These are the Big 3 issues to watch in Boston's mayoral race — and one sleeper

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25-06-2025

If you live in Greater Boston and you've been within 10 feet of your television, laptop or cellphone over the last couple of weeks, then you're well aware that the race for Boston City Hall is in full swing.
Forces aligned with incumbent Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu and her main Democratic challenger, philanthropist Josh Kraft, have launched an all-out assault on voters' attention spans with a series of attack advertisements on TV, online and by text message.
More about that in a minute.
But first, with Election Day still four months away and Massachusetts in the grip of its first summer heat wave (100 degrees!), the chances are pretty good that you're thinking less about politics and more about trips to the pool, that vacation on the Cape and how you're going to get the kids to day camp.
So, before you unplug entirely and stop paying attention until the traditional post-Labor Day reboot, here's a quick look at the Top 3 issues that have shaped the campaign so far, and one sleeper that you should keep at the back of your mind as well.
Spend even a couple of minutes with a Bostonian, and it's pretty much guaranteed that talk will soon turn to the city's preposterously high housing costs.
How high?
The median home price in the city in May was $845,986, a 4.5% increase over the prior 12 months, according to Rocket Mortgage data. The average rent (a different metric) was $3,767, according to RentCafe data. But rents in some neighborhoods, such as Back Bay, Beacon Hill and the South End, are much higher.
So, it's also not surprising, then, that the topic dominated a mayoral forum last month.
Wu and Kraft both said they supported some form of rent stabilization. Unlike the incumbent, however, Kraft said he opposed a transfer fee on high-value real estate transactions.
Critics have charged that Kraft's embrace of rent control may be a calculated move, since the issue is a winner with city voters.
In 2023, Wu unsuccessfully pitched the Legislature on a plan that would have capped annual rent increases at 10% or the inflation rate, plus 6% — whichever was lower, according to published reports.
Kraft's plan, which would be voluntary, asks landlords to cap rents at the inflation rate, plus 5%, for a decade, GBH News reported.
'[Kraft's proposal] is not rent control, but the fact that he's proposing it shows how significant an issue housing has become for the city,' Josh Zakim, a former city councilor who now runs a housing advocacy group, told The Boston Globe. 'It's the biggest issue facing the city and the commonwealth, and I don't think you can run a serious campaign for public office here without a plan to address it.'
The two also have very different visions for increasing the city's stock of affordable housing, though they both agree that it's badly needed.
One policy at issue is inclusionary zoning, which requires new residential developments with seven or more units to set aside at least 20% of units as affordable housing.
Kraft has said he believes a 13% threshold is more reasonable.
Public safety and crime — particularly in Boston's downtown core — also has emerged as one of the key flash points in the race.
Kraft has vowed to clean up the open-air drug market at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, an area locally known as 'Mass and Cass.'
He's also promised to take the same approach to the city's Downtown Crossing neighborhood, which has been beset by rising crime and addiction challenges.
In April, Kraft called for a mix of increased law enforcement, as well as what he described as a 'recovery-first' approach to helping people living with addiction and housing and other services to get people off the street.
Wu, who has repeatedly stressed that Boston is among the safest big cities in the nation, countered that 'some of what has been put forward in [Kraft's] so-called 'plan' are items that already have been in progress, and that the [Boston] police department and our Public Health Commission and the city have already implemented. Some are points that we have evaluated and do not believe would move us in the right direction.'
Wu also used that debate as cover to bring up one of her favorite criticisms: That Kraft, despite working in the city for decades at the Boys & Girls Club, is still a newcomer to city politics.
'Overall, I think what's concerning here is that there's, you know, this isn't a new issue, and we're not parachuting into a conversation,' Wu told GBH's 'Boston Public Radio' program earlier this year. 'I've had the chance as a city councilor and now as mayor, to be involved from day one and within the first two months of our administration.'
As one legendary Boston pol, the late Tip O'Neill, once noted: All politics is local. And it doesn't get much more local than the hotly debated plan to redevelop the historic White Stadium in Franklin Park.
Wu and Kraft, the son of billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, have most recently sparred over the cost of the redeveloped stadium, which will be home to Boston's new professional women's soccer team.
Kraft has claimed the city will be on the hook for $170 million for construction and associated costs. That's just about double the $90 million price tag offered by Wu's office.
Pressed for specifics, Kraft recently said that 'folks on the inside at City Hall' had passed along the higher estimate.
In an interview with WBUR on Tuesday, Wu called Kraft's math on the stadium 'quite irresponsible.' She told the station his numbers are 'not real.'
' Honesty and integrity are really important,' Wu told WBUR. 'To pull something out without context, and misuse that, and apply something that's a completely false context, I think says a lot.'
Away from the numbers, the fight over White Stadium has become a proxy for what Kraft says is one of the fundamental issues of Wu's administration: That Wu does not heed city residents' concerns.
A group of Franklin Park neighbors has voiced their concern about bringing hectic professional athletic competitions to the public park. Some critics, Kraft included, contend the city is giving away a public facility to a private team that will prevent full access for Boston's student-athletes.
Wu has defended the project, also the target of court fights, saying it will bring badly needed new facilities for city school students who will have access to the stadium 'for 15 hours per day, more than 345 days of the year.'
Under an agreement with the city, Boston Legacy FC, will use the faciliy for 20 games and 20 practices each year.
'I will not apologize for investing nearly $100 million into this community, into Black and Brown communities, into our students, and into the [Boston Public Schools] BPS,' she said, according to GBH News. 'We deserve this, and we deserve to have the opportunity that generation after generation has passed us by.'
We'll stipulate up front that campaigns are won and lost on how effectively candidates connect with voters and articulate their respective visions.
But if you really want to know what seismic forces are shaping a campaign, follow the money.
Super PACs supporting both Wu and Kraft have flooded the mayoral contest with cash, recently pouring nearly $1 million into the campaign.
The pro-Kraft 'Your City, Your Future,' which counts Fanatics owner Michael Rubin, New Balance Chairperson Jim Davis, and Boston Celtics minority owner Rob Hale among its biggest backers, reported raising $230,100 between May 30 and June 18, state filings show.
That comes on top of the $2.4 million the super PAC raised in the opening months of the race. That money has underwritten a barrage of attack advertisements.
The pro-Wu super PAC Bold Boston reported raising $743,000 between Jan. 1 and June 12, according to a report filed with the state's Office of Campaign and Political Finance. The group reported spending $256,114.
The money underwrote a campaign commercial highlighting supporters of President Donald Trump, who donated to a pro-Kraft super PAC.
Two big donors to the pro-Wu super PAC included the political arms of the Environmental League of Massachusetts and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who respectively donated $175,000 and $50,000, records showed.
Out-of-town money also has poured into the contest, according to a MassLive analysis of campaign donations. As of June 3, 45% of Wu's donations came from Boston residents compared to 32% for Kraft.
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State filings showed Wu sitting on $2.3 million in her campaign war chest through Tuesday.
Kraft, who injected $2 million of his own money into his campaign, was just behind at $1.95 million, state filings showed.
MassLive Reporters Will Katcher and Tréa Lavery contributed to this analysis.
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Read the original article on MassLive.