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Boston Globe
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Can the Josh Kraft campaign be saved?
I certainly wasn't surprised to see that Kraft's campaign isn't getting significant traction with voters. But for a candidate with a war chest in the millions of dollars, name recognition, and an attack-dog PAC in his corner to be doing so poorly is shocking. I would have guessed he was down 20 points, not 30. Advertisement Before I get to the underwhelming Kraft campaign, let's give Wu her due. Her She has since moved very effectively to consolidate her support within a broad swath of constituencies. If you heard a few months ago that And her attacks on Kraft as a Advertisement I've never thought of Wu as enjoying Menino-level popularity or popular affection, but maybe that perception is outdated. She's never felt the love she's getting right now. Her campaign could hardly be going any better. Team Kraft responded to the bombshell poll with standard campaign bravado. 'Josh didn't get into the Mayor's race because of what polling says, and nothing has changed his focus on continuing to show up in Boston neighborhoods, talk to residents, and listen to the concerns of many people who are disappointed with this Mayor and the direction the city is going,' his campaign said in a statement. 'The entire campaign team is confident that as residents learn more about Josh, his background of service, and his ideas for the future of Boston, the numbers will move in his direction.' Note that nowhere does this statement dispute the poll's findings. What this poll lays bare is that nothing the Kraft campaign is doing is working. From the outset, it has placed its faith in the belief that Wu is unlikable. And that there is enough disgust around issues like bike lanes and the But they are clearly misreading the moment. Yes, Bostonians hate the city's terrible traffic. But they don't think Michelle Wu invented it, and they are clearly unmoved by Kraft's promise to freeze bike lanes. Along the same lines, Team Kraft has also been unable to whip up hysteria over crime. Wu likes to say we live in the safest big city in the country; experts say the superlative 'safest' is disputable. But what matters in this debate is that voters don't view violent crime as an urgent problem in need of fixing. Advertisement Ultimately, fear of crime isn't statistical; it's something voters feel in their bones. Boston residents don't feel unsafe. So Kraft hasn't found an effective line of attack. It's not that people think Wu is some perfect mayor - of course they don't. But they believe in where she's leading the city, and they don't see why Kraft would be an upgrade. Finally, voters appear to be wary that Kraft is trying to use his wealth to buy his way into office. According to campaign finance records, Kraft has raised well over $3 million for this race, not counting the millions a Super PAC - 'Your City, Your Future' - has raised to blanket the airwaves with anti-Wu ads on Kraft's behalf. Wu has attacked him relentlessly for trying to buy City Hall, and that seems to be effective. I firmly believe Kraft's camp erred by going so negative so early. Aggressively attacking Wu before voters had any sense of Kraft wasn't just ineffective - I think it rallied support for her. That partly explains why his numbers are so remarkably low. His campaign has been great - for Wu. The worst number in this poll for Kraft: Seven. That's the percentage of remaining undecided voters. That is the number that might force him to rethink this entire venture. Because if you're down 30 points and most voters have made up their minds, where do you go for your votes? Advertisement I'm not saying I expect Kraft to drop out. But the questions facing this campaign today are truly existential. Robert Kraft is a man who despises losing and hates throwing away money. He can't relish the prospect of dumping millions of dollars into a blowout loss, and I'm sure he has trusted people on his payroll who know how to analyze a poll. Josh Kraft is a dedicated, well-meaning civic figure. But what he isn't, to date, is much of a mayoral candidate. Yes, he has millions of dollars left to spend on this race. But all his riches haven't bought him much so far. Maybe this would be a good time to ask himself why that's likely to change. Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at
Boston Globe
19-06-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Make that another $1 million: Dueling Super PACs in Boston mayor's race rake in more cash
A separate super PAC backing Kraft remained busy, too. 'Your City, Your Future,' which has already dropped Taken together, the outside groups reported pulling in $973,101 between their newly filed reports. The contributions pushed the total raised by the two super PACs to more than $3.9 million through mid-June, with 'Your City, Your Future' — and its $3.16 million in contributions — accounting for the vast majority of that. Advertisement The 'Bold Boston' super PAC first formed in 2023, when it spent nearly $100,000 supporting a trio of Wu allies in their successful bids for city council. Advertisement It effectively re-emerged in mid-March, roughly a month after Kraft Mike Firestone has worked under Wu since she took the mayor's office in 2021. Karen Firestone has been a longtime contributor to Wu, whom she first donated to in 2013, and other state Democrats, including Governor Maura Healey, campaign finance records show. Efforts to reach Karen Firestone were not immediately successful Thursday. Spokespeople for 'Bold Boston' and Wu's campaign also didn't immediately comment. 'Bold Boston' also received $175,000 in early June from the Environmental League of Massachusetts Action Fund Independent Expenditure PAC, whose only donation so far this year was $150,000 in March from billionaire A slate of labor-aligned groups also donated heavily to the Wu-aligned group, including the 1199 SEIU MA PAC, which gave $100,000, and the Unite Here Tip State and Local Fund, which gave $150,000. The Green Advocacy Project, a Bay Area-based 501c(4) organization that gives heavily to The group took a variety of smaller donations, too, including $10,000 from Barbara Lee, a Cambridge philanthropist who's worked for decades helping get women elected office, and $25,000 from William Lee, a partner at WilmerHale, which Super PACs are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, and, unlike candidates themselves, they can take donations directly from businesses. They are barred, however, from coordinating with any candidates or their campaigns. Advertisement The attacks 'Bold Boston' has launched against Kraft echo the arguments Wu and her allies have made on the campaign trail: that Kraft, the son of Kraft, a longtime nonprofit leader, is loaning his campaign $2 million from his own wallet. The Kraft-aligned 'Your City, Your Future' super PAC has taken $1 million from New Balance chair and billionaire Jim Davis, as well as billionaire businessman Paulson, who gave $100,000 Matt Stout can be reached at
Boston Globe
11-06-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Super PAC aligned with Michelle Wu launches first television ad as spending ramps up in Boston mayor's race
'Michelle Wu — experience money can't buy," it concludes. Advertisement The ad echoes arguments Wu and her allies have made on the campaign trail — that Kraft is trying to buy his way into office and has ties to Republicans who are loathed in Boston. Kraft, for his part, has sought to present himself as his own person, and distance himself from the ties his father, Related : Advertisement The six-figure ad spend by the Wu-aligned PAC is orders of magnitude less than has been spent so far by the rival super PAC backing Kraft. That outside spending group, called Your City, Your Future, has reported spending Super PACs are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, and, unlike candidates themselves, they can take donations directly from businesses. They are barred, however, from coordinating with any candidates or their campaigns. New Balance chair and billionaire Jim Davis has already The top donors to the Wu-aligned Bold Boston PAC include unions and environmental groups, according to campaign finance records and a news release from the PAC. Advertisement Emma Platoff can be reached at
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Super PAC coordination allegations heat up Boston's mayoral showdown
In an increasingly antagonistic Boston mayoral race, the two frontrunner candidates are now facing accusations of campaign finance violations on both sides. In a letter to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance on Tuesday, 13 officers and members of Democratic ward committees from throughout Boston asked the agency to investigate Democratic City Hall hopeful Josh Kraft's campaign to determine whether it illegally coordinated with the super PAC Your City, Your Future. The letter followed reporting by the Boston Globe and Commonwealth Beacon this week that two companies owned by local political consultant Jonathan Karush had been hired separately by the campaign and the PAC. The letter called the connections between the two 'flagrant and extensive.' In a response on Wednesday, Kraft's campaign sent its own letter to OCPF, accusing Mayor Michelle Wu of the exact same thing during her 2021 run for office. They also claimed she was misusing public funds during the current race, having City Hall staff perform campaign-related tasks during business hours. 'Her actions in the face of a serious and credible challenger are unprecedented and a slap in the face to the people of Boston,' Kraft Campaign Manager Brandon Scheutz wrote. As the Globe first reported this week, Karush built a website for the Kraft campaign as president of Liberty Concepts Inc., which he founded in 2000. At the same time, CP Campaigns, a company Karush formed in March and which shares office space with Liberty Concepts, handles digital advertising for Your City, Your Future. 'Any claim that close business associates O'Connor, Keyser, and Karush have shared no communications about Josh Kraft and his campaign is implausible,' the Democratic ward committee members wrote in their letter Tuesday. While individual donors can only contribute a maximum of $1,000 per year to a particular political candidate, there is no limit on the amount they can give to a super PAC. But under state law, independent expenditure political action committees, commonly known as super PACs, are forbidden from coordinating with any candidate or other non-elected political committee. The state regulations governing contribution limits say two political committees may be considered the same if they 'make contributions to one or more of the same candidates or political committees and if ... the committees are determined to have been established, financed, maintained or controlled by the same person (or persons) or entity (or entities).' The examples listed as evidence that two entities are the same include shared personnel and office space, though this does not automatically mean that they would legally be considered the same. Keyser Public Strategies, the firm advising Kraft's campaign, lists Karush as a member of its team on its website, though the firm told the Globe that he is not an employee. Karush told the Globe that though he is the principal owner of CP Campaigns, he had not personally performed any work for the super PAC, and there is a 'firewall' between that work and what he does for the Kraft campaign, which a campaign spokesperson also confirmed to the newspaper. 'I personally have no contact with the PAC in accordance with the firewall ensuring there is no coordination,' Karush told the Globe. Neither Karush nor Your City, Your Future immediately responded to requests for comment Wednesday morning. Rebecca St. Amand, the super PAC's chair, told Commonwealth Beacon that they had had 'no dealings with Jonathan Karush.' According to OCPF records, Your City, Your Future has paid $425,000 to CP Campaigns since April. The PAC has spent more than $2.4 million on advertising since its formation, much of it on negative ads targeted at Wu. The PAC has taken in major donations from New Balance Chairman Jim Davis and Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, who each gave $1 million to support Kraft's campaign. Rubin and a number of other donors to the PAC are associates of the candidate's father, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Read more: Out-of-town money floods Boston mayor's race The Democratic ward committee members also took issue with Robert Kraft's campaign activities in their Tuesday letter, writing that the football team owner had seemingly solicited donations to both the campaign and the PAC. 'This race is unlike any we've seen in Boston's long history. More outside money—from Trump supporters and out-of-state billionaires—has already been raised and spent to attack Mayor Wu and support Josh Kraft than in any other mayoral campaign," they wrote. 'This unprecedented flood of coordinated money threatens our state's strong track record and demands action.' Josh Kraft has previously acknowledged his father's likely requests for funds from friends, saying during an appearance on GBH's Boston Public Radio last month, 'He's a dad, right? ... I mean, I'd do that for my kid.' In his letter Wednesday, Scheutz, Kraft's campaign manager, claimed that the campaign had 'received numerous reports' of city staff pitching campaign stories to the media and responding to campaign-related inquiries, collecting signatures to qualify the mayor for the ballot, drafting remarks for her April campaign launch, appearing at political events and 'calling non-profit leaders, community leaders, and business leaders ... to demand they support Mayor Wu's campaign and avoid appearing with, or meeting with Josh Kraft, and threatening to pull city grant funding if they don't comply.' As evidence, he compared the size of Wu's campaign team—OCPF filings show just two employees and no campaign office—to that of Kraft, who has a campaign headquarters in Nubian Square and 29 paid staff and consultants. Scheutz also claimed that Wu and her senior staff use secure messaging apps like Signal to communicate, 'for the sole reason that the messages are deleted regularly and can't be disclosed as part of public records requests.' In addition, Scheutz wrote that in 2021, a pro-Wu super PAC, Boston Turnout Project, hired Sharon Durkan, now a City Councilor, who had previously worked as a fundraising consultant for the Wu campaign. 'Without question, Ms. Durkan would have been in possession of proprietary and non-public information that she had gained from the Wu Committee as to the identities and giving proclivities of and contact information for, the most well-heeled financial supporters of Wu,' he wrote, suggesting that this constituted coordination between the campaign and the super PAC. Scheutz did not address the allegations against the Kraft campaign in his letter. The Wu campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning, but in a fundraising email sent to supporters Tuesday evening, they alluded to Your City, Your Future's activities, referring to the group as a 'dark-money Super PAC.' 'Kraft and his family connections are attempting to buy this race – but Boston is not for sale," they wrote. Out-of-town money floods Boston mayor's race Yes, immigration is a flash point in Boston's mayoral race. A debate confirmed it | Bay State Briefing Mayor Wu slams rival Josh Kraft over big bucks infusion: 'Boston is not for sale' Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mayor Wu slams rival Josh Kraft over big bucks infusion: ‘Boston is not for sale'
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu didn't waste any time Tuesday making her feelings known over news that rival Josh Kraft was not only dropping big bucks on his campaign, but also was getting a leg-up from a super PAC on top of that. "Most Bostonians don't have a billionaire father to buy them a condo so they can move in to run for an office they've never voted for, live in a ward they don't know, and spend millions from their family wealth and connections to try to buy the election," the Democratic incumbent said in a statement released through her campaign. A bit of background: Kraft, a political newcomer and the son of billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, announced last week that he was putting $2 million of his personal cash toward his campaign for City Hall, according to published reports. Late last week, Your City, Your Future, a pro-Kraft super PAC, disclosed through a state filing that it was spending $1.42 million on text messages, digital, TV and radio advertisements, along with billboards, supporting the challenger. That personal donation effectively erased Wu's fundraising lead. Heading into last week, the Democratic incumbent was sitting on more than $2 million in her campaign accounts, compared to Kraft's $151, 161. "The power of incumbency is a real thing,' Kraft said in a Friday statement to The Boston Herald. 'While Mayor Wu appears to be running her campaign out of City Hall, I have a fully staffed campaign team, including a campaign headquarters in Nubian Square.' 'While my campaign just reached the $1 million mark in donations, a modern campaign that includes a strong and robust field organization requires more resources than I can raise in such a short time frame,' he said, adding, 'I have never felt more optimistic about my campaign and what lies ahead.' Wu fired back on Tuesday, saying the senior Kraft and his "fellow Trump associates are trying to buy Josh a job by trashing our city with millions of dollars of negative attack ads. And without grassroots support for his campaign of half-measures and grievances, Josh Kraft is now having to self-fund his campaign with millions more from his family wealth too." 'This is an unprecedented early start to outside money raining down on a Boston city election as Kraft runs the most negative mayoral campaign in generations,' Wu continued. Wu and Kraft, who officially made the 2025 ballot last week, have spent most of the campaign exchanging jabs on social media and in dueling public statements. That happened most recently during a forum earlier this month that took in issues ranging from the city's prohibitive housing costs to public safety. Here's who's on the ballot for Boston mayor, City Council — so far Boston mayoral candidates clash over city budget, housing and transit in first forum Angela Menino, wife of former Boston Mayor Tom Menino, endorses Michelle Wu for reelection Read the original article on MassLive.
