Maura Healey and Michelle Wu – who were supposed to usher in a new era of progressive politics – are playing the same old-school Massachusetts cronyism game, putting ex-flames and political allies in plum positions on the public payroll.

The day the Democratic governor nominated her former romantic partner for a seat on the Supreme Judicial Court, the Herald confirmed that former Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty and his former aide have landed sweet, high-paying jobs in the Wu administration at the Boston Water and Sewer Commission.

Flaherty, a former unsuccessful mayoral candidate who just retired from the council this year, is now making $164,000 a year as deputy general counsel for the BWSC – long a prime place for city hacks to land a job. He was hired on Jan. 16, according to a BWSC spokesman.

“This is what other Deputy General counsels make and is in keeping with salaries for similar positions across comparable government agencies and authorities,” BWSC spokesman Stephen Mulloney said.

Flaherty’s longtime former council community liaison, Paul Sullivan, was also hired Jan. 16 as assistant deputy counsel at $139,050 a year, records show. Flaherty and Sullivan’s salaries are a significant bump from their council pay and will sweeten their pensions.

Wu also rewarded Flaherty last year with a highly-coveted seat on the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority board of directors.

Though more of a moderate, Flaherty was still overall an ally of Wu’s on the council.

The Water and Sewer Commission is controlled by the mayor, who picks the three commissioners to oversee the agency. The Boston City Council, where Flaherty served, has final say over the BWSC commissioners.

With his jobs on the MCCA and BWSC, that means Flaherty, of South Boston, has a significant hand in development decisions in the city of Boston.

It shows that Wu, who portrays herself as representing a new era in Boston city politics, knows how to play the old-school patronage game as well as anyone from a previous era.

Healey, meanwhile, took the brazen step on Wednesday of naming her former girlfriend, Gabrielle Wolohojian, to the state SJC.

The far-left Healey apparently feels she can get away with putting an ex-galpal on the state’s highest court – a patronage move no male politician would probably even dare try in this day and age.

“There is no one more qualified, I am very comfortable in saying that,” Healey said Wednesday. “I don’t want the fact that she had a personal relationship with me to deprive the commonwealth of a person who’s most qualified for the position.”

No doubt the weak Governor’s Council will broom the appointment through despite the shady ethical appearance of it, and the Democratic-controlled Legislature won’t say a word of dissent.

That’s the way things work in Massachusetts, where Democratic patronage politics is alive and well.