12.02.2024

Globe’s outrageously uncritical coverage of Thanksgiving Day protests | New nonprofit owner, expansion plans, for Cambridge Day | As Ed Markey ramps up attacks on private equity, here’s one thing he’s not publicizing | Local newspaper chain Gannett and its mountain of debt | Quick hits |

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Old pals? As Markey rails in Washington against private equity giants amid the Steward mess, campaign contributions tell a much different story

Apparently, the state’s junior senator was for the private equity sector before he was against it.

Sen. Ed Markey been blasting away lately at private equity for the role the sector played in the whole Steward Health Care debacle.

And Markey has singled out industry giant Apollo Global Management for its role as a top financier of the now-bankrupt for-profit health care chain, which has closed two local hospitals while leaving others reeling.

But long before Markey was private equity’s sworn enemy, he was a favorite of the sector when it came to campaign contributions.

Executives and others tied to Apollo and Blackstone - another private equity firm whose ties to health care are now under scrutiny - pumped more than $113,000 into Markey’s campaign offers from 2019 to 2024, according to figures provided to Contrarian Boston by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Sen. Ed Markey touting one of his favorite causes

That makes the two private equity firms the second largest source of campaign cash for Markey, behind only the law firm WilmerHale.

Shuttered and bankrupt hospitals are bad enough.

But Apollo, which alone accounted for more than $57,000 in contributions to Markey’s campaign, has been a lead player in a deal that helped wreck another vulnerable industry: local newspapers.

Apollo financed the $1.8 billion merger in 2019 that turned USA Today owner Gannett into the largest owner of local newspapers in Massachusetts and across the country.

Buried under a mountain of debt, Gannett has since shuttered newspapers across the country, including 20 weeklies in Massachusetts, some with a century or more of history behind them.

Meanwhile, Gannett turned many of its remaining weeklies, like the Cambridge Chronicle, into zombie papers, with little or no staff and no local news.

Most of the contributions from Apollo and Blackstone execs to Markey were back in 2020, when the senator was last running for reelection.

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

The 78-year-old Markey recently announced he will be running for another term in 2026.

A spokesperson for Markey could not be reached for comment.

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