THE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE behind a ballot question proposal authorizing an audit of the state Legislature raised $300,000 last year, with many of the donations coming from the business sector and from donors who have cut checks to both Democrats and Republicans.
The ballot question is championed by state Auditor Diana DiZoglio, who is in effect launching another statewide campaign after jumping from a state Senate seat to the auditor’s office in 2022. The list of donors, publicly available through filings with campaign finance regulators, includes several current and former elected officials.
Legislative leaders last year balked at DiZoglio’s push for an audit of their operations, saying she doesn’t have the authority to do so. That spurred the launch of the Committee for Transparent Democracy, helmed by Doug Rubin, a political strategist who has worked for Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former governor Deval Patrick.
Rubin is the ballot committee’s chair, and his company, Northwind Strategies, received $5,000 for work on the effort last year from the committee’s campaign account, according to the committee’s filing with campaign finance regulators. The committee, which does not face the same fundraising limits as candidates and other regulated political entities, ended the year with a balance of $46,551.
The biggest donations to the ballot effort came from DiZoglio’s own campaign committee, which ponied up $105,000. That has been previously reported, as have five-figure donations from car dealer honcho Ernie Boch Jr., and Rick Green, the founder of Mass Fiscal Alliance. Both have backed former president Donald Trump in previous election cycles.
But the ballot committee’s end-of-year report, filed Monday evening, offers a deeper look at who is backing the effort. Many donors are from the business community, with one of the biggest contributions coming from software executive Robert May. The Brookline resident cut two checks, with the total coming to $20,000.
Kristin Canty, a filmmaker who also owns several restaurants, including the Seaport’s Woods Hill Pier 4, put in $10,000. David DiAntonio, CEO of the safety equipment supplier McCue Corporation, donated the same amount, as did Kris Harmony, a health care consultant with a Las Vegas address. Salisbury entrepreneur Susan Leger Ferraro donated $6,000.
One member of the House, state Rep. Patrick Kearney, a Democrat who represents Scituate, cut a check – for $1,000. Other elected officials who donated include Methuen Mayor Neil Perry ($250) and Attleboro Mayor Cathleen Desimone ($25).
Shannon Liss-Riordan, a labor lawyer who waged an unsuccessful Democratic bid for attorney general in 2022 and recently made headlines in an effort to knock Trump off the Massachusetts GOP primary ballot, donated $1,000. Bret Bero, a business management lecturer at Babson College and 2022 Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, cut a check for $2,000.
Frank Baker, who represented Dorchester on Boston’s City Council from 2012 to 2023, kicked in $500.
Most of the money raised went towards signature-gathering efforts, as organizers sought to meet the threshold set by the state’s ballot initiative process. The “Law Expressly Authorizing the Auditor to Audit the Legislature” pulled in 94,400 signatures, nearly 20,000 more than what was required to be filed with the secretary of state’s office by the first week of December.
The ballot initiative process now moves the effort over to the Legislature, and if lawmakers do not pass the initiative, the committee must go out and gather an additional 12,429 voter signatures before heading to the November ballot.