Belmont Select Board member Elizabeth Dionne to run for state treasurer

Elizabeth Dionne, a select board member in Belmont and a registered Republican, launched a campaign for state treasurer Tuesday, making her one of the first candidates to formally challenge Democratic Treasurer Deborah Goldberg.

Dionne’s entrance sets up a contest that could focus on Goldberg’s involvement with the Cannabis Control Commission and lengthy legal battle with Shannon O’Brien, the commission’s chairwoman whom Goldberg fired from her post but who was later reinstated by a judge.

Dionne, 55, criticized Goldberg for “mismanagement” of the treasurer’s office and a “lack of transparency.”

“Like so many other residents of Massachusetts, I have had enough of the corruption, cronyism, and chaos happening in the Treasurer’s office. It is time for a change. I will not be the treasurer for the insiders or special interest groups. I will be the taxpayers’ treasurer who answers to the people of Massachusetts,” Dionne said in a statement.

Goldberg, in a statement responding to the news, said she looks “forward to a robust conversation about the work of the Treasurer’s office and our meaningful accomplishments during my tenure.”

She added, “I have led with integrity and purpose as treasurer and will continue to put the people of our state first and foremost. The voters of Massachusetts have trusted me to do so, and I look forward to earning their vote again.”

The treasurer of Massachusetts is the state’s chief financial officer, who oversees public investments, cash flows, debt and unclaimed property. The post also chairs some high-profile state panels, including the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission and the $115 billion state pension fund.

Under state law, the treasurer can appoint members to and select the chair of the Cannabis Control Commission, the agency tasked with overseeing the state’s multi-billion dollar pot industry. Beacon Hill lawmakers are considering changing that appointment process to shift control to the governor..

Dionne previously worked as an attorney focused on commercial real estate and venture capital at Goodwin Procter and the Boston-based law firm Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault. She taught constitutional law and political science at both Wellesley College and Boston College, according to her campaign.

She has served for the past decade as a member of Belmont’s Select Board, where she says she helped ensure compliance with a controversial transit-oriented zoning law known as the MBTA Communities Act, and pushed for financial reforms.

Dionne also said she “successfully advocated” to invest all of Belmont’s retirement system into the state pension fund,  for “lower costs and higher returns.”

“The Treasurer’s office should be a model of accountability and integrity. Instead, it has become a symbol of dysfunction. I’m running to restore public trust, open the books, and return the office to its core mission: serving the good taxpayers of Massachusetts,” Dionne said.

If elected, Dionne said, she wants to “disinfect the State House” by opening financial records to the public.

She also pledged to “maximize” returns on state pension funds. And in the treasurer’s office, she said she would hire “qualified professionals committed to public service — not cronies or political insiders.”

Goldberg, who announced earlier this year she plans to run for reelection in 2026, said she wants to continue working on “creating opportunity, economic stability and economic security for people all over this state.”

“It is more important than ever, especially now as the federal government seeks to strip away every advancement we have made in our state and our country. I will not be discouraged or deterred. That is why I intend to stay in this fight and will absolutely be running for reelection next year,” Goldberg said at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention in September.

Material from the State House News Service is included in this report.