Politics

Amore juggling auditor campaign with museum day job

Uses vacation time to attend many of his events

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DIANA DIZOGLIO, the Democratic candidate for auditor, tapes a debate this morning with her Republican opponent before heading off to western Massachusetts to campaign in Northampton, Amherst, and Orange alongside the party’s candidate for governor, Maura Healey. 

It’s a great opportunity for DiZoglio to ride the coattails of Healey, the state’s attorney general, and gain exposure in a part of the state unfamiliar with a senator from Methuen.

DiZoglio’s rival, Anthony Amore, doesn’t have a similar campaign swing planned, largely because he doesn’t have the time. He has to juggle his campaign efforts while working his regular job as director of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 

It’s a day-to-day challenge for Amore. CommonWealth called his campaign looking for a comment on a separate issue on Tuesday and was told Amore would call back at around 6 p.m. – after he gets off work. 

That morning Amore had attended a press conference where his candidacy was endorsed by Andrew Card Jr., a former state rep in Massachusetts who went on to work in two presidential administrations — as secretary of transportation for George H. W. Bush in the early 1990s and chief of staff to Bush’s son, George W. Bush, from 2001 to 2006. 

Amore said he used vacation time to attend the endorsement press conference.

Mark Steffen, a campaign aide to Amore, said he’s proud to be working for someone juggling a campaign and a full-time job. “He lives with his partner and her 9-year-old daughter in Winchester and contributes financially to their home,” Steffen said in an email. “In addition to that, he’s been paying tuition bills for one of his daughters to attend school. Sometimes we’ll lighten his campaign schedule to give him a Saturday to spend time with her. Just recently he spent a Saturday watching his daughter perform in the marching band at a UMass Amherst football game. If we need to do campaign-related events during the work day, he always uses vacation time, which is limited. So we have to be judicious about the use of that time.” 

Most of the Democratic candidates running for statewide office don’t face a similar time crunch because they are elected officials. No one docks their pay when they are out campaigning for another office.

DiZoglio is a state senator; Healey is the attorney general; and Healey’s lieutenant governor running mate, Kim Driscoll, is the mayor of Salem. William Galvin and Deborah Goldberg are incumbents — Galvin is the secretary of the Commonwealth and Goldberg is the state treasurer.

The lone Democrat running for statewide office who doesn’t currently have a day job is Andrea Campbell, who is campaigning for attorney general. 

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Bruce Mohl

Editor, CommonWealth
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About Bruce Mohl

Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.

About Bruce Mohl

Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.

There has been talk from time to time about trying to make it easier financially for candidates to run for office. Candidates have pressed for the ability to use campaign funds to pay for childcare or to pay themselves a small salary. Bills to allow the use of campaign funds to pay for child care were filed in the current legislative session but did not pass.

Brookline activist Jesse Mermell, who narrowly lost a Democratic primary bid for Congress in 2020, said the challenges candidates face are real. “Who can afford to be without income for nearly a year to run for office?” she asked in a post-campaign essay. “How many people whose talent and lived experiences would add incredible value to the political process are boxed in at the consideration phase of a campaign because, like most Americans, they have rent to pay, loans to cover, and mouths to feed? Too many.”

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