Click HERE to access the essay, published in Commonwealth Beacon on January 4, 2025.
Author: Jerold Duquette
Professor of Political Science
Director, Public Policy and Management Program
Central Connecticut State University
The SJC Should Protect the Bay State’s ‘Exceptional’ Legislative Supremacy by Rejecting the Auditor’s Constitutionally Irresponsible Powerplay
Question One, which was passed on the 2024 Massachusetts statewide ballot by a wide margin, amended the state auditor’s authorizing statute. The amendment explicitly makes the state legislature itself subject to the auditor’s existing authority in exactly the same manner as are all the administrative departments, offices, commissions, and authorities of the Commonwealth’s government. Instead…
Support the Rule of Law: Vote NO on Q1
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, wants to make herself – and all of her successors – into taxpayer-financed political activists with the authority to ignore the state constitution’s most fundamental principles and to replace the will of the voters and their elected representatives at the state house with her own. Question 1 WILL NOT ratify or…
Globe Gets the Big Stuff Wrong on Question One
Before reading my analysis below, go HERE and read the Globe’s endorsement of Question One. Done yet? If so, read on. I was quite pleased when the Boston Globe editorial board invited me to meet with them to explain why voters should reject or pass on Question One on the 2024 state ballot. The measure…
Mr. Duquette Goes To Beacon Hill: My testimony about the legislative audit ballot initiative
On Tuesday, March 26th, I had the opportunity to provide testimony to the Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions regarding the pending ballot initiative that would explicitly authorize the state auditor to audit the General Court (i.e. the MA state legislature). I had previously expressed my take on the measure HERE and HERE. All of the…
Massachusetts Exceptionalism is getting its due at CommonWealth Beacon
The newly rebranded CommonWealth Beacon has put the concept of Massachusetts exceptionalism front and center lately with several thoughtful pieces about the quality of life in the Bay State based on the results of a brand new CWB/MassInc poll of Massachusetts residents. Michael Jonas’s Putting Massachusetts Exceptionalism to the Test asks whether Bay Staters can…
Attorney General Campbell got the legislative audit question exactly right.
Click HERE for the CommonWealth Beacon story about Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s rejection of Auditor DiZoglio’s claim that her office has the legal authority to audit the legislature, with or without the legislature’s consent. Campbell’s analysis is entirely consistent with my earlier conclusion that DiZoglio’s push for legislative audit authority is a “well-intentioned bad idea.”…
CommonWealth Op-Ed on Auditor’s “Legislative Veto”
Click HERE to read Professor Duquette’s CommonWealth Magazine op-ed about the state auditor’s effort to audit the state legislature.
Why Doesn’t Popularity Translate to Power in Massachusetts Politics?
A couple weeks back MassINC pollster Steve Koczela analyzed his most recent poll of Massachusetts residents in THIS CommonWealth article. Fascinating findings and excellent analysis. The question posed by Koczela that the data can’t answer (yet) is: Why are Democratic elected officials in the state less popular than their election margins and history suggest? I…
Key Factors in Baker’s Decision Not To Run in 2022 are Being Forgotten
I wrote the following post right after Governor Baker and Lt Governor Polito announced that neither would seek re-election in 2022. I am re-posting it because in the wake of the 2022 election that saw Democratic women take over the Bay State’s executive branch, too many analysts and commentators are pinning Baker’s decision entirely on…