The race for mayor of Boston kicked into high gear last week, with challenger Josh Kraft declaring and the incumbent Michelle Wu making moves to defend her record.
Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft has added four advisors to his campaign, which described the new hires as collectively bringing “a range of diverse skills, relationships and knowledge of the city.”
The new advisors were announced Friday, days after the son of billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and head of his family’s philanthropic arm formally announced 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, said in a statement. “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 Smart, co-founder of the OnyxGroup Development LLC, a Boston-based black-women-owned brokerage, planning and development business, is the Kraft campaign’s new senior community advisor. She has 20 years of corporate consulting experience and previously sat on Wu’s rent 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 worked as a strategist with experience on Capitol Hill and in state and federal campaigns.
Ann Chinchilla DeGeorge, who previously worked for City Councilor Julia Mejia and ran ex-U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins’ campaign for Suffolk District Attorney, was hired as a Kraft campaign advisor. She has worked for progressive political campaigns and as executive director of the Boston Education Advisory Council.
Michael Kineavy, who advised former Mayor Thomas Menino for more than 20 years, was hired as Kraft’s full-time senior campaign advisor. He previously worked as the City of Boston’s chief of policy and planning, and for the past decade has been the chief operating officer at the Cronin Group.
Smart, Van Zandt and DeGeorge live in Roxbury. Kineavy resides in South Boston.
While Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has yet to formally announce her bid for re-election, her campaign quickly 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 campaign released a video Wednesday, a day after Kraft’s formal announcement, that boasts her first-term accomplishments.
Per the video, Wu has targeted investments that have made housing more affordable and home ownership more attainable, led to safer and cleaner streets, reduced the rat population, improved Boston Public Schools’ facilities, made the city greener through climate-friendly initiatives, and improved public safety to a point where she considers Boston to be the safest major city in the country.
“In Boston, when we come together, nothing is impossible,” Wu says in the video.
The video’s release came a day after Kraft took aim at what he sees as Wu’s failure to follow through on major campaign promises, saying the mayor was “0-3” on making the MBTA free for Boston residents, putting in place a rent control program, and launching a Green New Deal for Boston’s schools.
Wu hasn’t formally launched her re-election campaign, but has said on multiple occasions that she plans to run for a second term.
Her campaign also unveiled a series of endorsements from labor groups and elected officials this week.
Wu has received endorsements from City Councilors Sharon Durkan, Enrique Pepén, Henry Santana and Benjamin Weber, all of whom were endorsed by the mayor in the 2023 City Council elections. Durkan, Pepén and Santana previously worked for Wu’s campaign or administration.
The mayor has also received early endorsements from state Reps. Rob Consalvo, Bill MacGregor, Dan Ryan, Adrian Madaro and Russell Holmes, state Sen. William Brownsberger, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Nonprofit ELM Action Fund and labor unions UNITE HERE Local 26, AFSCME Local 93, SEIU Local 888 and Laborers Local 223 have also endorsed Wu. AFSCME and SEIU are the two largest city employee 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 Local 888, said. “We’re fired up and ready to mobilize.”
