Boston Mayor Wu says Josh Kraft’s campaign may have millions, but lacks ‘substance’ as pair trade blows

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and her main opponent Josh Kraft continued to hammer away at each other Wednesday with Wu saying the millions of dollars of outside funding being poured into Kraft s campaign is a smokescreen for its lack of substance Wu was speaking to the million in personal cash Kraft son of the billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft in the last few days put toward his own campaign the million a super PAC backing him has spent thus far on ads attacking the progressive mayor and a couple of million-dollar donations from major business executives that have been made toward that PAC Your City Your Future that supports his campaign We have not experienced in Boston s history a race of this kind before with such sums of money pouring in from billionaires from Trump mega donors from people outside the city in a flurry of negative campaign ads Wu revealed Wednesday on GBH s Boston Constituents Radio This is about directly trying to sow fear or confusion or just to hammer away at Boston s progress to try to turn it around Wu explained the majority Bostonians agree that the city has been headed in the right direction over the last sparse years while ticking off what she says her first-term administration has accomplished in the realm of creating affordable housing and youth summer jobs and improving constituents safety Yet we are going to have folks from the outside pouring millions of dollars in to say everything is horrible everything is broken and messed up because we want to ensure that someone who is more like us gets in there Wu revealed The mayor a Chicago native also repeated her often-cited digs about Kraft s newest move to Boston and that his wealthy family was trying to buy him the mayor s job Wu a former city councilor stated she s never been in a position to put million of her own cash into her campaign account or have her father or an LLC on her father s behalf buy her a million condo so I could move into a city and run for a seat that I ve never even voted for before It is what it is That is the money situation in terms of politics in our country Wu explained But I would just say it is in specific approaches masking or taking the focus away from the fact that there s no substance there either Wu pointed to the race s first mayoral forum where she asserted Kraft was unable to answer a lot of the yes or no questions posed to the candidates because of his lack of familiarity with the issues Her comments on the radio came hours before she and Kraft were set to battle again in a second mayoral forum in Dorchester Soon after her remarks the Kraft campaign issued a scathing declaration accusing Wu of advancing a dishonest campaign to convince voters of things about Josh Kraft that she knows are not true Michelle Wu s assertions about Josh Kraft are categorically false the Kraft campaign reported in a comment Josh purchased his Boston home with his own money Josh s voting record is clear He has voted in multiple elections as a Boston resident And Josh has worked in and around the neighborhoods of Boston for years bulk of it for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and his work long predates when Michelle Wu arrived at Harvard The Kraft campaign added Mayor Wu s campaign of falsehoods address her record of failures as mayor of Boston from housing to the Boston General Schools from managing the budget to managing her own personnel problems inside City Hall Josh has offered a clear and fact-based assessment of Mayor Wu s numerous plan failures coupled with his own detailed proposed protocol solutions Related Articles Boston shootings were up last summer but city is sticking with similar safety plan Boston politicians honor Puerto Rican veteran area during Memorial Day event Super PAC backing Josh Kraft spends M on advertising opposing Mayor Michelle Wu Boston Water and Sewer Commission fired its HR director with a K payout amid civil fraud charges City looks to improve response times with new South Boston ambulance center in Seaport Wu responding directly to that comment commented she was citing constituents records which show that Kraft s North End condo was purchased for million in October by a limited liability corporation with an address of Patriot Place in Foxboro which is owned by Robert Kraft according to the Suffolk Registry of Deeds State campaign finance records show Wu has million in her campaign coffers While Wu revealed voting records show Josh Kraft voted in Boston elections for the first time in the state and presidential cycle the Herald could not independently verify her claim through his general voter registration records Kraft s move to the city would have provided the opportunity for him to vote in the municipal electoral process which included a City Council but not mayoral race His campaign previously stated the Herald however that he s voted three times as a Boston resident in March September and November of Michelle Wu is advancing a dishonest campaign to convince voters of things about Josh Kraft that she knows are not true the Kraft spokesperson reported The biggest lie is that Josh Kraft is new to Boston Josh Kraft says Mayor Michelle Wu is lying about his residence and voting record Nancy Lane Boston Herald