Belmont Select Board Member Dionne Launches Republican Bid for State Treasurer

BELMONT — January 14, 2026 — Belmont Select Board Member Elizabeth Dionne declared her Republican candidacy for Massachusetts State Treasurer in a January 14 interview on Belmont's community access TV. Dionne, an attorney in her third and final term on the Select Board, said she entered the race after concluding that local reforms in Belmont had hit a ceiling set by state policy, citing an inflation-adjusted 25 percent decline in local aid over a period in which the state budget doubled. She pledged to cut spending in the treasurer's office — citing a Democratic whistleblower's data showing more than $20 million in rental costs and more than $50,000 in water bottle purchases over three years — and said her first act in office would be to invite State Auditor Diana DiZoglio to audit all 12 departments the treasurer oversees. She also criticized incumbent Deborah Goldberg over the Cannabis Control Commission's management failures, the $1 million legal settlement in the Shannon O'Brien firing case, and the reported theft of $1.1 million from the unclaimed property division. Calling herself "the taxpayer's treasurer," Dionne argued that Massachusetts ranks last in the nation for job creation and second for cost of living, and that the treasurer's office — which controls up to 20 percent of state assets at any given time — is the single fastest lever for redirecting money back to cities and towns.