2025 Boston Mayoral Race

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Josh Kraft has lots of ground to make up in the Boston mayor’s race - The Boston Globe

A longtime nonprofit leader, first-time political candidate, and son of the billionaire owner of the Patriots, Josh Kraft has struggled to define himself.
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The battle lines have hardly budged since he entered the race in February. From the start, Wu cast Kraft as a son of privilege seeking to lead a city he’s barely lived in. Kraft, meanwhile, has characterized Wu as an out of touch leader who doesn’t listen and has failed to solve the city’s most pressing problems.
There is evidence Wu’s framing, not Kraft’s, is resonating with the electorate so far. Her favorability ratings far exceed his, and she’s proven enduringly popular despite Boston’s challenges.
Kraft has spent aggressively to change that perception: $1.9 million in July alone, nearly nine times as much as Wu, much of it on television ads. Kraft is pitching himself as a policy-focused peacemaker, blanketing the airwaves with ads that speak to his character, including a new commercial of him explaining his decision to pursue nonprofit work rather than joining the family business. (His father, Robert Kraft, is the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots.)
[...]
To some political consultants, though, more money is not enough to win.
“Someone has to be honest with him and say, ‘You’re not gonna be mayor,’” said Scott Ferson, who worked for Essaibi George in 2021 but is not involved in this year’s race. “People have solidified their opinions of him. He had a short window to define himself, and it closed pretty quickly.”
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Josh Kraft says ‘maybe I will, maybe I won’t’ when asked on radio about releasing more info on his personal finances - The Boston Globe

The mayoral candidate revealed that the $6.3 million he earned last year came entirely from the Kraft Group, his family’s business empire.
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When he launched his campaign in February, Kraft told the Globe he would release his tax returns. Months later, he reversed course, releasing only a two-page summary of his 2023 and 2024 taxes. The documents showed Kraft earned $6.3 million last year, but did not specify the sources of that income. A spokesperson said it included salary, interest, dividends, and capital gains.
[...]
The radio hosts also pressed Kraft Wednesday on whether he plans to put more of his personal wealth into his campaign. As of the end of July, Kraft had less than $150,000 cash on hand, meaning he will likely need to cut himself another check for seven figures to keep his staff on payroll and his ads on television.
“How much more are you going to lend your campaign?” Braude asked.
“I don’t know,” Kraft said. ”I’ll decide when I decide."
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I honestly had no idea that Josh Kraft was an old man because I haven't read articles about him. I thought he was like a 20-30 year old Buttigieg type character, like some rich-kid upstart type. Interesting.
 
Ha, nope 58 years old (Bob is 84!) and pretty clearly being supported exclusively by family money. Why someone with modest talent would give up maybe the best gig on earth (private rich kid with billionaire father who can be supported for 5 lifetimes) only to debase themselves publicly by refusing to disclose tax returns baffles me. Just go be a rich guy! Getting blown out and losing tons of money at the same time sounds like an awful way to spend time.
 
New ad just dropped from their campaign - it's all meaningless typical centrist Democrat dribble.
 
Josh Kraft distresses me not because he is running an obviously ill-conceived campaign against one of the few Democratic leaders in the Trump II era, but because our contemporary billionaires are so blinkered as to ignore the obvious path to power, adoration, and immortality.

Who was the mayor in 1898? I can’t even guess. Can you even name a Bostonian who was alive in 1898? Cy Young? Was he on the Sox then?

Oh wait, one person I can think of is Isabella Stewart Gardner. A woman who used her immense wealth to collect treasures from around the world and create a public temple for the arts in her city.

Is there anything stopping Josh Kraft from doing the same thing after Bob croaks and leaves him a few billion? Even if it’s totally cynical (which, in the case of many of the Gilded Age billionaires, it was), does it matter? He doesn’t know anything about art? It doesn’t matter! He can hire someone who does! Or don’t do art! “Hey I love movies so I’m building a nice independent cinema and naming it after myself.” Make a museum, a concert hall, a huge library, any grand civic gesture, name it after yourself, and people will think fondly of the name “Josh Kraft” 130 years from now, long after the name “Michelle Wu” has been forgotten.

Or run for mayor now, get completely crushed by a superior leader and politician, poison your name, and get forgotten the minute you croak.
 
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Jeremi said:
Josh Kraft distresses me not because he is running an obviously ill-conceived campaign against one of the few Democratic leaders in the Trump II era, but because our contemporary billionaires are so blinkered as to ignore the obvious path to power, adoration, and immortality.

Who was the mayor in 1898? I can’t even guess. Can you even name a Bostonian who was alive in 1898? Cy Young? Was he on the Sox then?

Oh wait, one person I can think of is Isabella Stewart Gardner. A woman who used her immense wealth to collect treasures from around the world and create a public temple for the arts in her city.

Is there anything stopping Josh Kraft from doing the same thing after Bob croaks and leaves him a few billion? Even if it’s totally cynical (which, in the case of many of the Gilded Age billionaires, it was), does it matter? He doesn’t know anything about art? It doesn’t matter! He can hire someone who does! Or don’t do art! “Hey I love movies so I’m building a nice independent cinema and naming it after myself.” Make a museum, a concert hall, a huge library, any grand civic gesture, name it after yourself, and people will think fondly of the name “Josh Kraft” 130 years from now, long after the name “Michelle Wu” has been forgotten.

Or run for mayor now, get completely crushed by a superior leader and politician, poison your name, and get forgotten the minute you croak.
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Josiah Quincy III 1896-1899.
 
Ironically the only person I could think of without looking it up was Henry Cabot Lodge...a politician. Very embarrassed I couldn't think of anyone associated with the Tremont St Tunnel.

The point is well made/taken and its something I think about often. Reflective of the heavy shift towards individualism that US culture took over the 20th century and is reaching its extreme in the post-covod 21st.
 
Jeremi said:
Josh Kraft distresses me not because he is running an obviously ill-conceived campaign against one of the few Democratic leaders in the Trump II era, but because our contemporary billionaires are so blinkered as to ignore the obvious path to power, adoration, and immortality.

Who was the mayor in 1898? I can’t even guess. Can you even name a Bostonian who was alive in 1898? Cy Young? Was he on the Sox then?

Oh wait, one person I can think of is Isabella Stewart Gardner. A woman who used her immense wealth to collect treasures from around the world and create a public temple for the arts in her city.

Is there anything stopping Josh Kraft from doing the same thing after Bob croaks and leaves him a few billion? Even if it’s totally cynical (which, in the case of many of the Gilded Age billionaires, it was), does it matter? He doesn’t know anything about art? It doesn’t matter! He can hire someone who does! Or don’t do art! “Hey I love movies so I’m building a nice independent cinema and naming it after myself.” Make a museum, a concert hall, a huge library, any grand civic gesture, name it after yourself, and people will think fondly of the name “Josh Kraft” 130 years from now, long after the name “Michelle Wu” has been forgotten.

Or run for mayor now, get completely crushed by a superior leader and politician, poison your name, and get forgotten the minute you croak.
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The other cynical take is Boston would be much more hospitable to Kraft family development and other business enterprises if Josh becomes mayor. Don’t need talents or legacy if you just grease the skids of the family business.
 
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Josh Kraft parts ways with top advisers, in major shakeup to campaign staff - The Boston Globe

The news comes as Kraft faces an uphill battle in his bid to unseat Mayor Michelle Wu, who is seen as the frontrunner in this year's race.
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Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft is parting ways with two of the most prominent voices on his campaign staff, a spokesperson said Wednesday evening, a major shakeup to Kraft’s operation just days before the Sept. 9 preliminary election.
Will Keyser and Eileen O’Connor, a married couple who work together as political consultants at Keyser Public Strategies, “have mutually parted ways” from the campaign, a spokesperson said Wednesday evening.
[...]
It’s not the first shakeup to Kraft’s campaign.
Two other strategists, Chanda Smart and Ann Chinchilla DeGeorge, left the campaign in July. Chinchilla DeGeorge wrote on Facebook at the time that while Kraft is “a great guy and a friend,” she does “not agree with his campaign leadership team’s direction and strategy.”
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When’s the last time a mayor ran unopposed? Because Kraft should probably just drop out. The primary is going to be an absolute humiliation.
 
HenryAlan said:
It's interesting just how irrelevant Annissa has become.
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She held that endorsement till the day before the primary...after the big Kraft staff exodus that immediately preceded the news dump about the 50-point polling deficit.

Yeah...that timing is really going to sway people. She had the option to say "Anyone but Wu" if that's what she really meant. I don't think helping Kraft was necessarily the goal there.
 
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