Boston Mayor Michelle Wu called on her opponent Josh Kraft to provide greater financial disclosure and questioned his fitness to lead Boston.
Kraft’s campaign released a statement Wednesday, accusing Wu of telling “lies” about the purchase of his home and his voting record in Boston. That statement said Kraft bought his home, a condominium in the North End, “with his own money,” and that he has voted in “multiple elections” as a Boston resident since acquiring that property in 2023.
“The facts really matter, and here we’re seeing again just this constant stretching of the truth or outright lies really reflective of what we see more in federal politics — usually,” Wu said on GBH’s Boston Public Radio Wednesday.
The last mayoral election in Boston, launching Wu into the top job, was four years ago.
“Our voting records are public, right? There’s no question here what happened versus what didn’t happen,” the mayor said. “The voting record shows that [Kraft] moved into the city in late 2023 and then voted in the 2024 election cycle, which was a presidential and state election cycle. So maybe they’re counting the primaries separate from the final or whatever, but he’s never voted for mayor before, never voted for city councilor before. ... If somehow he did, it would have been illegal, ’cause he didn’t live in the city at that point.
”On the house ownership, again, public record is there,“ Wu continued. ”When it comes to the Register of Deeds for Suffolk County, you can go and look at the deed: it was an all-cash transaction, no mortgage, from a [limited liability company] who was registered to Patriot Place in Foxborough. So, you know, if there’s more information there, I think the public deserves to know it.“
The LLC listed as the purchaser of Kraft’s condominium has a listed address of 1 Patriot Place in Foxborough, the same address as Gillette Stadium. Josh Kraft’s father, Robert Kraft, is the chairman and CEO of the New England Patriots. Josh Kraft was recently president of the New England Patriots Foundation after serving as the longtime president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston but left that role to campaign for mayor.
Wu’s campaign put out a statement Tuesday that said: “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.”
Eileen O’Connor, a spokesperson for the Kraft campaign, said Wu was drawing a fundamentally incorrect conclusion from the LLC’s purchase of Kraft’s condominium.
”Josh Kraft is the sole owner of the LLC, and the LLC is the owner of the condo — period,“ O’Connor said. ”There are no other family members listed.“
Wu pitched her own financial history as a longtime city councilor in contrast with Kraft’s.
“I filed my financial disclosures, as I have to every year, with the city of Boston,“ Wu said. ”I list out exactly how much assets my family has. We own our home in Roslindale. Our names are on that deed, not an LLC. ... I was asked to list out every charitable trust, family trust, business trust, realty trust that I have a stake in, so that is all public. Surprise surprise, it’s zero, because I don’t come from that kind of background. And I think the public deserves to know: what do our tax returns say? What interests do we have in trusts, corporate entities? All of that is potential conflicts of interest.“
Wu also claimed that Josh Kraft’s name has appeared on paperwork involving a proposed new stadium for the New England Revolution soccer team in Everett, a project for which the city of Boston is currently seeking financial compensation as an adjacent community.
Asked about this statement, O’Connor replied, ”We have checked that out, and it is simply not true. Josh’s name is not on any paperwork related to the stadium.” Kraft has previously said he would recuse himself from business deals between the city and his family.
Wu also challenged the Kraft campaign’s assertion, in the aforementioned statement, that she came to Harvard ”by way of one of the wealthiest suburbs of Chicago.“
“Again, it’s public record: the house that I grew up in, my parents bought when I was in third grade for $144,000 in 1993,” Wu said, adding that her family moved multiple times in her childhood as her immigrant parents sought out the most affordable homes in communities with good school districts.
The Kraft campaign’s statement also said it’s Wu’s ”biggest lie ... that Josh Kraft is new to Boston,“ noting that Kraft has worked in civic roles in the city for 35 years. But Wu insisted in her remarks Wednesday that working in the city is fundamentally different from actually living in it.
”There is no discounting the incredible work that the Boys & Girls Clubs does every day,“ Wu said. ”[But] it is different when you live in a city. I will stand by that. It is different when your kids go to the Boston Public Schools.“
Wu was asked to weigh in on the $1.4 million already spent by a super PAC supporting Kraft’s candidacy. In response, she condemned the entity’s approach.
”This is not about promoting a difference in vision or the story, life story or sort of compelling characteristics of an alternative choice,“ Wu said. ”This is about directly trying to sow fear or confusion.“
She also panned Kraft’s performance at a recent mayoral forum, claiming he was unable to answer several yes-or-no questions due to a lack of familiarity with Boston politics.
”There’s no substance there,“ Wu said.
