Attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and auditor side by side: the 8 candidates on utility bills, housing, voting, pensions and audits

SOUTH COAST Four statewide races and eight candidates sit below the governor's race on every ballot in New Bedford, Fall River, Taunton, Dartmouth, Westport and the rest of the South Coast today, and polls close at 8 p.m. Below, each pair is set side by side on the same questions, chosen for what that office does, in ballot order and in the candidates' own words from their campaign sites and releases.

What each office does under state law, who the candidates are and what each campaign raised through Sept. 30 are in SC360's guide to the four offices.

One more office on every South Coast ballot has a single name: Joseph C. Ferreira, a Swansea Democrat running for re-election, is the only candidate for Governor's Council in the First District, the Secretary of the Commonwealth's candidate list shows.

Attorney general: Andrea Joy Campbell (D, Dartmouth) and Michael C. Walsh (R, Lynnfield)

Utility bills and rate cases. Campbell's campaign site says "She has blocked unfair utility rate hikes, saving Massachusetts families more than $2.5 billion in energy bills." Walsh lists lower utility bills among the six commitments on his site, which says "Families shouldn't have to choose between heating their homes and paying the bills."

Housing and tenants. Campbell's site says she sued five of the largest corporate landlords and the rent-pricing software companies they used, "securing a $7 million multistate settlement," and enforced the law requiring towns served by public transit to allow multifamily housing. In a campaign release endorsing Question 7, the starter homes question, she said "the cost of housing is the number one affordability challenge facing families across this Commonwealth."

Walsh's site says "Local zoning decisions belong to cities and towns not unelected state bureaucrats" and that he opposes state zoning mandates that "coerce municipalities into compliance under threat of funding loss." It says he is litigating cases against the attorney general's office, including challenges over the state's MBTA Communities Act. His site does not mention Question 7.

Public safety. Campbell's site says "Every person and family in Massachusetts deserves to feel safe in their community" and that she is going after "drug trafficking operations, illegal gun sales, and commercial sex trafficking networks." Walsh's site does not address crime or policing. It says "Taxpayer dollars deserve a watchdog, not a rubber stamp" and pledges to "aggressively investigate fraud, waste, and abuse."

Question 5. Neither campaign site takes a position on Question 5, the revenue limit and rebate question. Walsh's site says voters deserve ballot questions that are "clear, lawful, and properly vetted."

Secretary of state: William Francis Galvin (D, Boston) and Anne R. Brensley (R, Wayland)

Question 4, Election Day registration. Neither campaign site mentions Question 4. Galvin's site lists "Expanding access to voting, including early voting, voter pre-registration and vote-by-mail" as a priority. Brensley's initiatives page says she would "Work directly with leaders in Black, Hispanic, and Portuguese communities to increase voter registration and turnout."

Question 1, public records. Neither site mentions Question 1. Galvin's campaign site does not address public records. Brensley's issues page says she would "Improve public records access and faster response times" and "Make it easier for residents to access government information."

Running elections. Galvin's campaign letter says the federal administration "is seeking to limit the rights of Massachusetts citizens to register to vote and the right to vote by mail," and adds, "As the longest serving state elections administrator in the nation, it is my intention to expose and resist any such efforts wherever attempted."

Brensley's site says she would "Support our town clerks with better tools and resources," set up cure periods that let candidates and petition sponsors fix problems that could keep them off the ballot, and create "a fraud and forgery reporting system" to help identify forged signatures.

Treasurer: Deborah B. Goldberg (D, Brookline) and Elizabeth Dionne (R, Belmont)

Taxes and Question 5. Neither campaign site takes a position on Question 5. Goldberg's site says she has worked on "saving taxpayer dollars through smart debt management." In a release on a Supreme Judicial Court ruling that she said blocked a question to cut the income tax rate from 5% to 4%, Dionne wrote, "The Treasurer does not write the tax code, but the Treasurer should be the taxpayers' watchdog."

School building money. The treasurer chairs the Massachusetts School Building Authority, whose board voted Oct. 28 to approve an estimated $55.6 million grant toward Swansea's Joseph Case Junior High and moved Dighton Elementary into schematic design, as SC360 reported from the authority's board records.

Goldberg's campaign site does not discuss school buildings; it lists "public-private partnerships to fund financial education and teacher training in the schools." Dionne's site says "Voters also deserve answers on stalled reforms at the School Building Authority and State Lottery." Her release pledges to "cut wasteful spending in the Treasurer's Office and return more local aid to cities, towns, and taxpayers."

Pensions. Goldberg's site lists "Holding corporations accountable on executive pay, insisting on climate risk mitigation, and ensuring employees are treated with dignity all while delivering unprecedented returns." In a July 2 release on her testimony on H. 5527, a bill whose earlier version would have ordered $50 million to $100 million from the state pension fund into economic development grants, Dionne said, "Public pensions are sacred."

Auditor: Diana DiZoglio (D, Methuen) and Al Ozonoff (Libertarian, Medford)

The legislative audit. DiZoglio's campaign site says "special interests and political powerbrokers" will go as far as "violating the new audit law we just passed by 72% of the vote," and backs Question 1, a ballot measure that "puts the Legislature and Governor's office under the state's public records law." Ozonoff's site does not mention the legislative audit. It says he "is not running to protect party leadership or begin with predetermined conclusions."

Transportation and MBTA spending. DiZoglio's audit plan page lists "a safety audit of the MBTA" among the audits she would begin with; it does not address transportation spending. Ozonoff's site says he would examine "major public projects, including MBTA projects, for contract changes, schedule performance, lifecycle costs, delivery milestones, and taxpayer protections."

State mandates on town budgets. DiZoglio's site says the auditor "plays a critical role in identifying and protecting local municipalities and state government from unfunded mandates." Her audit plan cites an office study that found the state "shortchanged its cities and towns by an estimated $15.7 million in 2020 alone" in payments for state-owned land. Ozonoff's site does not address local mandates; it says "An audit should not end when the report is published."

Campaign money

Each candidate's committee files monthly bank reports with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance. Walsh's, Brensley's and Ozonoff's newest run through Oct. 31 and were filed Nov. 2. The newest for Campbell, Galvin, Goldberg, Dionne and DiZoglio run through Sept. 30, so the totals cover different dates, and the table labels each one. Amounts are rounded to the dollar.

Statewide candidates below governor, 2026 totals to the end date of each newest bank report: Oct. 31 for Walsh, Brensley and Ozonoff, Sept. 30 for the other five (Office of Campaign and Political Finance)

Candidate	Totals run through	Raised in 2026	Spent in 2026	Cash on hand on that date
Andrea Joy Campbell, attorney general, Democrat	Sept. 30	$668,806	$745,514	$769,393
Michael C. Walsh, attorney general, Republican	Oct. 31 (filed Nov. 2)	$93,770	$89,029	$4,741
William Francis Galvin, secretary of state, Democrat	Sept. 30	$166,412	$52,974	$2,062,161
Anne R. Brensley, secretary of state, Republican	Oct. 31 (filed Nov. 2)	$85,369	$91,322	$3,099
Deborah B. Goldberg, treasurer, Democrat	Sept. 30	$238,986	$189,051	$419,728
Elizabeth Dionne, treasurer, Republican	Sept. 30	$382,560	$232,444	$205,263
Diana DiZoglio, auditor, Democrat	Sept. 30	$99,202	$15,401	$231,420
Al Ozonoff, auditor, Libertarian	Oct. 31 (filed Nov. 2)	$296	$30	$266

Where to vote

Polls are open until 8 p.m. Find your polling place in SC360's where to vote guide, every race and question on your ballot in the town by town ballot guide, and results after the polls close on the SC360 results page and in the Election Center.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.