Mass Pike watchdog Connaughton runs for state auditor (PERSONNEL)

Mary Z Connaughton board member of the just disbanded Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and a Republican is running for the elected position of state auditor against incumbent Democrat Joe DeNucci.  The election is Nov 2010.

49 years old, CPA, accounting lecturer at Framingham State College, entrepreneur, mother of two, Connaughton was appointed to the Turnpike board by Gov Mitt Romney in September 2005 on the basis that she had the "chutzpah to get in and mix it up."

Which she did for the last four years of the Turnpike as a separate entity.

She was an intelligent and informed questioner of senior staff and political appointees at the Turnpike.

Connaughton consistently made about as much news and impact as the rest of the board members combined.

Interestingly she's far from convinced things will be improved by the sweeping "reform" just implemented in Massachusettts in which the Turnpike Authority has been abolished and folded into a new Department of Transportation.

She says that responsibility is diffused, divided between a secretary and a five person appointed board.  And that the new department will operate with few provisions for openness and accountability.

De Nucci, a former professional boxer and middleweight champion went into state politics in the mid-1970s and got first elected as state auditor in 1986.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-11-03