Candidates for Massachusetts State Auditor Anthony Amore and Diana DiZoglio debated on Sunday morning on CBS Boston. Jon Keller moderated the debate ahead of the state elections on Nov. 8.
The state auditor controls Massachusetts’s finances, conducts investigations into government offices to ensure funding is being spent correctly and has a term length of four years. The current officeholder is Suzanne Bump, who has held the position since 2011.
The Republican candidate Amore, a graduate of the University of Rhode Island and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, has over 30 years of experience in both government and non-governmental organizations as an auditor, according to his campaign website. Amore is also endorsed by Gov. Charlie Baker.
The Democratic candidate, DiZoglio, a graduate of Wellesley College and current state senator, has served in the state legislature for 10 years, spending three two-year terms as a state representative and being elected to the state senate in 2018.
Amore pointed out DiZoglio’s lack of auditing experience by instead highlighting her legislative work.
“If you were running for Congress, I would say, ‘that’s a great candidate,’” Amore said. “But for auditor, it’s a special set of skills that you have to have that I don’t think you’ve really accumulated in your career.”
DiZoglio said that she brings skills that prepare her to be a “proven watchdog for the taxpayer” instead.
She also said she would expand auditor responsibilities to set and promote policy, with hopes of “filling the gaps that have been identified through the work of the office.”
Amore disagreed and said his view on the role of the auditor’s office is to make sure that “policies are being followed” and to “shine light on problems.”
“The auditor’s office is falling very short in terms of how many audits it’s conducting right now, it’s not meeting its mandate,” Amore said. “Before taking on any additional responsibilities, the first order of business has to be … doing 100% of the audits it’s required to do.”
DiZoglio brought up former President Donald Trump and Twitter into the conversation, accusing Amore of supporting Donald Trump on Twitter and then “delete to the tune of almost 10,000 tweets.”
Amore called DiZoglio’s claim’s “a dishonest statement to make,” going on to say that he has “auto-delete” on, a reason for his tweets being deleted.
DiZoglio continued to press Amore on his Twitter account, accusing him of retweeting a tweet defending Donald Trump’s sexual assault allegations.
“You don’t have any experience in this field so you’re trying to pull up tweets from years ago as if that’s a qualification to be auditor,” Amore said. “It’s weak, it’s beneath you.”
DiZoglio immediately cut into Amore’s rebuttal.
“I am used to men like you … trying to dismiss and discredit the work of women working up on Beacon Hill who absolutely have the experience and capabilities to do our jobs,” DiZoglio said. “We need someone with a proven track record of transparency and accountability.”
Amore spoke over DiZoglio’s request for a steady record and repeated, “you don’t have one.”
Amore once again pointed out the difference in his and DiZoglio’s career in closing.
He said of his candidacy, “you’ll see the work of an auditor…you’ll see my experience, not a legislative proposal.”
The deadline to register to vote in Massachusetts is Saturday, Oct. 29 and Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.
