Latest news with #pro-Kraft
Boston Globe
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Boston voters recently got an anonymous text slamming Mayor Wu. Here's who it came from.
There was no name attached, only a phone number — 617-514-2857 — and no way for recipients to know who sent it. But the purpose was clear: To tie Wu to the fallout from her decision to fire two City Hall employees arrested in a Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Segun Idowu is Mayor Michelle Wu's chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion. Matthew J. Lee Advertisement Yet, the real scandal may be that this anonymous text, sent to Boston voters in the midst of a heated mayor's race, is perfectly legal and largely unregulated. More than a decade ago, in the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling that barred limits on independent campaign spending, Advertisement 'Any disclosure in the form of a text message is optional,' said Geoff Foster, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, a nonpartisan group that advocates for transparent government. 'From our perspective, that's one of many loopholes dark money can still influence the opinions of voters.' The June 12 text was particularly crafty. By not asking anyone to vote for or against any candidate, the text feels ambiguous: Is it from a political campaign? A media outlet? A friend who's not saved in your contacts? I called the phone number several times over the course of a few days, always getting a 'User busy' signal. Google and online phone directories turned up nothing useful. Enough people got the missive that that But it sure smelled like a political ad. And if that was the case, there was one likely source. So I followed the money, straight to the super PAC backing Wu's challenger, Josh Kraft — already A spokesperson for 'Your City Your Future is reaching Boston voters through all media, including text messages, and has ensured all such communications were conducted in conformance with OCPF regulations,' according to the spokesperson. Mayoral candidate Josh Kraft held a press conference Monday morning to discuss bike lanes and roll out his transportation plan. Suzanne Kreiter I checked with OCPF, which could not comment on specific text messages but provided regulations indicating that the super PAC's anonymous political text followed the rules. A text can be anonymous, but if a campaign has paid for a communication, that expenditure should be disclosed in a campaign finance report. Advertisement Sure enough, The pro-Kraft super PAC, per state election rules, is not allowed to coordinate with Kraft or his campaign. A Kraft spokesperson was aware of the text but did not know who sent it. A Wu campaign spokesperson, in a statement, accused Kraft and his supporters of 'running a Trump-like grievance campaign focused on stoking fear and confusion to buy the election.' During last year's presidential election, voters were bombarded with political texts, often fund-raising asks making it easy to donate in just a couple of clicks. Text campaigns are effective because it's hard to ignore something on your phone, says Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail, a company that makes software to protect consumers from robocalls. The text campaigns are done by connecting voter registration rolls with phone numbers, and it can cost as little as two to three cents per text, said Quilici. 'It's not that hard to do,' he said, and 'it's pretty cheap.' The anonymous text wasn't the first sent by the pro-Kraft super PAC. In May, Boston residents received texts about how Wu is spending close to $100 million to renovate White Stadium for Boston Public Schools athletes and a new professional women's soccer team, while at the same time closing four schools. Advertisement That text was clearly labeled as coming from Your City Your Future and provided a link for more information. But the June 12 text, there was no such disclosure. And with this mayoral campaign expected to be most expensive ever, voters should brace themselves for more. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu addressed supporters during her reelection campaign launch at the Cyclorama at Boston Center for the Arts in Boston. Erin Clark As to whether lawmakers will update the campaign disclosure law to treat texts like other communications, state Senator John Keenan, who chairs the Joint Committee on Election Laws, said any entity or candidate who is registered with OCPF and sends a mass communication like a text should reveal who they are. What's more difficult is trying to come up with regulations for entities and individuals that are not registered while at the same time protecting their First Amendment right to anonymous political speech. 'Those are really tough ones,' said Keenan. It would be nice if the June 12 anonymous text attacking Wu was the first and last of this campaign, and that anyone who pays for a text campaign simply discloses who's behind it. But barring a quick change to the law, said retired University of Massachusetts Boston professor Maurice Cunningham, who tracks dark money in politics, that's unlikely. 'In politics, it isn't what's illegal that is the scandal,' he said, quoting longtime political journalist Michael Kinsley. 'It's what's legal.' Shirley Leung is a Business columnist. She can be reached at
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Super PACs flood Boston mayor's race with cash: Who's spending what
Just in time for the weather to warm up, super PACs backing Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and main challenger Josh Kraft are turning up the heat in the race for City Hall. All told, independent expenditure groups on either side of the already tense mayoral campaign recently have poured nearly $1 million into the contest, state records show. 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 who donated to a pro-Kraft super PAC. Two big donors to that 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. The pro-Kraft Your City, Your Future, meanwhile, 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. Read More: Boston Mayor Wu slams Kraft over claims White Stadium cost secretly spiked On Friday, Wu's reelection campaign went on the attack, singling out John Paulson, a supporter of President Donald Trump, who made a $100,000 contribution to the pro-Kraft super PAC earlier this month. Paulson is the president of the New York City-based hedge fund firm Paulson & Co. A report by Forbes put the investor's net worth at $3.8 billion. He made his money by 'betting against subprime mortgages at the peak of the 2007 credit bubble,' according to Forbes. Last year, Paulson notably threatened to pull his money from the market if former Vice President Kamala Harris prevailed over Trump, according to Vanity Fair. 'Every single day, Donald Trump and his administration attack Boston and everything that makes our city the greatest in the world. It's not enough that Trump and his minions attack our community; now they are trying to buy the city too,' Wu's campaign said in a statement. Under state law, campaigns and independent expenditure groups are forbidden from coordinating with each other. Kraft has previously dismissed accusations that he's trying to buy the race. '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.' Read More: Out-of-town money floods Boston mayor's race Through Friday, Wu's campaign was sitting on $2.3 million in cash on hand, state filings showed. Kraft, who injected $2 million of his own money into his campaign, was just behind at $1.95 million, state filings showed. Boston Mayor Wu slams Kraft over claims White Stadium cost secretly spiked Kraft and Wu clash over cost of White Stadium project Boston NAACP calls for pause on White Stadium renovation Read the original article on MassLive.
