A One-Party Government is Not a Democracy: It is an Autocracy 

To the Editor,

71.6% of Massachusetts voters approved auditing the Legislature in November 2024. The House voted 125–28 to gut it on June 3, 2026 — circulating the bill text at 10:30am and voting the same day. (www.auditma.org) 

Sadly, Cape Ann’s current state representative, Dru Tarr, voted alongside his leader, House Speaker, “King” Ron Mariano, last summer, to gut our audit bill.  This is the bill that 71.6 percent of   Massachusetts voters want!!! Clearly, Dru Tarr is not representing the majority of Cape Ann voters.  

As a long-time rabble-rousing Democrat, I am ashamed of our state government and our current state representative, Dru Tarr.  The National Society of Professional Journalists recently gave Massachusetts the National Black Hole Award for being the least transparent state in the nation!  According to the Society’s May 2026 press release, “This is a dishonor recognizing government entitlement that demonstrates a troubling lack of transparency, and disregard for the public right to know... Massachusetts is the only state in the nation where the governor’s office, the state legislature and the judiciary, all claim to be exempt from the state public records law.”  (www.spj.org › black-hole-award) 

In 2024, 71.6% of Massachusetts voters got mad and voted for a citizen-generated law that says in effect: “We want the elected state auditor to be allowed to review the income received and the monies paid out by the Massachusetts House of Representative and Senate.”   

But, in an apparent self-protecting move, “King” Mariano created and passed a bill that destroys the auditor’s ability to have the Massachusetts Courts become involved if the auditor and either legislative body disagrees with the auditor’s findings!  Hello??? 

Sadly, our current state representative, Dru Tarr, has now shown us that he is simply one more YES-MAN to King Mariano. Why?  Dru quickly voted against the vast majority of his Cape Ann constituents; voting to block any judicial review of any audit disputes between the state auditor and the state legislature!  

For clarity…Dru Tarr is NO RELATION to our Republican State Senator, Bruce Tarr; two entirely different individuals from two different political parties. A few months later, when the state senate drafted and voted on its own bill to limit the auditor’s powers, our Senator, Bruce Tarr, voted to represent his Cape Ann constituency. He voted “NO!”  

Thankfully, voters now have a chance on Tuesday, Nov 3rd to elect a truly INDEPENDENT and legally trained state representative…Christina Delisio.  For ten years, Delisio, a Manchester MA attorney, served as an elected member of the town’s Planning Board. During this time, Delisio was able to call out the powers-that-be whenever they tried to ignore the wishes of taxpayers.  Delisio is also a newly appointed member of Manchester’s Housing Authority Board, advocating for Manchester’s long-ignored seniors who finally deserve decent state-funded housing.  

If you want Massachusetts to retain the Black Hole Award for being the least transparent state government in the nation…. vote straight Democrat on Nov 3rd.  Or… you can vote for Christina Delisio, an independent, fully-qualified individual who will bring strong advocacy and intelligent debate on how to create a more fiscally transparent state government. Vote to support democracy on November 3rd. Vote to end our state’s current-day single party autocracy.  Vote Delisio! 

Susan Wadia-Ells

Manchester