Campaign shake-up: Key advisors leave Kraft's Boston mayoral bid days before prelim. election
Two of Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft's top staff are departing his campaign in the final days before the Sept. 9 preliminary election.
Will Keyser and Eileen O'Connor, a married couple and partners at Keyser Public Strategies political consultancy, left the campaign in recent days, a Kraft spokesperson confirmed.
"Earlier this week, a mutual decision was made to part ways based on strategic differences as the campaign narrows to two candidates," the spokesperson said. "Josh looks forward to reaching every Bostonian with his vision for how to bring better housing and more opportunity to the city."
The campaign also expressed Kraft's gratitude "for the professional leadership and support that Will and Eileen have provided to guide the campaign."
In a separate statement, the pair said they were "grateful for the opportunity to work with Josh."
"We deeply respect and admire his many years of community service work, and wish him the best in his Mayoral campaign," they said.
A July poll from Suffolk University and the Boston Globe, the last major public survey of the race, showed incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu with a commanding 59% to 29% lead over Kraft among likely voters.
The survey of 500 people also had two other candidates, Domingos DaRosa and Robert Capucci, respectively polling at 2.8% and 0.8%, with 6.6% of voters undecided.
With Kraft and Wu widely expected to proceed past Tuesday's preliminary election and onto the Nov. 4 general election, the race has yet to reach full steam. Most eyes on Tuesday night will be trained on their vote shares and whether Kraft exceeds or falls short of the race's limited public polling.
The Kraft campaign believes it has plenty of time to draw in voters who have yet to tune in or make a decision during the busy summer months.
"While insiders have been talking about the mayor's race for months, most voters have been focused on other things and are just starting to pay attention to it," Keyser told the Boston Globe in August.
While he trails in the polls, Kraft has campaigned with far greater financial resources than Wu. The son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Josh Kraft comes to the race with considerable personal wealth, though he made his career in nonprofit work and ran the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston rather than entering the family business.
Josh Kraft has raised more than $3.3 million since the beginning of the year, $2 million of which came from his own pockets. In the same period, Wu has raised about $1.9 million, campaign finance records show.
The Kraft campaign spent nearly $2.4 million in August to Wu's $303,000. He finished the month with about $1.3 million on hand, while Wu closed with more than $2.4 million.
More on Boston's 2025 race for mayor
Read the original article on MassLive .
