State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s ballot push to audit the Legislature – which she portrays as a groundswell of grassroots support by Massachusetts voters – is actually fueled by her own political account, out of state corporations and hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to professional signature companies.
DiZoglio’s Committee for Transparent Democracy — run by her political consultant Doug Rubin — shelled out $362,277 to mostly out-of-state signature-gathering companies to get the 74,574 voter signatures necessary to be on the ballot in 2024, records show.
The payments included $113,085 to a Missouri company, $103,367 to a Texas firm and $23,835 in consulting expenses to a New Jersey company – hardly a sign of overwhelming support from Massachusetts voters.
DiZoglio also relied on her own political campaign committee to fund nearly one-third of the expenses necessary to reach the signature threshold, campaign finance records show.
She reported transferring $105,000 from her campaign committee to the ballot question committee in September and October last year. It raises the question of whether the referendum initiative is more of a political boon to DiZoglio.
“Our campaign resonates with the people of Massachusetts,” DiZoglio said after announcing the successful signature drive. “We are demonstrating that by coming together – regardless of family background, bank balance, zip code or political party – we can accomplish great things for a common good.”
A spokesman for the Committee for Transparent Democracy, consultant Rubin, said the campaign gathered 25,000 signatures from “grassroots activists all over the state.”
But records show the signature drive was largely not a grassroots creation driven by volunteers.
The Committee for Transparent Democracy initially paid $240,000 to a company from Brookline, Signature Drive, to gather voter signatures, campaign finance records show.
Signature Drive then farmed out payments to sub-vendors, but they apparently went over budget because DiZoglio’s ballot committee reported it was still $120,000 in debt to Signature Drive at the end of 2023 when the last report was filed.
DiZoglio’s ballot group also paid $5,000 to Northwind Strategies, Rubin’s company, to cover the cost of legal fees.
DiZoglio’s ballot committee also was funded by a number of large corporate and individual donations, some of them from the Republican side, records show.
The conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance gave the committee more than $11,000 in-kind donations for postage and signature mailing, and Fiscal Alliance founder Rick Green contributed $10,000 to DiZoglio’s auditing effort.
A Las Vegas-based company, Accordion Healthcare Consulting, donated $2,005 to the Committee for Transparent Democracy on Oct. 13, 2023, records show. The committee also got a $10,000 donation from a health care consultant, Kris Harmony, who listed her address as Las Vegas.
Other donations included $20,000 from Robert May, the CEO of Nova AI; $25,000 from EAB Business Trust in Norwood; $5,000 from a Wilmington, Mass. company, Media Results; $1,000 from former Republican Party chair Jennifer Nassour; $5,000 from Pelham Community Pharmacy in Waltham; $5,000 from A & K Sillari Family LLC in Topsfield; $1,000 from car dealer Ernie Boch; and $10,000 from film maker Kristin Canty of Concord.
Rubin said in his statement: “We brought together organizations from all across the political spectrum, from Our Revolution MA, the Republican Party, MA Fiscal Alliance, and many good government and transparency groups who support our campaign to bring increased transparency and accountability to state government.”
