Bring back Gus Bickford?

Who? Why?

Gus Bickford. He is the former head of the Massachusetts Democrat Party who, willingly or not, was replaced after a string of successes.

After six years at the helm of the Democratic State Committee, Bickford was succeeded in April by veteran political operative Steve Kerrigan, a one-time candidate for lieutenant governor, who had the support of Gov. Maura Healey.

Since then, things have not gone so well.

A week ago, Republican state Rep. Peter Durant of Spencer flipped a Democrat held state Senate seat in a special election.  The seat had been held by former Sen. Anne Gobi of Worcester who gave it up to take a job with Healey Administration.

Spencer, who made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign, beat Democrat Rep. Johnathan Zlotnik of Gardner, despite Kerrigan’s all out support and Healey’s endorsement. Former GOP Gov. Charlie Baker endorsed Durant. The vote was 11,985 to 9,183.

While no big deal in the scheme of things in one-party Democrat Massachusetts—Durant becomes only one of four Republicans in the 40-member Senate, for instance—his victory was the first sign of life for the fractured GOP in a long time.

New GOP Party Chair Anne Amy Carnevale said the Durant win “signals a comeback” for the party.

While that may be debatable, Durant’s victory was clearly a setback for Kerrigan, coming on the heels of Bickford’s claim that in his six years as chairman 19 legislative seats previously held by Republicans flipped to Democrat control.

Hardly did Kerrigan have time to heal his wounds over the loss of the senate seat then his own committee—the 400-member Democrat State Committee– handed him an even bigger and more far-reaching defeat.

This came last week when the committee, despite Kerrigan’s opposition, voted to endorse fellow Democrat state Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s controversial drive to audit the Democrat controlled Massachusetts Legislature.

The vote backing DiZoglio, not only pits the committee against its chairman but, more importantly, goes against the entire Democrat establishment on Beacon Hill, including Gov. Healey, House Speaker Ron Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka and Attorney General Andrea Campbell.

The irony is that Healey, Mariano and Spilka are ex officio members of the state committee and Gov. Healey’s sister Tara is the treasurer.

Mariano and Spilka have argued for months that DiZoglio has no authority to audit the Legislature, an independent body of government that makes its own rules and audits itself.

And Campbell earlier this month sided with the Democrat establishment by ruling that DiZoglio did not have the authority to audit the Legislature over the Legislature’s objections.

Unfazed, DiZoglio, a former member of both the House and the Senate, who campaigned on the issue of opening the books of the Legislature, on Wednesday filed some 75,000 signatures with local election officials to get the issue on the ballot for voter ratification.

The signatures then go to Secretary of State William Galvin for certification.

The merits of the issue aside— and there are deep questions whether a member of the executive branch of government, the auditor, should have investigative power of over the Legislature— it was a clear win for DiZoglio.

Lost in the fog is the fact that the auditor’s office is a creature of the Legislature and not the other way around.

Nevertheless, the fact that half of the voting 400 rank and file members of the state committee would vote unanimously to “wholeheartedly” support DiZoglio’s drive to audit the Legislature came as a shock.

The members of the state committee represent the backbone of the Democrat party across the state. These are the Democrats who knock on doors, make the phone calls, get out the vote and work the polls.

And they voted against the chairman, the governor, the Legislature and the attorney general.

In doing so, they joined hands on the issue with Republicans, conservatives and progressives. Amazing. Come back, Gus, all is forgiven.

Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.

Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio (Elise Amendola/Boston Herald, File)