The 55-year-old Republican from Winchester is running for statewide office in the 2022 midterm election. He’s the lone Republican candidate for state auditor and he says that he has the ideas and experience that make him the best person for the job.
This isn’t Amore’s first run for public office. He was the Republican nominee for Secretary of the Commonwealth in 2018. He ran against incumbent Democrat Bill Galvin and lost 70.8 percent to 25.3 percent.
Amore said that he learned a lot from that race that will be useful in this run.
“When I decided to run this time one of the key factors was having done it before,” Amore said in an interview with NewBostonPost. “Even in a losing race, you learn a heck of a lot. In this run, I’ve used some lessons I’ve learned from 2018 in terms of the people I’m speaking to. In addition to speaking to Republicans every chance I get, I also want to speak to the people in the middle. They’re the biggest voter bloc and they make or break elections.”
This time around, Amore is in a different situation. He is running for an open seat; the current auditor, Suzanne Bump, a Democrat, isn’t seeking re-election. And it’s a midterm election with an incumbent Democratic president — not an incumbent Republican president as it was in 2018. Historically, opposition parties have fared better in midterm elections when their party doesn’t have the White House.
Amore said that his pitch will be that he would do the job if elected, and not play partisan politics.
“I want to explain to them that I’m a Republican running for auditor, not to be the Republican auditor,” Amore said. “I’m going to be the auditor for the people — an independent auditor who will bring checks and balances to this one-party state.”
He said that he hopes that voters can see the value in having an auditor from the opposition party.
“It’s incredibly important,” Amore said. “I think the auditor’s role is perhaps the best place for there to be someone from the opposing party. I can’t think of a better role for an independent voice and a watchdog person who is the chief accountability officer. I think voters on both sides of the aisle would agree that if you’re going to have somebody who is your chief accountability office, they shouldn’t be beholden to the power on Beacon Hill.”
If elected, Amore has several priorities.
He wants to audit the auditor’s office, the state’s public college and university system, and the state’s Cannabis Control Commission.
One reason why Amore wants to audit the auditor’s office: under Bump, the auditor’s office hasn’t done its job as required by law. State law says the auditor must audit the 210 state agencies of Massachusetts government every three years. However, Bump has not done that. Bump’s office failed to audit 24 percent of those state agencies within the three-year time limit, a 2019 report from Commonwealth Magazinerevealed.
“The auditor has statutory requirements on how many audits they must do and our current auditor doesn’t meet those requirements and I want to know why,” Amore said.
When it comes to public colleges and universities in this state, Amore said the reason he wants to prioritize this audit is the rising cost of college. He thinks there will be ways to find waste and help lower tuition for students.
“I want to see where tax dollars and tuition dollars are going. I’m the one candidate who has had children in college. I have a daughter in the UMass system now and another that’s a college graduate. I understand the cost of higher education on a family and want to make sure those tax dollars are being spent efficiently.”
Amore noted that last week, the UMass schools hiked in-state tuition for students by 2.5 percent — and the Massachusetts House of Representatives refused to put any of the tax cuts proposed by Governor Charlie Baker in its budget.
“It’s a major problem for middle-class families,” Amore said. “I think they should be just lowering costs by two and a half percent and the auditor is in a unique position where they can identify where costs can be lowered. It’s hard for me as someone who is running for auditor to hear that tuition costs are going to increase at our state colleges and universities and the next day hear that the legislature didn’t approve the governor’s $700 million tax cuts. At a time when the state, by all accounts, is awash with cash, they say they’re not going to give a break to residents who are being crippled by staggering inflation.”
Amore also said that given the recent hack of the computer system of the state’s Cannabis Control Commission, an audit of that department would be a priority. Late last year, computer hackers obtained personal information of about 164,000 job-seekers and license applicants. This information included names, Social Security numbers, and driver’s licenses.
The commission has existed since 2017 and has never been audited, he pointed out.
“That’s just unacceptable,” Amore said.
Amore’s biggest endorsement in the auditor’s race thus far is Governor Baker.
Amore is happy to have Baker’s support and thinks it could help him win over some people who don’t normally vote Republican.
“I’m honored to have the governor’s endorsement and very active support. I think he’s done a good job considering it’s a very blue state. His popularity is warranted and I look forward to him helping me as this goes on. I think the unenrolleds who support him will see that they should support me as well.”
Baker has helped collect signatures for Amore and plans to introduce the candidate to some of his donors later this month, as Politico reports.
Amore is the only Republican running for the post. Two Democrats are running: state Senator Diana DiZoglio (D-Methuen) and Chris Dempsey, the assistant secretary of transportation for Massachusetts. The founder of the socialist Worker’s Party of Massachusetts Nick Giannone, a union boilermaker, is running as well.
Amore said that experience sets him apart from the two Democrats in the race.
“Unlike the two Democrats running for this office, I’ve actually run large organizations with a budget and a bottom line,” Amore said. “I’ve done it in the government with 1,200 employees and in the private sector with more than 50. I’m also the only candidate who has done audits, inspections, and investigations. These things matter: competency, experience, and professionalism matter. I think voters know this and I hope they remember it in the voting booth this November.
“I have long believed that one of the reasons government across the country fails is because too many people take executive leadership roles that don’t have any experience as executives,” he added. “I’m the only one in this race that has that experience and I hope voters remember this.”
Amore has been the director of security and chief investigator of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum since 2005. In Amore’s current job, he is responsible for protecting several billion dollars worth of art as well as investigating the largest art heist in world history. In 1990, two thieves stole art that is now worth more than $600 million from the museum, at a time when security was lax.
Before joining the Gardner Museum, Amore spent four years as the assistant federal security director for Screening & Regulatory Inspection of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.From July 1996 to 2001, he was a special agent for the Federal Aviation Administration Security Division.
The last Republican elected state auditor in Massachusetts was Russell Abner Wood in 1938.
More information on Amore’s campaign is available at www.amore2022.com.
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