Keller: The truth about booing

20 years ago, MA mandated residents to buy health insurance or pay a tax penalty. Unaffordable healthcare inflation followed along with new mandates, rising premiums, fewer choices & increased provider payments without real transparency or efficiency standards. Taxpayer costs soared; working family income growth suffered. Small businesses & their workforces have consistently faced annual double digit premium increases. Healthcare cost reforms are long overdue.

It’s an American tradition, right up there with littering and trash talking – you buy your ticket to a sports event and exercise your God-given right to boo the hell out of whoever you choose.

Normally, that means the umpire, members of the opposing team, or an underachieving member of your own team. But at special events like Opening Day when politicians show their faces, they can usually expect to be greeted with a chorus of boos, especially from those hardy pregamers who are well into their booze.

And that’s what happened to Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu last Friday at Fenway Park. The boos were loud, and from the video the two veteran pols appeared to smile their way through it.

But to hear some tell it, this routine, entirely predictable hazing was actually some sort of transcendent boo-pocalypse. The headline posted by a right-wing website - “SUPER LIB POLITICIANS GET BOOED OUT OF THE BUILDING AT RED SOX HOME OPENER” - failed to include evidence of Healey and Wu running for cover, of which there was none.

Still, the three Republicans hoping to oust Healey this fall eagerly retweeted video of the booing as a hopeful sign for their political ambitions.

“Man I love Red Sox nation,” wrote Mike Kennealy. His love affair with Massachusetts Red Sox fans may falter in November if they vote along the lines of recent polling showing Healey pulverizing Kennealy by a two-to-one margin. 

“Looks like fans want someone else to bat,” offered Mike Minogue, who fares even worse than Kenneally in the poll.

And for Brian Shortsleeve, also beaten like a drum by Healey in the polling, the Opening Day boos held deep political significance. “When even deep-blue Massachusetts is booing Maura Healey and Michelle Wu, you know something’s broken,” he tweeted. “People are fed up with high costs, high taxes, and zero accountability. Time for a change.”

Huh. Hard to believe those Fenway protesters were willing to overcome their economic despair and shell out the nation’s highest cost-per-family to attend, $366.71 (parking, refreshments and souvenir hat included). Could the opening day crowd possibly be a skewed sample of the broader electorate?

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8:30 | Gov. Maura Healey addresses the New England Council, with organizers expecting about 450 attendees representing businesses and organizations in the region. | Seaport Hotel, Plaza Ballroom, 1 Seaport Lane, Boston

9:00 | The Supreme Judicial Court hears arguments in six cases, including one case that involves the question of whether a situation in which "an indoor home security camera captures a photograph of a nude person ... the photograph is willfully and secretly taken" in violation of state law and whether it is a similar violation of law if "the photograph is sent only to the subject of the photograph." | John Adams Courthouse, Room 1, 1 Pemberton Sq., Boston | More Info

9:00 | Treasurer Deb Goldberg, who oversees the School Building Authority, attends the topping-off ceremony for the new Squantum Elementary School in Quincy. | 50 Huckins Ave., Quincy

9:30 | Boston Mayor Michelle Wu attends Boston Public Schools Hat Day with the Red Sox. | Sarah Greenwood School, 186 Glenway Street, Dorchester

10:00 | Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll joins Education Secretary Stephen Zrike, Commissioner of Higher Education Noe Ortega, and Chancellor Julie Chen to announce a work-based learning initiative at UMass Lowell. Media RSVP to [email protected]. | University of Massachusetts Lowell, University Crossing, Room 260, 220 Pawtucket Street, Lowell

1:00 | Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro attends a public meeting on his office's December report on the Steamship Authority's website development project. Sen. Julian Cyr and Rep. Thomas Moakley host the meeting. | Nantucket Public Safety Facility, Community Room, 4 Fairgrounds Road, Nantucket

Jamaica Plain attorney Patrick Roath has raised $288,000 in 2026’s first quarter as he wages a Democratic primary campaign against Congressman Stephen Lynch of South Boston. Lynch, whose campaign has not yet released its own fundraising numbers for the same time period, has held the office since 2001. Since launching his campaign last year, Roath has outraised Lynch, though the incumbent ended 2025 with $1.1 million in cash on hand.

James Leary, who served for six years as a Worcester state lawmaker, has joined Lynch & Fierro LLP, sesrving as counsei while maintaining his own lobbying and law practice Leary Public Affairs, which launched in January. Leary’s resume also includes a stint as chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Tim Murray before he headed to UMass Medical School as a vice chancellor of community and government relations, and later held a similar role at UMass Memorial Health.

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iGAMING BILL’S DEATH: Jon Chesto takes a look at the winners and losers after the Legislature’s economic development committee sent to “study” a bill that would legalize internet gambling that mirrors casino games. – Boston Globe

JOB GROWTH: The Bay State is seeing “strong job growth” a chief economist said amid the release of January’s jobs numbers. There was an increase of 3,700, placing the state’s unemployment rate at 4.7%, above the national rate of 4.3%. – State House News Service (gift link)

SIGNATURE MAN: A Canadian who lives in Brookline is at the center of one of the most successful businesses in Massachusetts politics – signature-gathering for ballot questions. Harold Hubschman, who has been spotted at Beacon Hill hearings on ballot measures, worked on his first ballot campaign in 1994 to eliminate tolls on the Turnpike. – Brookline.News

SALES TAX QUESTION: In the looming ballot question pileup, a coalition calling itself “Nature for Massachusetts” is pushing to dedicate a sales tax on sporting goods to protecting natural resources. Beacon Hill could still decline to fund the program if the question passes. – CommonWealth Beacon

POLICE SCANDALS: Officer-involved scandals are on the rise, with six police officers arrested or indicted in March, and more than a dozen officers have been charged with felonies in the first three months of 2026. The law enforcement system is “in failure mode,” one expert says. – MassLive

BUSINESS CONFIDENCE: Massachusetts business confidence is back in pessimistic territory. The monthly Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) index ended last month at 47, making it the 12th month out of 13 that saw business leaders express economic concerns. – Boston Business Journal

CITY SETTLEMENT: The city of Boston paid out $12 million to a man whose murder conviction was thrown out by a judge, citing police and prosecutorial misconduct. The payout comes after Shaun Jenkins filed a federal lawsuit in 2023 against the city. – Boston Globe

LUNAR NEW YEAR: Quincy’s school board may finally recognize Lunar New Year as a holiday as advocates say they have enough votes to support the move. – Patriot Ledger

Join legislators and thought leaders for a timely forum on the AI revolution in Massachusetts. Explore the challenges and opportunities of AI policy on Thursday, May 7, at the MCLE (Boston). RSVP!

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