Funny thing about government spending – for the most part, it is a response to public demand, a.k.a. “the will of the people.”
Jon Keller
Jon Keller has been reporting and commenting on local politics since 1978. A graduate of Brandeis University, he worked in radio as a producer and talk-show host before moving into print journalism at The Tab newspapers and the Boston Phoenix. Freelance credits include the Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Boston Magazine, the New Republic and the Washington Post. Since 1991 his "Keller At Large" commentaries and interviews have been a fixture on Boston TV, first on WLVI-TV, and then for 20 years on WBZ-TV. He is a 12-time Emmy Award winner for political reporting and commentary. He began his MASSterList column in March 2020.
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Kelly Ayotte’s ICE detention fiasco
Whenever Kelly Ayotte steps in something, she reaches for her political security blankie. But her latest grab for the comfort of New Hampshire’s inferiority complex doesn’t seem to be working so well.
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Hoping for failure
It wasn’t quite a Kinsley gaffe, the political blunder that journalist Michael Kinsley once observed happens when “a politician tells the truth – some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say.”
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Ken Burns’ naïve politics
Ken Burns is a terrific documentary filmmaker. But as a political pundit? Not so much.
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Deja vu on the T
Yes, it’s 2015 all over again. Riding the T last week in the wake of the big storm brought back grim memories of that winter’s Snowpocalypse that shut the system down.
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Snow job
For a piece on the old Channel 56 news we once staked out the milk section of a local market on the eve of a big snowfall.
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A tax hike fiasco
The chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, a close ally of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, told WBUR it was time for Wu to scrap her two-year-long crusade.
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How to run against Healey
The GOP focus on LaMar Cook is really just a performative appeal to their political base.
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The Lottery’s warning lights
However exploitative of gambling addicts, it is voluntary taxation that generates badly-needed revenue for cities and towns.
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Keller’s year in preview
With the events of 2025 in mind, here is an educated guess at what’s in store for Massachusetts in the year to come, not to be used as a guide for wagering.