Katie Castellani
State House News Service
GOP gubernatorial nominee Mike Minogue has promised repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would "do the audit," referring to an audit of the Legislature that voters in 2024 authorized Auditor Diana DiZoglio to conduct, leading to a lengthy dispute between the Democratic auditor and legislative Democrats.
In an interview with the News Service last week, Minogue shed more light on how he would push for the audit if elected governor.
"I could have done a press conference with the state auditor. I could have held the people accountable that said it may not be constitutional. First thing I would have said is, 'Well this went through a ballot process, it was not flagged as unconstitutional,' which we know in this last ballot process, they screwed up and had a lot of them that were thrown out. So, there was an initial screen for it to get on the ballot. The second thing is if it is not constitutional then I would insist that we have a hearing on that with the Supreme Judicial Court. I would have offered legal and financial support back right away, and it would have gone to the Supreme Judicial Court, and we would have an answer," Minogue said, noting that he offered DiZoglio financial backing to get a lawyer to represent her in her pursuit of the audit.
Beacon Hill leaders have raised constitutional separation of power concerns over the legislative audit and have not sought an advisory opinion on the law's constitutionality from the SJC.
The attorney general's office vets every initiative petition to ensure it meets certain requirements under the state Constitution before it can move forward, but does not opine on whether an initiative petition's proposed policy is constitutional.
Campbell has called for a revamping of the process so her office can consider a policy's constitutionality.
The question of whether the Legislature must submit to DiZoglio's audit remains unresolved.
