L to R, Kravitz, Neer, and Blandy, at the 2008 DNC.
Blue Mass Group is the most widely read independent political blog in New England.
The site was founded in 2004 by David Kravitz, Bob Neer and Charley Blandy to provide reality-based commentary on politics and policy in Massachusetts and around the nation.
Kravitz holds degrees from Swarthmore College, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the University of Michigan Law School. As a lawyer, he served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and then-Appeals Court Judge Stephen Breyer. He has also worked in the Massachusetts Governor’s Office of Legal Counsel and in private law firms, specializing in appellate litigation. As an opera singer, he has performed around the country with solo appearances in such well-known venues as Boston’s Symphony and Jordan Halls and New York’s Carnegie and Avery Fisher Halls.
Neer taught history and philosophy at Columbia University from 2006 to 2016. He graduated from Harvard College in 1986, studied Southeast Asian politics as a Fulbright Scholar at the National University of Singapore in 1987, and received a J.D. from the School of Law and an M.A. in U.S. History from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia in 1991. He received his M.Phil. in 2007 and his Ph.D. in 2011, also from Columbia. He has founded, developed and sold television distribution, media consulting and web businesses in London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Singapore and Boston. He is the author of Napalm: An American Biography, published by Belknap Press.
Blandy graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in religion, and received a Master of Music degree from Indiana University. He is a professional classical singer who has performed widely in the Boston area and throughout the US. He also teaches voice. He is married with two children, and lives in Arlington.