‘Highbrow trips’: State official racks up massive travel bills
Topline: Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and her staff spent $288,146 on their taxpayer-funded credit card in fiscal year 2024, partially to fund trips to Paris, St. Thomas and 31 U.S. states, the Boston Herald reported.
Key facts: Campbell spent $13,627 on her trip to Paris last July, to a conference commemorating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Most of the money ($9,000) went to Avis Chaffeur, a company that “offers a range of high-quality chauffeur-driven services … catering to both individuals and groups.”
Campbell’s office also spent $10,286 booking rooms at the Fairfield Inn in Boston for the National Cyber Crime Conference in April. The office also hosted a gathering in Boston in October to “recognize Massachusetts State Police’s successful high-profile takedown involving a high-profile drug trafficking investigation,” which cost $1,287.
An annual holiday party in December brought a $1,220 catering bill from Anna’s Taqueria.
There were also charges from California and from Disney World in Florida listed in the spending records obtained by the Herald.
Background: Campbell earned a $214,000 salary last year, making her the only employee in the history of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office to make more than $200,000. There were 162 employees making six figures, and the total payroll cost $53.5 million.
The Attorney General’s Office received a $9 million budget increase this year after Campbell requested funding to fight what she called the “consistent cruelty” of the Trump administration.
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Critical quote: The Massachusetts legislature has refused to undergo an audit, and Campbell has ignored calls from State Auditor Diana DiZoglio to force the legislature into compliance.
Paul Diego Craney of the Massachusetts Alliance told the Boston Herald, “The taxpayers are footing the bill for the Attorney General’s expensive junkets. She’s reaping the reward for not auditing the Legislature, which got her a larger budget to spend on highbrow trips. The Attorney General should put as much effort into enforcing the audit of the Legislature … as she does booking out-of-state trips.”
Summary: Massachusetts is just one of many states whose officials somehow manage to travel all over the world in the name of serving constituents back home.
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