An Interview with the Candidates for Massachusetts Governor

Diehl: I began my career in the advertising industry, and then worked as a sales consultant for sign companies before running for the state legislature and winning in 2010. I served in the state legislature for four terms and left in 2018. At that time, I returned to the private sector as the director of business development for TRQ Autoparts.  

As a member of the Massachusetts House, I served on the House Ways and Means Committee, which determines state spending and is related to taxation. I also filed legislation on behalf of the Assessor’s Association, to streamline the taxation on boats and led the 2014 ballot measure to de-link the state gas tax, which had been tied to inflation. I have experience dealing with accounting and tax related matters in this capacity as co-owner of a small business, Boss Academy of Performing Arts.  

The top three challenges facing MA are: 

1. Over regulation and taxation of the business community, which is leading businesses to leave our state, rather than stay and provide needed employment opportunities to our citizens. My solution is to remove as many regulations as possible, and work to lower tax burdens, so that we do not continue to lose economic contributors. 
    
2. Lack of affordability to live here for the middle and working class. In 2021, MA lost 50,000 residents to other states, most run by strong conservative legislatures, which provide burgeoning economic opportunity and lower cost of living. I feel we need to remove the excessive cost of living for residents. This starts with efforts to freeze the excise taxes, lower the income tax and freeze the gas tax, all of which are hurting working class family's day to day. 
    
3. Educational gaps due to COVID. After keeping children from receiving adequate education for two years due to COVID regulations, our Department of Education needs to refocus priority on core educational skills and stay away from the heavy focus on social agendas that they have been the focus for public schools. We need to look to solutions such as providing more vocational opportunities for students in public schools; increasing the ability for families to choose schools through school choice and charter schools and focus curriculum on writing and math skills. This starts with new leadership at the Department of Education, and a review of curriculum standards and frameworks to help our students catch up from what they lost in the past few years. 

As explained above, removing over regulations and tax burdens from all sectors will keep people here, rather than forcing them to leave. MA needs to be a place where people can live, and don’t have to leave. Our government needs to highlight the attractive features of our state, which are many, and remove the burdens which keep people away.

I am on record strongly opposing this initiative, which will drive job creators out of our state, making it even harder for the working class to find good jobs and stay here. We cannot continue to create these barriers to our economic growth and then expect that the state can prosper – it simply can’t. MA is currently operating with over a $4 billion surplus in tax revenue, and the legislature STILL won’t act to remove the tax burden on anyone. We can maintain all our government functions, and audit each area to find efficiencies, without raising taxes at all. More to the point, we can reduce taxes while we are at it.  

I believe those in each industry are the experts and should be the ones advising government officials on policy. My administration will welcome these insights and advice in crafting good policy throughout. We will invite industry leaders/professionals to come to our office and advise us and will send administration officials and the Governor and Lt. Governor, to your events/meetings to gain insight.

Endorse the ticket, and spread the word via your contacts, email lists and events, that this is the team that makes the best effort to keep your priorities in our policy initiatives. The more vibrant our Commonwealth’s economy, the more people remain here and prosper. That helps lift all industries, including yours. The progressive agenda of our opponents' stifles growth of businesses; overregulates individuals and drives them out of the Commonwealth, punishing job creators until they leave. That is not what is best for the state, so publicizing support amongst your members for this ticket is the best way to assist spreading our message towards success in November.

Robert Moses, urban planner in the mid-20th century in New York. He was the most influential voice in New York City and the state during that time. He had positive connections with major political figures of the day, from Fiorello La Guardia to Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he was Governor before he became president. Though he was never elected to public office, Moses had an enormous impact on across the nation by influencing generations of urban and municipal planners, engineers, architects, etc.

I am the only candidate with executive level and real-life business experience. I have managed hundreds of employees and handled complex matters, including supply chain problems, health insurance, budgetary issues, financing, human resources, state regulations (DEP, OSHA, UI, EPA, PPP, Grants, etc.), mergers and acquisitions and more. I can run large complex organizations and I’m accustomed to being accountable and performing at a high level.   

I am bilingual and speak Spanish. I studied economics with an emphasis on accounting and have my MBA. I am comfortable with financial statements for my own business and as an investor and have evaluated the purchase and sale of private businesses and public equities. 

We spend and tax our citizens and businesses too much; we are not funding our local towns and communities enough for them to maintain roads, schools and public safety; and our education system in some of our weakest communities is failing those children. Additionally, our police departments are spread too thin to perform their jobs well.   

In the same way I have for three decades, I will define the problem, identify stakeholders who can help solve the problem and engage the correct stakeholders to determine ways to solve the problems. Additionally, I will implement solutions to fix the problem, measure our performance solving the problem and when results are not improving, adjust the plan. It is important to create a sense of urgency with all stakeholders, recognize high performance and correct deficient performance and never give up on a tough problem – some take decades to fix permanently. 

This is a critical part of the messaging for my campaign. I would like to form a governor-led commission to review opportunities to reduce costs in our state. This commission would focus on opportunities to reduce spending/debt and eventually taxation. In addition, I will form a temporary council to identify the worst regulations in our state, which are causing the affordability problems. Once the regulations are identified, we will begin to find opportunities to remove or unwind these regulations.

There are many financial headwinds for our next Governor to address, including the Fair Share Amendment as mentioned; but also, interest rate increases, operating deficits with the MBTA, deferred maintenance on our infrastructure, potential and almost guaranteed reduction in federal spending to each state, unfunded pensions, skyrocketing healthcare costs, etc. The only way to address all these headwinds without raising taxes is to address our spending problems. I am detail oriented and comfortable with finding cost reductions. I am well versed and trained in “Lean systems,” where reducing time eventually reduces costs, and I will bring these skills to the office.  

MA competes with other states for business, and I have heard from many business owners planning to relocate to New Hampshire, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, etc. Our tax structure needs to be within the average of these other states to attract businesses. In other words, I believe we should drive to be competitive and should not be too hamstrung by statutory requirements. 

Yes, I believe in strong trade organizations. I have served on the board of directors for my trade organization and feel comfortable engaging with others involved in good accounting practices, both in the private and the public sectors. I look forward to meaningful discussions.

I will need help with hiring good people for the F&A department and other departments, as well as with better understanding government accounting. I will need help identifying third party organizations to help me understand the underlying financial issues at government agencies such as the MBTA, universities, etc., and would like to explore a rewrite of our corporate tax structure to be more competitive with other states.

I would like to meet my relative from the early 1800’s who appears to have changed our last name from “Doty” to “Doughty.” This has been a genealogy mystery for my family for decades.

I grew up in New Hampshire, but both of my parents were from MA. I am the oldest of five, raised mostly by my mother, a school nurse, who taught us about taking care of each other and our community. I waitressed through high school and college, before heading to Europe to play basketball professionally. When I returned, I went to law school, practiced nine years as a business and securities litigator, and later joined the Attorney General’s Office as the chief of the Civil Rights Division. In that capacity, I led our challenge against the Defense of Marriage Act and the big banks during the mortgage crisis. Later I oversaw all work related to financial services, antitrust, healthcare and complex litigation. In 2013, I decided to run for office and for the past seven years, I’ve been proud to serve as your Attorney General.  

I am the only candidate in this race with management experience, having run an agency of 600 employees with a $60 million a year budget. I believe I have done so with meaningful results for the state, including returning hundreds of millions of dollars through our office’s work. I am the only candidate with experience running a state agency along with an extensive private and public professional background suitable for the administration of the office of Governor.  

When I ran for Attorney General, I promised I would be the people’s lawyer, and would not shy away from tough problems or powerful interests to stand up for the people. We centered our work around people and stood up to powerful interests like Purdue Pharma, Exxon and predatory student lenders.   

I am not going to change this formula as Governor. I am going to lead the same way I have led the Attorney General’s office, with a commitment to community building and community engagement, applying an equity lens to everything we do. 

1. Cost of living. Even when families can get ahead financially, the cost of living rises around them. Expenses pile up and box them out of stable housing, necessary healthcare and reliable transit. We need to increase our housing stock and build programs to help more families buy homes and afford rent. I will work to bring down our healthcare costs and ensure that every family can access the world-class medical care that exists here in MA. We also need to invest in our public transit systems to ease our housing crunch and reduce financial burdens on families.  
    
2. Job training. We have a jobs problem, but just as importantly, we have a jobs training problem. We have thousands of jobs available right now in every corner of our state – from manufacturing to healthcare to technology – that are going unfilled because we need more people with the skills to fill them. Our next governor must harness our tremendous community colleges and vocational schools to make sure our training matches the jobs that are available, and we need to support people who want to take advantage of these opportunities. This is how we invest in people.  
    
3. Childcare. We have the lowest percentage of women in our workforce since 1988, and lack of access to childcare is a big reason for that. We were in a childcare crisis before this pandemic and, since then, we’ve had more than a third of our childcare centers close. By dramatically investing in our childcare system, we can help children, reduce costs for parents, get women back to work and improve our economy. Our economy doesn’t work for everyone because it wasn’t built for everyone. As Governor, you can count on me to champion policies that lift working families. 

As I mentioned previously, MA has a serious affordability issue. Our current housing market and transportation system cannot support the kind of state we want to be. We need to prioritize keeping MA a place that people want to live and can live. 

Taking aggressive action is a matter of public health and racial justice. That is why, as Governor, I’ll prioritize expanding and preserving the housing supply by increasing state resources and addressing local zoning barriers. I also plan to increase first-time homeownership and help close the racial wealth gap through expansion of down payment assistance and housing counseling. 

We need to also invest in our public transportation to make sure it’s reliable, accessible and affordable for everyone. This includes increased investments in public transportation, including regional transit authorities, with the help of federal funding. In addition, we should be shifting the MA rail strategy towards a regional system and need to advance and build transformative projects, like West-East Rail, South Coast Rail, the Allston Multi-Modal project, the Red-Blue Connector and the extension of the Blue Line to Lynn. 

And while transportation is a key driver of economic mobility, it’s also the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in MA. That’s why I have a clean transportation plan that focuses on electrifying our public transportation system and getting more electric cars on the road. This is part of my climate agenda – which will make MA a national and world leader in combating climate change and transitioning to a clean energy economy. This provides us an opportunity to not only be at the forefront of this critical issue, but to protect the future of MA. 

MA has the greatest human capital, intellectual capital, educational institutions and businesses in the country, but we need a governor who will fight to make sure that MA remains the global epicenter for life sciences. I will be a governor who competes for business and sells MA as an attractive state to come to school here, stay here, work here, build companies here, raise a family here and educate your children here. 

I believe that as a state, we need to make investments in critical areas, such as public education and transportation, which are essential to building an economy where all people in MA can thrive.  

We need these investments to modernize our schools and provide a high-quality public education to all students regardless of zip code. In addition, we must fix our broken transportation infrastructure and invest in fast, reliable public transportation to address our affordable housing crisis and meet our climate goals. As Governor, I will explore every funding source to ensure that we strike the right balance in how we pay for these necessary investments.   

I believe the Fair Share Amendment will help us lower transportation and housing costs, helping us better retain a talented workforce in our state. I will continue to engage in a dialogue with stakeholders such as MassCPAs to ensure our infrastructure and social services are well-funded and that MA remains competitive for years to come. 

As a state leader, I’ve always prioritized working with stakeholders and leveraging their input to gain perspective on particular issues, and I will continue this practice as Governor. I would be happy to engage with MassCPAs as Governor and to remain in regular communication.

By keeping us informed about what your members are experiencing in their work and what you think our administration could be doing to better support the CPAs of MA. I look forward to working with you in the future.

My grandmother, I miss her every day.