PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN has tapped Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to serve as his labor secretary, a move that would elevate the former union leader to a prominent national post and set in motion a rare contest for an open mayor’s seat in the city. Walsh, 53, a former leader of the Boston area building trades union, had been seen as a leading contender for the […]
Michael Jonas
Michael Jonas works with Bruce in overseeing CommonWealth Beacon coverage and editing the work of reporters. His own reporting has a particular focus on politics, education, and criminal justice reform.
Michael has worked in journalism in Massachusetts since the early 1980s. Before joining the CommonWealth staff in 2001, he was a contributing writer for the magazine for two years. His story on Boston youth outreach workers was selected for a PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. His CommonWealth work has also won awards from Capitol Beat for state government coverage and from the New England Newspaper & Press Association for work in several areas.
Prior to coming to CommonWealth, for 15 years Michael wrote a weekly column on local politics for the Boston Globe. Michael has also worked in broadcast journalism. In the late 1980s he was a co-producer for "The AIDS Quarterly," a national PBS series produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, and in the early 1990s, he worked as a producer for a weekly news magazine program on WHDH-TV (Ch. 7) in Boston.
Posted inPolitics
Mass. delegation stunned, outraged by mob invasion of Capitol
FOR JAKE AUCHINCLOSS, the first days in office as a new member of Congress have felt the same as they likely did for hundreds of lawmakers before him — momentous and awe-inspiring. Now add to that a very different adjective: chilling. The newest member of the state’s congressional delegation was sheltering in place with his […]
Posted inPolitics
For Mariano, the spotlight isn’t kind
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OFTEN count for a lot, and for Ron Mariano that’s probably not a good thing. The new House speaker gave an interview to Channel 5 reporter Sharman Sacchetti that was quickly turning heads because of his circumspect answers that seemed dismissive of her queries. Mariano may have shed his signature moustache, but not […]
Posted inPolitics
An emotional DeLeo bids farewell
TWELVE YEARS AFTER he assumed power amid a punishing economic recession, Speaker Robert DeLeo took his leave during the unprecedented upheaval of a pandemic, delivering farewell remarks on Tuesday afternoon to a largely empty House chamber with most members watching remotely via video livestream. “While this isn’t a farewell speech that I’ve contemplated, I’m […]
Posted inPolitics
For DeLeo, slow, steady — and firm — were the watchwords
THERE WAS NOT a lot of flash to Robert DeLeo’s tenure as Massachusetts House speaker. Rising from amiable constituent-focused Winthrop lawmaker to one of the most powerful positions in state government, DeLeo had an understated everyman bearing and brought a deliberative, consensus-oriented approach to many issues. But what he lacked in outward swagger, the 70-year-old Democratic leader made up for with a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
With police bill, compromise was the key
MAJOR POLICE REFORM is all but a done deal on Beacon Hill. The surest sign that the bill has been fully squeezed through the legislative wringer? No one is happy with it. That, of course, is an exaggeration. Indeed, it’s on its way into the books precisely because enough people were happy enough with it. […]
Posted inPolitics
Holmes says he will run for speaker
STATE REP. RUSSELL HOLMES, one of the most outspoken critics of the top-down centralization of power in the House of Representatives, said he will run for speaker, presuming rumors are true that Speaker Robert DeLeo is preparing to step down from his post after nearly 12 years. Holmes, a Mattapan Democrat, was ousted from a […]
Posted inPolitics
Can there be a DC return to ‘normality’?
MONDAY’S MEETING OF presidential electors in state capitols across the country is the kind of ritual that usually gets cursory news coverage, one of those quadrennial stories reported more as a reminder of the country’s quirky method of electing a president than a moment of true drama and importance. But all of that was different […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker’s deliberate mixed message on COVID-19
MIXED MESSAGES are not usually held up as a quality of good leadership, but a lot of things have been different about life amid a global pandemic. That included Gov. Charlie Baker’s State House briefing on Tuesday where he offered a very calculated mix of hope and dire warning with Christmas approaching. Baker implored Massachusetts […]
Posted inPolitics
Katherine Clark’s fast rise in the House
LAST YEAR, The Hill called Rep. Katherine Clark “the most powerful woman in the Capitol you’ve probably never heard of.” Plenty of people have heard of her now, and many more soon will. In January, Clark will become the fourth highest ranking member of the US House of Representatives when she assumes the post of […]