electoral consequences for opposing DiZoglio’s efforts. And one argument against DiZoglio’s ballot question — that it’s being funded by Republicans with ulterior motives — appears to be taking hold among the Democratic establishment.

MassDems Chair Steve Kerrigan, in a WBZ “Keller @ Large” interview taped ahead of the convention, suggested Republicans are aiding the effort to try to win back seats on Beacon Hill. And he warned that the Democratic Party will “do everything we can to push back against the work that those [Republicans] are doing. We’re not looking to work with them to help defeat our own members.”

GOOD MONDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. The Patriots beat the Jets. We've got a win. Phew.

TODAY — Gov. Maura Healey participates in the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers press conference at 2:45 p.m. in Québec, Canada. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll meets with Ghanaian Ambassador to the U.S. Hajia Alima Mahama at 11:30 a.m. at the State House. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is on WBUR’s “Radio Boston” at 11 a.m. DiZoglio attends a firefighters’ dinner in Haverhill at 6 p.m.

Tips? Scoops? Are you a lawmaker supporting DiZoglio's audit? Email me: lkashinsky@politico.com .

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DOUBLE DUTY — Gov. Maura Healey continues to walk a political tightrope as she balances pushing the Biden administration and Congress for more federal aid for the state’s overburdened shelter system and serving as a surrogate for President Joe Biden ’s reelection bid.

Healey leaned into the latter on Saturday , playing up Biden’s first-term accomplishments and calling on activists at the MassDems convention to do “everything we can” to help his campaign.

“We can’t go back and we won’t go back,” said the governor, who serves on Biden’s national campaign advisory board. “We need President Biden to lead us forward. The future of this country and our democracy depend on it.”

Meanwhile, Massachusetts’ federal delegation is working to amplify Healey’s pleas for more federal funding for the shelter system, the Boston Herald’s Chris Van Buskirk reports.

VICTORY FOR VETERANS — None of the resolutions put forward by progressive group Our Revolution Massachusetts made it to a vote at the MassDems convention thanks to procedural minutiae. One item that did: a charter change championed by Rep. Seth Moulton and state Sen. John Velis that puts veterans on the list of underrepresented communities eligible to be named as “add-on” delegates to future conventions. It passed over opponents’ arguments that the change could decrease diversity at the party’s gatherings .

ELSEWHERE ON SATURDAY — “Young conservatives gather to ‘grow base’ in Massachusetts,” by Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald.

— “Democrats flock to picket lines where workers worry about their electric vehicle push,” by Jess Bidgood and Samantha J. Gross, Boston Globe: “Two hours after the week-old United Auto Workers strike expanded to dozens more plants around the country, including a Stellantis parts distribution center in [Mansfield], Senator Elizabeth Warren showed up outside its gates in a red sweater — the workers’ signature color — with boxes of doughnuts in hand. … Left unsaid, however, was that one of the issues at the heart of the strike is directly connected to a policy that she and most other Democrats, including President Biden, have championed: accelerating the transition to electric vehicles.”

WAITING GAME — House and Senate negotiators struck a deal on tax relief late last week. They still haven't said what's in it (and Senate President Karen Spilka didn't drop any hints at the Democratic convention). Keep an eye out for that conference committee report any day now...

— “State wants updated MCAS to consider student ‘experiences’,” by Jennifer Smith, CommonWealth Magazine: “Amid critiques that the standardized assessment can tend to further marginalize some students, the Healey administration seems to want to emphasize cultural sensitivity in designing the new test. A request for proposals quietly went out earlier this year, seeking a vendor to support the development, production, administration, scoring, and reporting of an updated statewide MCAS test starting in 2025. … [A] selection committee is reviewing bids.”

— “Mass. launches '90-day push' to fill vacancies in state public housing,” by Todd Wallack, WBUR: “Massachusetts housing officials announced Friday they are launching a ‘90-day push’ to reduce the number of vacancies in state public housing by the end of the year. The initiative comes after an investigation by WBUR and ProPublica found nearly 2,300 of 41,500 state-funded apartments were vacant at the end of July — most for months or years — despite a housing shortage so severe that Gov. Maura Healey called it a state of emergency.”

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

— “Federal regulators rip MBTA after finding agency violated safety order,” by Taylor Dolven and Laura Crimaldi, Boston Globe: “Federal regulators on Friday delivered a blistering warning to the MBTA and accused the agency of violating new orders that seek to prevent fatalities by prohibiting the T from letting workers access tracks alone while trains are running.”

— “MBTA restructured under four divisions as GM Eng makes personnel moves, all-staff email says,” by Chris Van Buskirk, Boston Herald: “In an all-staff email obtained by the Herald, [Phil] Eng said the MBTA would restructure under four divisions — operations, safety, capital, and administration — in the first major reorganization in roughly a decade. The move takes acting titles off some top officials and demotes others.”

— “MBTA auditing buses after driver safety mics failed at high rates, emails say,” by Chris Van Buskirk, Boston Herald: “The MBTA is in the process of auditing its fleet of buses after a review of 30 across three garages found issues with emergency communication equipment, including a covert microphone drivers can use to talk to dispatchers, according to internal emails obtained by the Herald.”

— “Wu names her pick to represent Boston on MBTA board,” by Gintautas Dumcius, Dorchester Reporter: “Mary Skelton Roberts, an Orange Line rider who works in the clean energy sector, is Mayor Wu’s choice to represent the city of Boston on the MBTA’s board of directors.”

— “Feds give $108 million for east-west rail in Massachusetts,” by Paul Tuthill, WAMC.

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MARIJUANA IN MASSACHUSETTS

— “The suspension of the state’s top cannabis regulator was unprecedented. But was it legal?” by Matt Stout, Boston Globe: “State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg’s suspension last week of Shannon O’Brien as the state’s top cannabis regulator was surprising and, for a six-year-old agency, unprecedented. It also may not be legal, experts say. … Attorneys and legal observers said Goldberg’s actions, absent other information, appear to tread into questionable legal territory and could invite a lawsuit. Some also fear it could set a dangerous precedent that individuals named to a state commission or board could be sidelined without knowing why.”

Goldberg’s office has repeatedly declined comment on what it calls a “personnel matter.” The treasurer declined to speak to reporters after addressing Saturday’s state Democratic Convention in Lowell.

THE LOCAL ANGLE

BIRTH CENTER CLOSURE — UMass Memorial Health closed its birthing center in Leominster on Saturday despite pleas from community members, concerns from the state Department of Public Health and a lawsuit from the city , saying it didn’t have enough staff to safely operate the facility. Gov. Maura Healey declined to intervene , but she did order a review of maternal health services in the state.

— “Massachusetts education leaders hope to jump start a new era of charter school growth,” by James Vaznis, Boston Globe: “Massachusetts education leaders are creating a new pipeline to develop and open more charter schools across the state, as they grapple with a dearth of applications and political hostility to new charter proposals. The state’s effort aims to add charter schools in districts with high concentrations of low-income students and those at high risk of quitting school."

HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Emma Sands, Jonathan Cohn and Nicco Mele.

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