Mass. insiders turn to lobbying careers

The Boston Globe reports:

In February 2015, newly elected Governor Charlie Baker took sharp aim at Keolis Commuter Services, blasting the train operator for sputtering through epic snows that stranded thousands.

Keolis, in turn, followed the Beacon Hill playbook: The company put a Baker guy on its payroll.

By July, Keolis had quietly hired Keyser Public Strategies, the communications firm founded by consultant Will Keyser, an architect of Baker’s winning campaign who remains a confidant of the governor.

A year later, the Baker administration agreed to pay Keolis — already the recipient of the largest operating contract in state history — an additional $66 million to add trains and maintain equipment, with the hope of improving performance.

There is no evidence that Keyser’s role had anything to do with the additional payments, and Keyser, Baker, and Keolis each say it did not.

There’s also nothing illegal about Keolis hiring the governor’s strategist, even if it ultimately sought funding from the state. But the relationships, and the perceptions they create, underscore a common and often successful way in which business gets done on Beacon Hill.

The rent-seeking society at work.