The listening sessions in Holyoke and Springfield were open to members of the public but closed to the press.
Gov. Charlie Baker's Democratic opponents in the 2018 gubernatorial race all criticized the governor for closing meetings of his Latino advisory commission to the press.
"Baker's team badly fumbled this," said environmentalist and entrepreneur Bob Massie. "Inviting the public and excluding the press is not defensible. That's how Trump does business, not how we do it in Massachusetts."
The Republican/MassLive.com reported that a commission to advise the governor on Latino affairs recently held listening sessions in Holyoke and Springfield, which were open to members of the public but closed to the press. The commission is exempt from the state's open meeting laws. The governor's office said the sessions were by invitation only and were not supposed to be listed as public events. But a state staffer mistakenly included them on public press releases and mayors in both Springfield and Holyoke advertised them as open.
The decision angered First Amendment advocates and some Western Massachusetts leaders. It also angered Baker's potential rivals.
Former health care CEO and state budget chief Jay Gonzalez said the meetings should have been open to the public.
"The work of the commission is going to be better informed and people are going to be better informed about what its decision is and what it's recommending to the governor if there's open access to it," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said the Latino advisory commission "is doing important work, and the press and public should have access to what they're doing."
Former Newton Mayor Setti Warren was the first of the three Democrats to respond to stories in The Republican detailing the exclusion. Warren said Wednesday, "It is disturbing, but not surprising that the governor banned reporters from a public meeting. Massachusetts has among the worst public records and transparency laws in the nation and Gov. Baker has repeatedly refused to subject his office to the same transparency standards that the rest of state government follow."