In a heated Boston mayoral race, frontrunner candidates are now facing serious allegations regarding campaign finance violations from both sides, further intensifying the already fraught contest.
On Tuesday, a group of 13 officers and members from various Democratic ward committees across Boston reached out to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) to request an investigation into Democratic City Hall candidate Josh Kraft’s campaign.
The request stems from reporting by the Boston Globe and Commonwealth Beacon, which highlighted that two firms owned by political consultant Jonathan Karush were simultaneously engaged by both the Kraft campaign and a super PAC named Your City, Your Future.
The committee members characterized the connection between the Kraft campaign and the super PAC as “flagrant and extensive.”
In response, Kraft’s campaign quickly sent its own letter to the OCPF on Wednesday, accusing current Mayor Michelle Wu of engaging in similar infractions during her race for office back in 2021.
Furthermore, they alleged that Wu is misappropriating public funds by assigning City Hall staff to perform campaign-related activities during normal business hours.
Kraft’s campaign manager, Brandon Scheutz, criticized the mayor’s actions, claiming they diverge from standard practices and insult the Boston electorate.
According to the Globe’s initial reports, Karush played a dual role where he built a website for the Kraft campaign through his firm, Liberty Concepts Inc., while simultaneously running CP Campaigns, a firm that manages digital advertising for Your City, Your Future, which shares office space with Liberty Concepts.
The letter from the Democratic ward committee members asserted that any notion that the firms associated with Kraft—O’Connor, Keyser, and Karush—had not communicated about the campaign was highly unlikely.
In terms of campaign financing rules, individual donors can contribute a maximum of $1,000 per year to a specific political candidate, while there are no limits imposed on contributions to super PACs.
However, coordination between candidates and super PACs is forbidden under Massachusetts law, which categorizes political committees as the same entity if they share personnel, office space, or other resources.
Keyser Public Strategies, which advises Kraft’s campaign, lists Karush as part of its team on its website, although the firm stated that he is not technically an employee.
Karush, responding to inquiries, emphasized that while he owns CP Campaigns, he has not engaged in any work for Your City, Your Future, maintaining that a “firewall” exists between his duties for the PAC and his role in the Kraft campaign, a claim that a campaign spokesperson corroborated.
Despite challenges to their conduct, neither Karush nor Your City, Your Future responded immediately to questions on Wednesday.
Rebecca St. Amand, chair of the super PAC, told Commonwealth Beacon that they had no direct interaction with Karush.
Evidence from OCPF records indicates that Your City, Your Future has paid $425,000 to CP Campaigns since April, contributing to a total expenditure of over $2.4 million on advertisements, predominantly targeting Mayor Wu negatively.
Major donations to the PAC have come from notable figures such as New Balance Chairman Jim Davis and Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, each contributing $1 million to support Kraft’s campaign.
Rubin, along with additional contributors to the PAC, has associations with Kraft’s father, Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots.
Members of the Democratic ward committees also expressed concern regarding Robert Kraft’s active involvement in the campaign, suggesting he solicits donations on behalf of both Kraft’s campaign and the super PAC.
They highlighted the unprecedented influx of external funding into the mayoral race, which they claim eclipses any previous campaign in Boston’s history, particularly noting that funding from out-of-state billionaires and donors identified with former President Trump is unprecedented.
“This unprecedented flood of coordinated money threatens our state’s strong track record and demands action,” they asserted in their appeal.
Josh Kraft has acknowledged the likelihood that his father reaches out for financial support from his network, commenting during a GBH Boston Public Radio appearance, “He’s a dad, right? … I mean, I’d do that for my kid.”
Further complicating the situation, Scheutz claimed in his letter that reports surfaced about city staff taking part in promotional campaigns for Wu.
He alleged they were pitching campaign stories to media outlets, collecting signatures for her ballot eligibility, drafting speeches for her campaign launch, attending political events, and making calls to community leaders to rally support for the mayor, threatening local grant aid for any noncompliance.
He marked a stark contrast in the size of Wu’s campaign team compared to Kraft’s, indicating that Wu was operating with only two employees and lacking a dedicated campaign office, while Kraft boasted a significant infrastructure with 29 paid staff members and a campaign HQ in Nubian Square.
Furthering the accusations of impropriety, Scheutz pointed out that Wu and her senior staff allegedly utilized secure messaging services like Signal for discussions, suggesting this was to avoid transparency and evade public records requests.
He drew parallels to 2021 when a pro-Wu super PAC, Boston Turnout Project, employed Sharon Durkan, a past fundraising consultant for Wu, questioning the integrity of that relationship and suggesting it constituted coordination.
However, Scheutz did not address the ongoing allegations directed at Kraft’s campaign within his correspondence.
As of Wednesday morning, Wu’s campaign had not yet made a statement but had alluded to the activities of Your City, Your Future in a fundraising email, labeling the group a “dark-money Super PAC.”
In that correspondence, they declared, “Kraft and his family connections are attempting to buy this race – but Boston is not for sale.”
With tensions escalating and the race growing increasingly contentious, it remains to be seen how these accusations will shape the future of Boston’s mayoral election.
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