Hidden Link

December 15, 2023

By Gintautas Dumcius

On the surface, Thursday night’s meeting of the group behind the Newmarket Business Improvement District was about how the industrial area’s property owners are making strides in close concert with city officials.

Below the surface, the buzz centered around the city’s mayor, Michelle Wu, and the event’s keynote speaker, Josh Kraft, the son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and a potential mayoral challenger, being under the same roof. 

As the event got underway, Wu and Kraft made their way to the back rows, separated by several feet in the stadium-style seating inside Suffolk Construction’s headquarters. Sitting next to Wu was Aaron Michlewitz, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a Boston Democrat allied with the mayor. (In the small world of Massachusetts politics and power, Michlewitz last month blocked a provision in a supplemental budget that would have made it easier for the Krafts to move ahead with a soccer stadium in Everett, across the water from the capital city.)

In his keynote, Kraft joked about growing up on the “mean streets of Chestnut Hill” before highlighting his time as head of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston. He quoted Alexis de Tocqueville on democracy and associations created to meet needs as its foundation – similar to the Newmarket BID, in his view. Wu, in separate remarks, called BID "in many ways, public infrastructure."

Rumors have swirled for months about who might challenge Wu in 2025, as she’s widely expected to run for reelection. Kraft acknowledged in November he had been approached about running for mayor, and when asked whether he was interested, he indicated he was keeping his options open, CommonWealth Beacon reported.

Kraft’s comments, as well as his purchase of a North End condo, have added to the buzz inside and outside City Hall, and made him a center of even more speculation. 

The Boston Herald’s Joe Battenfeld earlier this month wrote a column pivoting from the mayoral musing and suggesting instead that Kraft could challenge Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley,  but incorrectly said Kraft’s condo is in her district (it’s in the neighboring one represented by Steve Lynch). 

That could partly be why a poll pitting Kraft and Pressley against each other in a 2024 Democratic primary went out this week, though it remains unclear who did it. The poll, which arrived as a link in a text message, also asked about Wu and Sen. Elizabeth Warren; groups that included the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC; and opinions on a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Not only does he not live in her district, Kraft has no interest in running against Pressley, a spokesperson confirmed this week.

DIEHL-ED OUT: The animosity between the Charlie Baker wing and the Jim Lyons wing of the state GOP remains alive and well after Geoff Diehl surfaced this week to indicate he’s considering a return to the State House.

Diehl filed paperwork with state campaign regulators earlier this week, swapping out “Governor” for “Senate, 2nd Plymouth and Norfolk” in the slot asking what office is being sought. That’s the Brockton-based seat held by Democrat Mike Brady, who beat Diehl, then a state representative, in a special election in 2015. Diehl ran for reelection for state representative in 2016, and that was the last general election he won. Unsuccessful runs for US Senate and governor followed.

A tweet announcing Diehl’s latest political maneuvering drew scorn from Brian Wynne, Baker’s 2018 campaign manager who warred with the Lyons-Diehl faction. Wynne posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, a screenshot of the definition of a “perennial candidate.” Diehl responded with his own image, that of a defamation claim Lyons filed against Wynne and others who worked for Baker.

Diehl did not respond to a request for comment, while Wynne declined to comment.

CHANGING LANES: Clashes between Boston city councilors, as much about personalities as political leanings, were a hallmark of the last two years. But several new councilors are joining the 13-member body in January. Two of them, Dorchester’s John FitzGerald and Hyde Park’s Enrique Pepen, will replace Frank Baker and Ricardo Arroyo, who sat next to each other but often seemed to be coming from different corners.

FitzGerald and Pepen are hoping to avoid rancor in the new year, so on a recent Tuesday, they joined three other new councilors (Beacon Hill’s Sharon Durkan, Jamaica Plain’s Ben Weber and Henry Santana, who was elected citywide) at Ron’s Gourmet Ice Cream and Bowling in Hyde Park for a game of candlepin.

FitzGerald, who won the game with Pepen a close second, said it was a chance to bond and trade tales from the campaign trail. Pepen said it could be a recurring get-together, and floated the idea of reviving a City Council softball team that once existed. “I think that’s the kind of stuff we need to bring back,” he said.