Original air date: October 12th 2025

Flecher reports from Massachusetts on a budget-conscious Democrat, whose fallen out with some in her own party over her commitment to audit the books.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

In the birthplace of the American Revolution, history is everywhere.

So are traditions, like liberal progressive politics.

The state last voted for a republican president in 1984 when Ronald Reagan was re-elected.

At the Massachusetts state legislature, here on Boston’s Beacon Hill, democrats have been in charge since 1959.

Now one democrat is trying to shine a bright light on this one-party government machine, and it’s causing waves.

Diana Dizoglio: Very much so, I do believe that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and we do have a corrupted system.

Diana Di Zoglio is the state’s elected auditor. her job: hold state government accountable. That 72% figure is important, and we’ll come back to it.

Lisa: Does any part of the state government get regularly examined for how it’s spending its money?

Diana DiZoglio: So, again, we audit state agencies and departments to shine a light on ways that they can do better. And I often have to let people know I’m not the IRS, I am not the Department of Revenue. I audit government for the taxpayers of Massachusetts, and it is my job to make sure that folks have access to what’s going on in government, that they know how their tax dollars are being spent.

Massachusetts’s $60.9 billion 2026 state budget has ballooned 42% since 2019. That’s despite sluggish economic growth and around $120 billion in debt and liabilities.

Making Auditor DiZoglio’s push to audit legislative spending and curb waste a critical step toward fiscal accountability. Her office routinely finds wasteful or just questionable government spending. including two million last year in food stamps and medicaid programs.

Because waste and fraud is a growing concern, not just for people in Massachusetts.

Through the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, the Trump Administration has identified and cut what it describes as billions in wasteful or fraudulent spending. Though the exact savings will be argued about for years.

What’s clear: accountability to the taxpayers can often be controversial with those in power.

Which is exactly what Dizoglio found when she announced plans to audit the Massachusetts state legislature.

Instead of supporting the effort, she’s found leaders here, all fellow Democrats, blocking her at every turn.

DiZoglio: I think most of us are wondering what you are hiding? I mean, if you can’t take a basic audit even of your financials or your state contracts, what is it that you’re hiding? Our office finds challenges in most agencies and departments that we audit because humans, and not robots, work in these agencies and departments. So mistakes happen, but what’s happening here is we have the most powerful politicians in Massachusetts saying essentially ‘nothing to see here’ and ‘an audit for thee, but not for me’, refusing to open up about how they’re spending our taxpayer dollars.

Democratic party leaders who control the state assembly say an audit risks the separation of powers enshrined in the Massachusetts Constitution.

Ron Mariano: We operate independently, and we’re judged on what we do. I don’t need someone with a political agenda who’s in the executive branch passing judgment on me.

Frustrated but not defeated, last year, DiZoglio took her audit idea to the people in a ballot question. The audit won overwhelmingly.

Lisa: You asked the question yourself: what do they have to hide? You were in the state legislature for four years. You kind of have an insider’s view of how things operate here. What do you suspect?

DiZoglio: I think that there’s really a lot to be concerned about right now. What are they hiding? Is it financial mismanagement? Is it misappropriation of state taxpayer dollars? Is it no-bid contracting out with friends? We don’t know. Right? We don’t know. Are taxpayer-funded non-disclosure agreements being given out to people to cover up harassment, discrimination, abuse, or corruption?

And despite winning the support of the people, she’s still being blocked by Democratic party leaders.

She says even the state’s attorney general is putting up barriers to conducting the audit voted on by residents, and called for under the new law.

Lisa: So you have the leaders in the legislature who think that the law is optional. You have an attorney general whose job it is to enforce the law, but who is not enforcing it. What is your pathway to getting this independent third party to force this to happen?

DiZoglio: It’s pretty clear the Attorney General doesn’t want anything to do with representing our office. So really, we need to make sure that we get access to that courtroom because that’s really the only way forward right now.

Lisa: What does the story say about the state of politics in Massachusetts and, more broadly, the state of things across the United States?

DiZoglio: I think a lot of people feel disenfranchised from their government, from their elected leaders, and they feel disenchanted with the system right now. It’s not just about an audit. It’s about lawmakers telling the voters that their vote doesn’t count and that they’re not going to respect the will of the voters, and that is something that needs to change.

Auditor DiZioglio recently announced her office found $4.8 million in public benefit fraud in the last quarter.

Watch video here.