A dispatch from the front in Charlestown

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In the war between Boston City Hall and the Krafts, there are at least two fronts: One is being waged on the campaign trail that winds through Boston’s 23 neighborhoods, and the other at the Charlestown-Everett border, an area that’s an industrial hell pit with a Wynn casino attached.

Mayor Michelle Wu surveyed the second front on Monday. Standing in Charlestown, she looked across the Mystic River at the collection of smokestacks and the parcel of Everett land – with a sliver considered to be part of Boston – that the Kraft Group hopes will become home to a soccer stadium.

The Kraft Group must sign a mitigation agreement with Boston before breaking ground, Wu told reporters, repeatedly pointing to the $68 million agreement brokered by her predecessor and Wynn Resorts. The matter is now headed to mediation, with former Massport CEO Tom Glynn tapped to handle the negotiations. 

The $750,000 offer from the Krafts is an “unserious proposal,” Wu said. The sum the Kraft Group offered amounts to a fraction of a “billionaire’s son’s allowance,” Wu added, in a dig at Josh Kraft, the son of the company’s founder, Robert Kraft.

On the campaign trail, as both public and private polls last month showed Josh Kraft underwater, Wu has continued to drop depth charges, hitting him on not releasing his tax returns, raising questions about his fundraising tactics, and calling him a “pre-approved owner-in-waiting” for the soccer team, the New England Revolution.

A longtime nonprofit executive, Kraft called the idea “that I want to be mayor to help my family’s business” a “falsehood.” His campaign says he is not involved in succession planning with the soccer team and claims the family company does not do any business in the city.

Boston history nerds know that it hasn’t been for lack of trying on his father’s part. In the Seaport, there is a monument to the Kraft Group’s past failure to build a stadium: A convention center now named for the neighborhood-focused mayor who blocked them (and under whom Wu later interned), Tom Menino.

Robert Kraft still remembers, recalling what happened in the 1990s when speaking with reporters earlier this year. “We’re willing to do this privately-financed stadium in Everett, but politics takes over in Beantown unlike most places,” he said.

Politics is a form of war, and as with many conflicts, there are disagreements over who fired the first shot, and who is telling the truth. In Boston, the question of whether history repeats could be answered at Tom Glynn’s negotiating table, at the ballot box, or both.

But the question is also a reminder that even as some of the people may change and the field of battle shifts, the tribes and grievances stay the same.

Boston City Hall livestreamed the press conference in Charlestown. Hours later, Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria and soccer team officials volleyed back from the other side of the Mystic. Who do you think is winning the war so far? Let me know what you think: [email protected].

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9:00 | Gov. Maura Healey delivers keynote address at the National Conference of State Legislatures annual summit. | Main Ballroom, Menino Convention and Exhibition Center, 415 Summer St., Boston

11:30 | Attorney General Andrea Campbell gives remarks and participates in a walking tour of Manchester-by-the-Sea's Central Street Bridge project to learn about the impact of the Trump administration’s decision to shut down a federal program that benefited the town. | Town Hall, 10 Central St., Manchester-by-the-Sea

2:30 | U.S. Sen. Ed Markey visits The Pryde, Boston’s first LGBTQ senior housing development and the first LGBTQ+ affirming affordable senior housing in New England | 55 Harvard Ave., Hyde Park

Campaign finance filings for July are coming online, offering a peek at how the two main contenders for the top job in Boston City Hall are faring as the Sept. 9 preliminary approaches.

Josh Kraft’s campaign reported raising $127,000 and spending $1.8 million that month, leaving him with cash-on-hand at $148,000. Kraft’s filing details $858,000 spent on Technicolor Political, a media firm; as well as $16,000 spent on a firm that handles opposition research; $5,000 to an apparent Instagram influencer with 177,000 followers; and $130,000 on a direct mail firm, among other expenditures.

Michelle Wu, the incumbent, raised $247,000 and spent $217,000. Her cash-on-hand total is $2.5 million. Wu's biggest expenditures included $39,000 on polling, $35,000 on digital consulting, ads and texts; $24,000 on campaign signs, palm cards and T-shirts; $6,000 to KDO Strategies; $3,000 for office rent; and $2,700 to Davis System consultants.

WRITTEN WARNING: As Maura Healey prepared to take the reins of state government in 2022, Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration warned that an influx of migrants could collide with shrinking shelter capacity, an “issue caused by national and international factors that are outside agency control.” – Boston Herald

NCSL, DAY 1: State lawmakers from across the country gathered to talk policy, reflect on the nation’s polarized politics, and mourn Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, who was assassinated in June. — State House News Service

DELEGATION SCORE: A tally of committee work involving New Bedford’s state lawmakers, who sit on 23 panels, finds that 11 committees have reported out bills, seven don’t have bills assigned and four haven’t held hearings. — New Bedford Light

BOURBON BATTLE: The couple who own the distillery behind Uncle Nearest Whiskey, as well as a Martha’s Vineyard property, are fighting with their lender, which is seeking to put the business into receivership. – Boston Business Journal

WRISTBAND WARNING: Whoop, the Boston fitness tech startup, is hoping to have an ally in RFK Jr. as it battles with the FDA over the agency warning to the company over marketing “blood pressure insights.” – MassLive

SUPER PAC RESET: After folding up a super PAC in 2023 due to a penalty leveled by state regulators, home health care magnate Cesar Ruiz is going for a do-over. His attempt at another super PAC, The Latino Agenda, has hired a former Tom Menino aide, and retained attorney Tom Kiley as its general counsel. –  Western Mass. Politics & Insight

IN MEMORIAM: Byron Barnett, the longtime WHDH reporter who started at the station in 1983 and retired in 2021, passed away on Sunday. He was 69. – WHDH

CHAIN STORE BAN: Nantucket officials moved to enforce a ban on chain stores by ordering Roller Rabbit, a pajama boutique, to “immediately cease” business. – Nantucket Current

BROOKLINE BOOKSTORE: Brookline Booksmith, which has hosted both Jewish and Palestinian writers, has been pulled into a debate over the Middle East conflict. – Brookline.News

ON THE BALLOT: Besides Michelle Wu and Josh Kraft, there are two other candidates running for mayor of Boston: Domingos DaRosa and Robert Cappucci. – WBUR

SPECIAL DELIVERY: A judge has shut down the Brockton food truck of a candidate for Taunton mayor, who is turning to directly delivering to the doorsteps of customers, and presumably some voters. – Brockton Enterprise

Elizabeth Warren campaigns with New York’s Zohran Mamdani

Bristol County DA Tom Quinn to face challenge from former employee

Miami-based marijuana company to close Mass. facility and lay off more than 150

Prosecutor: Federal grand jury secrets leaked online

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