We have no effective way to determine if the Legislature is acting in the public’s interest or in its members’ own interests.
By Mary Z. Connaughton In the tempest of today’s political polarization teapot, imagine finding an issue on which Democratic activists, Republican Party officials and donors, and even your most recent electoral opponent agree. State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has pulled it off with her crusade to audit the Massachusetts Legislature, a measure which will most likely go before voters in November.
There’s a reason why DiZoglio’s efforts have garnered such broad support: The Legislature has repeatedly failed in its constitutional duty to be accountable to the people “at all times” by exempting itself from the Commonwealth’s public records and open meeting laws. That’s not the way it works in the vast majority of states — not even other one-party states.
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