The race for mayor of Boston kicked into excessive gear final week, with challenger Josh Kraft declaring and the incumbent Michelle Wu making strikes to defend her report.
Challenger Josh Kraft builds out his workforce
Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft has added 4 advisors to his marketing campaign, which described the brand new hires as collectively bringing “a range of diverse skills, relationships and knowledge of the city.”
The brand new advisors had been introduced Friday, days after the son of billionaire New England Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft and head of his household’s philanthropic arm formally introduced his bid to unseat first-term Mayor Michelle Wu.
“Assembling a diverse and talented team is going to be critical to the success of our campaign,” Josh Kraft, 57, mentioned in a press release. “We are assembling a team that have deep and meaningful connections in the communities throughout the city, and are as good at listening as they are at talking.”
Chanda Good, co-founder of the OnyxGroup Improvement LLC, a Boston-based black-women-owned brokerage, planning and growth enterprise, is the Kraft marketing campaign’s new senior group advisor. She has 20 years of company consulting expertise and beforehand sat on Wu’s hire stabilization advisory board.
Jacquetta Van Zandt, co-host of the Politics and Prosecco podcast, was named senior communications advisor. She has a “passion for equity” and labored as a strategist with expertise on Capitol Hill and in state and federal campaigns.
Ann Chinchilla DeGeorge, who beforehand labored for Metropolis Councilor Julia Mejia and ran ex-U.S. Legal professional Rachael Rollins’ marketing campaign for Suffolk District Legal professional, was employed as a Kraft marketing campaign advisor. She has labored for progressive political campaigns and as government director of the Boston Schooling Advisory Council.
Michael Kineavy, who suggested former Mayor Thomas Menino for greater than 20 years, was employed as Kraft’s full-time senior marketing campaign advisor. He beforehand labored because the Metropolis of Boston’s chief of coverage and planning, and for the previous decade has been the chief working officer on the Cronin Group.
Good, Van Zandt and DeGeorge stay in Roxbury. Kineavy resides in South Boston.
Incumbent Michelle Wu defends her report, as allies again her bid
Whereas Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has but to formally announce her bid for re-election, her marketing campaign rapidly responded to her opponent Josh Kraft’s official bid by releasing a video touting her accomplishments and rolling out a slew of endorsements.
Wu’s marketing campaign launched a video Wednesday, a day after Kraft’s formal announcement, that boasts her first-term accomplishments.
Per the video, Wu has focused investments which have made housing extra inexpensive and residential possession extra attainable, led to safer and cleaner streets, diminished the rat inhabitants, improved Boston Public Faculties’ services, made the town greener by means of climate-friendly initiatives, and improved public security to some extent the place she considers Boston to be the most secure main metropolis within the nation.
“In Boston, when we come together, nothing is impossible,” Wu says within the video.
The video’s launch got here a day after Kraft took intention at what he sees as Wu’s failure to observe by means of on main marketing campaign guarantees, saying the mayor was “0-3” on making the MBTA free for Boston residents, putting in a hire management program, and launching a Inexperienced New Deal for Boston’s faculties.
Wu hasn’t formally launched her re-election marketing campaign, however has mentioned on a number of events that she plans to run for a second time period.
Her marketing campaign additionally unveiled a sequence of endorsements from labor teams and elected officers this week.
Wu has obtained endorsements from Metropolis Councilors Sharon Durkan, Enrique Pepén, Henry Santana and Benjamin Weber, all of whom had been endorsed by the mayor within the 2023 Metropolis Council elections. Durkan, Pepén and Santana beforehand labored for Wu’s marketing campaign or administration.
The mayor has additionally obtained early endorsements from state Reps. Rob Consalvo, Invoice MacGregor, Dan Ryan, Adrian Madaro and Russell Holmes, state Sen. William Brownsberger, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Nonprofit ELM Motion Fund and labor unions UNITE HERE Native 26, AFSCME Native 93, SEIU Native 888 and Laborers Native 223 have additionally endorsed Wu. AFSCME and SEIU are the 2 largest metropolis worker unions.
“Mayor Wu’s commitment to growing our economy from the ground up and supporting middle-class families shows the kind of leadership Boston needs,” Thomas McKeever, president of SEIU Native 888, mentioned. “We’re fired up and ready to mobilize.”
