PITTSFIELD -- When outgoing State Auditor Joe DeNucci took office 24 years ago, Mike Lake, who is now vying for his position, was 8 years old.
At that time, Lake was beginning to help his single mother manage the family budget. A little more than a decade after that, he was appointed a special assistant for White House operations by President Bill Clinton.
Lake, now 32, wants to make his mark on a position that hasn’t been in the limelight much in his own lifetime because its office hasn’t been contested for decades. In a recent meeting with The Eagle editorial board, he discussed his platform which includes "auditing the auditor’s office," reforming energy and health care costs, and making the office more proactive and transparent.
Lake is currently the executive director of Northeastern University World Class Cities Partnership. He has never run for political office and is an outsider to the world of Beacon Hill. "The independent perspective is the strength of my candidacy," he said.
At the Democratic state convention earlier this year, Lake took 25 percent of delegates’ votes and entered the race for the Democratic spot on the ticket. His two competitors in the Sept. 14 primary election are Worcester County Sheriff Guy Glodis and Suzanne Bump, a former state secretary of labor and workforce development, who calls Great Barrington home. The winner of the Democratic primary will meet the Republican in the general election in November.
A native of Melrose, Lake was raised by a single mother after his father died when Lake was 5. He took on household responsibilities early, and later demonstrated his capacity for juggling many tasks when he completed five majors at Northeastern: finance, communications, entrepreneurship, political science and management information systems.
As a special assistant to White House operations for the Clinton administration, Lake managed the day-to-day operations and procurement for the office.
As auditor, Lake would work to get rid of inefficient and fraudulent spending.
"We must start acting now to identify and eliminate waste in government," he said.
An audit of the auditor’s office would be one of his first orders of business. By saving money and being a keen watchdog -- starting in his own office -- Lake hopes to restore constituents’ confidence in government as a whole.
"We need more transparent government," he said. "People of the commonwealth pay for it."
Lake wants to target fraud in health care spending, such as the elderly being double-billed for their hospital stays or ambulance expenses.
Energy spending could also be transformed to maximize efficiency, he said. Effective winterization of state buildings, for example, could minimize the amount of heat that escapes into the atmosphere.
"The state spends $750 million a year in energy bills, and 20 to 25 percent is totally wasted," Lake said.
