State Auditor Debate

This was posted on Facebook, worth listening to from NECN:

Broadside: State Auditor debate



The Donut Fund And Other Holes In Connaughton’s Story

The state auditor’s race is tight by all accounts, especially the account the Boston Globe provided in last Sunday’s poll. Suzanne Bump, the Democrat, led Mary Z. Connaughton, the Republican, by three points with a huge undecided vote. This means nobody, other than your humble servant, is paying any attention to this race.

For the first time ever, a woman is guaranteed to hold statewide office. (A third candidate, physics Prof. Nat Fortune, has, unfortunately for him, no chance.) Judging from their caustic debates, the principal candidates are putting the lie to the notion that women don’t like to criticize other women publicly.

Connaughton’s bad air day. She looked like a complete airhead on Jim Braude’s NECN TV show when he asked her several yes-or-no questions and every single time she robotically answered, “I am the only candidate for state auditor who is a trained auditor.” It was unsettling to watch.

A Mama Grizzly? In another interview, Connaughton said that she would be happy to have Sarah Palin’s support. “I need all the help I can get.” Hope former Gov. Mitt Romney didn’t hear that.

On Romney’s payroll. After promising not to accept contributions from political action committees (PACs), Connaughton admitted to being paid by Romney’s Free & Strong America PAC. While she claims to be a professional, not a politician, she worked on a political campaign and showed a political sense of timing, saying she would stop taking the money after — not before — next week’s election. She said accepting contributions from employees and consultants involved with the Romney PAC was “inadvertent.” Isn’t catching stuff like this what professional auditors are supposed to do?

Anti-gay groups and lobbyists can’t stop giving her money. Try as she might to avoid taking lobbyist money or argue that the office doesn’t deal with social issues, lobbyist and anti-gay money keeps finding her. Eager Connaughton donors include Coalition for Marriage and Family political operative Christen Varley and Evelyn Reilly, a registered lobbyist for the Massachusetts Family Institute — a leading force in trying to ban same-sex marriage. Connaughton signed their petition. Our sharp-eyed auditor had to return contributions from Reilly as well as lobbyist Thomas Trimarco, a former Malone Treasury deputy. She says she will also return contributions from lobbyists Frank Mahoney, Stephen Silveira and Wendy Monahan. Lots of mistakes by the auditor-wannabe.

From donuts to dollars. While she was a top financial manager in the state Lottery office, Auditor Joe DeNucci’s team uncovered a “donut fund,” which was used to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of improper expenses, such as BSO tickets and expensive parties. All under the blind eye of Connaughton, who promises ceaselessly to bring “sunshine” to state government.

The audit report said that Lottery officials used “poor accounting practices that violated state law and cost the state more than $1.6 million in lost revenue,” the Globe reported. “Connaughton was in charge of the agency’s financial operations for most of the period of the audit… and was responsible for answering the auditors’ concerns. The audit report noted that the agency refused to cooperate and turn over requested documents.” So much for Miss Sunshine.

Wait, it gets better. Also at the Treasury, Connaughton was preoccupied with getting the cheapest prices from vendors, no matter what the cost. This led her to dump the only qualified, experienced company that had successfully recovered millions in unclaimed property funds, which go to the state. Over the objections of the head of the unclaimed property division, she picked four cheaper but inexperienced competitors. The difference to taxpayers: $16 million. Win some dimes, then lose tons of dollars.

Mary’s pop-ins. Republican Connaughton — in case you’d forgotten, the only auditor in the auditor’s race — sees the job as a glorified field auditor. She talks about popping into state agencies and looking at the books. That’s like the attorney general popping into a crime scene and dusting for fingerprints.

Bump takes on Wall Street accountants. Bump has pointed out persuasively that “accountants can only take us so far in fixing government. Accountants reviewed the books at Enron. Accountants reviewed the books at the banks and investment firms that led to the current recession. You need another set of skills.” Bump has those skills.

Bump has handled big jobs. Before she decided to run for auditor, Bump ran the state’s Labor Department for Gov. Deval Patrick. And she managed it effectively without a hint of scandal that tainted Connaughton’s time at the Lottery. Bump wants to take the Auditor’s Office “beyond simple financial accounting and focus on what we’re getting from government, how well is government meeting our needs, spending our dollars, what do we do to make it better.”

Her toughness got Bump bumped off. Never one of the boys on Beacon Hill, Bump lost a seat in the Legislature after taking on trial lawyers and sponsoring a measure to overhaul the state’s workers’ compensation system. As Labor secretary, she got the last word when she reformed the program anyway, saving money and cutting waiting periods.

So why didn’t the Globe endorse Bump? In the Sen. Scott Brown era, the paper obviously wanted to find one Republican it could support. She wasn’t a birther (Bill Hudak), hadn’t stood idly by while a teenage girl was strip-searched (Jeff Perry) and hadn’t been an executive at AIG, arrested for drunk driving and smoking weed and hadn’t bothered to vote in the last decade (Jon Golnik).

Bump hurt herself at the Globe and elsewhere with a tax maneuver claiming two primary residences which allowed her to get a property tax break from the City of Boston.

The Boston Phoenix got it right. In endorsing Bump, the paper said, “She has served the commonwealth as legislator, private advocate, and cabinet secretary — in each case, acting with independence, integrity, and competence. She will do so again as the state’s auditor.

“Bump has laid out an impressive plan for updating and refocusing the long-stagnant office. She understands the possibilities of the position, and its limitations. She deserves your vote.”

Amen and pass the donuts.