Contributions to political figures and elected officials can be dicey when you are also looking for favorable decisions from the government agencies they control. That’s what one of Massachusetts’ wealthiest residents, Amos Hostetter Jr., stepped right into — more than $2 million worth of bad timing and a smack of terrible optics.
Hostetter, a former cable television magnate, donated just over $2 million to the campaign to get a sweeping pro-charter school ballot question approved in the November 2016 election. Governor Charlie Baker was deeply invested in the campaign and appeared in advertisements for it.Hostetter’s donations were made at a time he and others were lobbying the Baker administration to block the construction of a hotel next to his harborside office.