State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has run into a robust buzz noticed within the type of Attorney General Andrea Campbell and Senate President Karen Spilka and is now simply losing money and time in a doomed try and audit the Legislature.
Even if the auditor goes ahead and will get a poll query handed giving her authority to have a look at lawmakers’ books, it’s extremely seemingly it is going to be dominated unconstitutional by the courts due to the separation of powers’ precept. It’s over.
Campbell, in a letter to DiZoglio on Friday, concluded that the auditor has no “legal authority” to audit the Legislature with out their consent – which Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano instantly jumped on to buttress their case.
The Democratic AG additionally warned that if the poll measure passes, “we may need to consider whether, and the extent to which, constitutional limitations affect how the law would apply.”
Boom. Those phrases ought to make DiZoglio pause earlier than she continues her quixotic bid to go after Spilka and Mariano. It may all be a waste.
Campbell’s shock ruling on Friday dealt an enormous victory to the embattled and entitled Legislature – which is the least clear within the nation.
“I am heartened that the Attorney General and her highly experienced legal team reached this conclusion – the position we have argued for months – based on the law, the facts and the historical record,” a giddy Spilka wrote to senators. “The Attorney General’s findings are crystal clear; the Auditor’s proposed audit has no basis in law and shall not proceed.”
DiZoglio mentioned in an announcement she respects Campbell’s “right to her opinion, and to defend the position of legislative leaders” however she vowed to proceed pushing the poll query.
“However, a question of statutory interpretation on a matter of such importance to taxpayers, is best answered by the courts, not the executive department of government,” she mentioned. “Massachusetts has one of the most opaque Legislatures in the nation and this decision reinforces the status quo that benefits powerful insiders while leaving working people in the dark.”
So why does Diana “Quixote” proceed to tilt at windmills?
It’s private and political now.
As a legislator, DiZoglio clashed with Spilka over non-disclosure agreements and that unhealthy blood has spilled over now that DiZoglio is auditor and is focusing on the Legislature.
But how is that this benefitting the voters that DiZoglio is meant to be serving?
The just one who appears to be benefitting from the poll query now could be DiZoglio guide Doug Rubin – a longtime Democratic adviser to governors and senators – who’s main the referendum marketing campaign – a truth which was duly famous by Spilka’s attorneys in a current letter to Campbell.
Rubin is a savvy and skilled adviser however is hurting DiZoglio’s political profession by persevering with to push the referendum within the face of steep obstacles put ahead by Campbell. DiZoglio has been ostracized by the Democratic Party already and has no manner of mending fences. She wants a brand new social gathering.
Maybe the Republican Party and the conservative Mass Fiscal Alliance – that are supporting the referendum motion – can take DiZoglio in.
And DiZoglio can get again to doing what she was elected to do. There is loads of waste within the authorities to probe, and DiZoglio ought to go after that. She can nonetheless be a great, robust auditor even with out getting a have a look at the Legislature’s books, which is rarely going to occur.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”