September 8, 2025 • 37 mins
It’s the eve of Boston’s preliminary election and according to a new poll from Emerson College, incumbent mayor Michelle Wu is leading top rival Josh Kraft by 50 points. Wu drew 72 percent support from likely voters, compared with just 22 percent for Kraft. Two lesser-known candidates, Domingos DaRosa and Robert Cappucci, drew 2 percent and 1 percent. Who is your mayoral candidate and why? Spencer Kimball, the Executive Director of Emerson College polling joined us to discuss what the polls say.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, the preliminary election in Boston this year is tomorrow.
It's kind of snuck up on us. The polls will
be open at seven a m. I don't know if
there's been much male in voting in advance, but one
person who follows these elections, whether they're presidential elections in
(00:27):
November of a quadrennial year, or whether they are what
we call the off year elections of mayors and governors
in a couple of states like Virginia and New Jersey,
is Spencer Kimball of Emerson College. Spencer, you had a
poll that hit the Boston Globe last Friday morning that
(00:50):
caused a lot of people to caught their attention. Let
us say that for sure, the poll suggested that the
Boston mayor Earl's race might not be as close as
some people thought.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Tell us about it, well, then, always a pleasure to
be with you in your audience. So, yeah, we had
a chance to look at the Boston Mayor's race for
a second time. We took a look at it back
in February, and we had a pretty competitive race. Forty
three twenty nine but this time when we came back
in the field, we saw a big difference. The mayor
(01:32):
over was up seventy two to twenty two in what
seems to be a non competitive race for tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, of course, as I think Josh Kraft said today,
you know, polls don't decide election. The voters do, so
we'll have to see what happens. But you're kind of
out on a limb there. I mean, that's a big spread.
And if your numbers were accurate both in February, and
we'll never know if they're accurate. I mean, I'm sure
(02:00):
you believe they're accurate. We'll have to see what happens tomorrow.
Is it conceivable that a candidate could actually lose twenty
five percent of their support from February to September after
spending as much money as Josh Craft has in this campaign.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Well, he only dropped. He was only at twenty nine
percent at that time, so he's dropped about seven points.
I guess that's about a quarter of his support. Yeah,
and that's a yeah. It was very interesting because we
also has the name recognition question, so the favorability and
back in October, I mean back in February, Wu was
(02:43):
fifty seven to thirty five. So when I saw that number,
I'm like, oh, she's kind of punching below her weight
on her ballot test because she's only at forty three,
but her favorability is at fifty seven. Voters are still
making up their minds. Craft was at twenty seven four
twenty seven to twenty four at the time. Now he's
(03:04):
at twenty six fifty eight, So he's actually gone down
a point in his favorability as they've brought him out,
and his unfavorables have gone up thirty four points, so
they've almost made him non competitive because obviously you got
to get to the fifty percent threshold come to general election,
and these numbers suggest that this has not been a
(03:27):
good campaign as far as winning over voters for the
Craft people.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Now, I haven't followed it as closely probably as well,
I haven't polled it, but from my observations, Josh Kraft
has spent a lot of times in neighborhoods, meeting people,
speaking to small groups, showing up at events. He has
(03:53):
run sort of your traditional on the ground campaign, and
only in August he take to the airwaves and take
to the airwaves pretty big. You're convinced that your poll
has enough of a sample size that it would take
into consideration the hands that he might have shaken in April,
(04:16):
May and June, as well as the people who might
hit who he might have reached electronically through television or
radio in August.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, you certainly there's always the chance it's an outlier.
One out of twenty polls falls outside that margin of error.
But you know, when we start looking within those numbers,
there's so many spots, data points where it raises eyebrows
for Wu in that she has brought together a coalition
of a lot of her opponents. And if you heard today,
(04:51):
Nissa Sabi George came out and endorsed Craft the night
before the election. But even though about twenty five percent
of her voters were starting to break towards Wu, so
Kraft had infirmed up that full thirty five percent of
the vote that she had won in twenty twenty one,
Sabby George, I'm talking about And because of that, it
(05:16):
looks like Wu has made inroads with those voters, and
she's also won over the Janey voters and the Campbell
voters that were both competitive in that primary, So a
lot of the minority vote is breaking her way, and
she's very strong with the Asian community and demonstrated that
last time as well.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, the only counterpoint I'd love to and again I'm
not trying to punch holes in the poll. But WU
has had a lot of controversies that have caused concerns.
One is the mass and cast issue, which seems to
be as much of a problem today as it was
(05:59):
three or four years ago, arguably even a bigger problem.
The whole Franklin Park situation, White Stadium situation, which really
did adversely impact minority communities who had used White Stadium,
not only student athletes but family members. I think about
(06:21):
one hundred and forty trees have been have been taken
down for the the expansion of the new soccer stadium,
and I think the Globe today did a report that
they had filed a Freedom of information Act trying to
get some more information about the actual eventual cost of
White Stadium, and they did not get the the statistics
(06:43):
that they were looking at. Remember Mayowool antagonized a lot
of the North End restaurant tours a few years a
few years ago, and so she's taken on and created
some some some friction and and develop some people who
were not happy with it. But those numbers, into any
(07:06):
great numbers are not showing up in the.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Poland that's right. And to your point on the White
Stadium development redevelopment, it's still a popular overall forty eight
percent support, and when we pulled it back in February,
it was at fifty percent, so that number really hasn't changed.
Opposition has grown, so over the course of the eight
(07:30):
months people have talked about it, and that number has
moved from twenty two to twenty nine. But you can
see the amount of time it takes to persuade people
over on some of these issues, because the redevelopment of
White Stadium just might not be a front of mine
issue for a lot of voters. And on the front
of mine issues, that's where Wu has really been able
(07:52):
to clean up, particularly with her challenged by the Republicans
at the federal level and being able to go with
the sanctuary city policies of the city, which are popular
in the city and she represents that group. And that's
where Craft has had difficulty making inroads with some of
(08:13):
her base because remember she did win with sixty five
percent of the vote in twenty twenty one, so he
needs to pull back some of that vote. And really
since March that congressional hearing on Ash Wednesday, she's been
pretty solid and not just you know from other polls
that we've seen that kind of mirrored where you eventually
(08:34):
ended up.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, she had sixty four percent, and Anissa Savi George,
who endorsed Craft today at thirty five percent. That turnout
in the final election in November of twenty twenty one,
and there have been also again the Attorney General Andrea Campbell,
(08:55):
who at that point was on the city council. There
was an acting mayor who also was on the ballot,
did not qualify for the final election. But in November
of twenty twenty one, and again these are off years,
so about one hundred and forty two thousand people voted.
Do you have a sense as to how big the
vote would likely be in a preliminary election, which is
(09:19):
always going to be less than the final election because
people are, you know, still coming back from vacations and
getting kids ready for school and all of that. Do
do you have a projection as to how many people
might actually go to the polls tomorrow in Boston.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Well, Dan, that is the wild card in all of this,
And if you were on the Craft team, this is
where you can say, hey, maybe there's a turnout of
fifty thousand. What I've seen in the early reports about
twenty five to thirty thousand, and early voting has been
reported out in the state in the past. I would
(09:55):
estimate maybe another twenty or thirty on election day. So
if you have an EVA and split on election day
with the early vote, that will keep the race a
little bit tighter. But if the early vote is very strong,
if they say, hey, you know, we've got forty thousand
early votes and there's only fifty thousand total, then who's
(10:15):
going to run away with this by that fifty point margin.
But if Kraft does get out of vote tomorrow, he
can keep this to you know, in the thirties, maybe
low forties, but you know, that's just not competitive at
this point. So you know, and obviously he let go
of his staff, so he's looking at trying to figure
(10:36):
out a new strategy for the last seven week sprint
between the primary tomorrow, presuming he's going to win that
second place.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I think when I think the one thing we could
say about the polls that that's likely the couple of
other candidates in the poll is a perennial candidate out
of East Boston who generally is somewhere around less than
one percent, and also a uh A Pop Warner football
coach Tomigo's uh DeRosa, who's actually a really very decent guy. Uh.
(11:09):
And he's been upset with the the way, uh, you know,
the whole mass and cast situation has proliferated into into
communities surrounding mass and casts. So Spencer, you're you're out
there on a limb. Uh. You know you're you're as
I say, you and Dave Paleologus are two great posters
(11:29):
here in Boston, one at Suffolk and one at Emerson.
Uh and we will we'll see, oh sometime around this
time tomorrow night. How accute you are when you last
question when you do these polls in high profile races.
I know you're confident. I know you're confident, but I
I even know that you know, you know, major league
(11:51):
pitchers the night before or the morning of a start
in a big game, they still get a little nervous,
little butterflies on on days like this or do you
go into it saying, hey, we know what we're doing
and we're we'll be there at the finish line exactly
or pretty darn close to where we project.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, I mean I've already turned the page. We're working
on a New York City mayor's race. You'll find that
one out on Wednesday morning. So so, now that's an.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Interesting race as well, is that tougher? That's a that's
a much bigger constituency. New York City has more people
in it than the entire state of Massachusetts. As I'm
sure most of our listeners realize. Anything coming up on
that that's interesting that you're seeing already. Are you still well,
(12:39):
you're still polling. I assume tonight and tomorrow night, right,
do you do the rolling polls exactly?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
But I do get a sneak peek at those numbers.
And it would be an interesting race if everybody was
to drop out and endorse Cuomo against Mom Danni. But
we'll have to wait to see if.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
The flip side of that, obviously is that uh Mndamie
did win you know, an actual poll in June. They
have their preliminary elections earlier than we do.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
And yeah, and that was another one we sat out
on a limb. We were one of the few polls
that had Mamdanie pulling out that surprise victory. So it
happens from time to time.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
More than time for time with both you and Paleologus.
Both of you guys have done very both both of
you have done very well in polling in two of
my favorite posters, Spencer Kimball. Thank you much, appreciate your time,
really do.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Thank you so much my pleasure. Dan, thank you.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So we're going to take a break. I want to
give all of you an opportunity to weigh in on
the mayor's race here in Boston. I know that there
are other races around the Commonwealth, but the big one
tomorrow is the Mayor's race in Boston. And if you're
a Boston resident, if you're an observer, if you are
(14:00):
involved in any of the campaigns, and you'd like to
express your opinion, this is the night to do it.
Six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven,
nine three, one ten thirty. My name is Dan Ray.
It is the night, the eve of a Boston preliminary election.
Most of these elections, over time, uh, some have been
(14:21):
closer than others. Uh, incumbent mayors tend to win. Hasn't
an incumbent mayor hasn't lost a race for re election
since I believe it's nineteen forty nine. But we uh,
you got to wait till the votes accounted. So if
you'd like to join the conversation six one seven, two,
five four to ten thirty six one seven, nine three
one ten thirty. My name is Dan Ray. We're going
(14:42):
to talk a little politics, Boston politics. Right after this, It's.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
So tomorrow tomorrow is the preliminary mayoral election. It's like
a primary, except it's non partisan, so people do not
have to say they're Democrats, Republicans, independents, or whatever. I
believe that all of the four candidates in Boston are Democrats.
I only got a couple of minutes here until the
(15:13):
bottom of the hours. I want to give you a
chance to dial in. Uh six one seven, two, five
four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty.
And what I'm interested in is if you are going
to vote for either Mayor Wu or Josh Kraft, I
would like to know what is encouraging you. What is
(15:36):
propelling you to get to the polls tomorrow? Uh, if
it is your happiness with how Mayor Wu has run
the office here in Boston for the last three and
a half plus years, fine, If you're dissatisfied with what's
been going on, or if there's a specific issue, meaning
(15:58):
mass and cass bike lanes. Mayor Wu has put in
a lot of bike lanes to the delight of many
and to the consternation of some. What about again, the
White Stadium controversy at Franklin Park. There are some strong
feelings on that issue either way. You can go back
(16:18):
to the controversy over the North End restaurants and whether
or not they could set up sidewalk business not only
this summer, but for the last couple of summers. So
there's a lot of reasons why people might be motivated
to go to the polls. Obviously, if you work in
the city, and you live in the city, and you
(16:40):
happen to work for Boston City Hall, that's one of
the things that incumbent mayor always a well of wellspring
of support that that mayor will have, whether it's Tom Andino,
Marty Walsh, Michelle Wu, Ray Flynn, Kevin White. Oh, however
long you want to go back, I would like to
know motivated to get out there tomorrow? Do you care?
(17:02):
Maybe in Boston you're concerned about real estate taxes. Maybe
you're concerned about the price of housing in Boston. There
are some pretty wealthy neighborhoods in Boston. Certainly there are
places down on the seaport which are very expensive. You
have parts of Jamaica Plain which are very expensive, needless
(17:22):
to say, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, West Roxbury, parts of Brighton.
There are some nice, very nice areas in Roxbury, Dorchester, Charlestown,
East Boston, South Boston. Boston is a great city whoever
has been the mayor, There's no doubt about that. In
my mind, we are a city. The crime stats are
(17:46):
not nearly as bad as they are in a city
like Chicago. Now Chicago was a much bigger city. But
when you put it all into your your mind, where
does it lead you? Weird does it take you? And
who who will you support tomorrow? Or And if you're
not from Boston and like to join and talk about
a race that's going on in your community, I'm willing
(18:08):
to deal with that as well, so here are the
numbers six, one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one, seven, nine, three, one,
ten thirty. I got wide open lines here. Uh, don't
want it to be wide open for long. We're going
to take a news break and we will we will
be back. And also, by the way, I do want
to remind you. I'll remind you about this after the
break because I want to get to the news on
(18:29):
time light the phone lines up, we will be right back.
Whoever you form, not here to challenge you, just here
to get a sense of are you in line with
the Emerson poll or do you feel the Emerson pole
may be somewhat off. We will see tomorrow night for sure,
But tonight you can talk about it.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, there is a preliminary election tomorrow in Boston City
Council races. Those are important. I get a sense though
politics in Boston is not nearly as much of a
I call it a blood sport as it once was.
(19:14):
I mean, we've been We've seen much more exciting races
over the years. Maybe this race doesn't excite you, if
it doesn't feel free, tell us why. I mean I
think back to you know, races from many years ago.
(19:35):
You know Kevin White and Joe Timmlty. They were tough
races towards the end of White's term. Ray Flynn had
one tough race in nineteen eighty three, but once he
secured himself, he was in good shape. We have you know, others,
(19:58):
Tom Andina for a long time. So again, if you'd
like to join us and UH and talk about the UH,
the Emerson poll as well as the race UH. And
nobody is more qualified to talk about the race. I
suspect than someone who is right in the midst of it.
Joining us now is Boston Meyo candidate Josh Kraft. Let
(20:20):
me uh, Let let me bring the UH the candidate up.
Josh Kraft, Welcome back to Nightside.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
How are you, Dan?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
How are you?
Speaker 4 (20:29):
It's always great to be on night Side, So well
you were?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
You're with us tonight and a big day, a big
day for you tomorrow. I read your schedule. You've got
a couple of additional endorsements tonight. Tell us how you
feel the night before?
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Look, I feel great. We've worked hard, We've gotten out
and gotten in front of as many people as we can.
So that we can listen to them, learn from them,
understand what their fears, you know, what their challenges are,
what's upsetting them about the city, and just want to
(21:09):
make sure we know they know that as a mayor,
I will put them first. The residents will always come
first because I work for them. As mayor, I work
for the residents.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
And I noticed that with your campaign you seem to
do a lot of what used to be called retail politicking,
where you were going to as many meetings as you could.
I've watched your schedule very closely. You spent a lot
of time in March, April, May, June. How confident are
(21:42):
you that some of those connections, those one on one
you know, conversations, will result in a better than expected
vote tomorrow night.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Well, look, Dan, it's really in the end. As I said,
I report to the residents. As mayor, I work for
the residents of Boston. The residents make the decision. It's
not the media, not polls, it's not catchy press conferences
(22:14):
to people of the city. And I've been out, I've listened,
I've done my best to understand what the challenges are,
told them that, you know, my career thirty five years
in the city has always been about accessibility, going up
and listening, and that's why I'll always be and I
(22:36):
think people like that. And of course I don't know
what's going to happen tomorrow. I feel great about the
connections I've made, as you said, Dan, retail, politicking, listening, learning,
and we'll just see where it goes.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Of all the issues that Bostonians have talked with you
about all this, you know, it's what seven months March, April, May, June, July, August,
and into September and a little bit of February. What
are the issues that do you think are going to
make people go to the polls tomorrow? Is it Mass
(23:15):
and Cass Is it the bike lanes? Is it White Stadium?
Is it how restaurant owners are treated in the North End?
Is it the fact that you the other night promised
me that if you're elected, not only do you want
to serve this four year full this term in its entirety,
but you also, if you are fortunate enough to be
(23:37):
re elected, you would serve two full terms or whatever.
Has Mayor Wiu finally got around to saying, yeah, she's
in this for the entirety of the term if she
indeed is re elected.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
I don't know because I don't know if anyone in
the media has ever asked that, And.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I can't worry the show, so I have not had
a chance to ask you that question. But I guarantee
you I would have asked that question.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
So now and I know, but my and my guess
is the other media outlets probably wouldn't ask that. If
I had to guess.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
What do they say in Latin race hips aloquid? If
it hasn't been asked a lot of people had a
chance to talk with it. What are the major issues?
What is your sense?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
You know understand those issues you just mentioned are all
issues that will bring people to the polls, as well
as you know, middle class housing, affordability, taxes, But really
what supersedes it's all those are the issues, but there's
(24:47):
a huge but they're all wrapped up in one thing,
and that is people do not feel connected to the
city or heard by the city. And we have a
tradition in this city of mayor being accessible and showing
up and listening. I'll go, you know, too young with
Mayor White, but you know, Mayor Flynn obviously, Mayor Menino
(25:11):
and Marty Walsh. That's all they did. They showed up,
they listen, they supported, and people do not feel that now.
And whether it's getting bike lanes, you know, thrown into
the streets with that no preparation and no community feedback,
White Stadium ram down the throats of neighbors that live
(25:33):
in out those neighborhoods, you know, the South End and
other neighborhoods, not dealing with quality of life issues, but
dealing with public safety issues. End quote, the safest city
in America because of the lack of containment and support
for those struggling at Mass and Cast and just people
(25:55):
just don't fee. They just don't feel heard, they feel ignored,
and they're angry.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I saw some clips from the meeting that you attended.
I do not believe you spoke at that meeting. But
now this is the meeting that we talked about the
other night with you, that at that hotel over by
Mass and Cass. There's a lot of anger in that room,
interesting them being. The anger was because they felt they've
(26:22):
been ignored. I want to comment on that.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yeah, and they have them they have been. I was
over at Titus Swallow Park this afternoon meeting with a
bunch of families in the South End, and that's what
they feel, you know. And look, as I keep saying,
the mayor works for the residents and can't ignore your people.
(26:48):
You work for, You got to them.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
My last question I want to ask you, and it's
an issue that I think the city it's going to
have to deal with, and whoever is the whoever's it
gets elected in November, it's going to have to deal with,
and that is the commercial tax base in Boston. There
are so many buildings where people have left and that
the workers haven't come back in downtown Boston. How would
(27:14):
you handle that situation?
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Yeah, and just to say we're going to lose one
point seven billion over the next five years in commercial
real estate and the mayor says, oh, our budget's fine. No,
we're heading into tough fiscal times. I think the number
one thing, obviously is to look hard at our own
budget and find savings. But second, we need to create
(27:38):
revenue sources, especially around tax commercial taxes. The best way
to do that is, as mayor, the city will be
open for business. We are going to incentivize businesses to
move their headquarters where secondary headquarters are expand into Boston,
and that will lead to businesses coming here, tax revenue, jobs,
(28:01):
and of course philanthropic community, uh support for nonprofits.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Last question, there was some good news today, Hasbro company
out of Rhode Island who's decided to relocate to Boston.
I assume you welcome that.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
No, definitely, we'll welcome. We welcome all anny and all
businesses there. We need it, We're gonna need it.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I think that that that Boston is My analysis is
pretty much the same as yours. Very quickly, You're going
to be all over the city tomorrow. Where do you
start and where do you end?
Speaker 4 (28:41):
You know, I know I start in the North End
and then we will end over at the Iron Workers
Hall for the end of the night. And you know,
the iron Workers Local seven and iconic union in the city,
and they have been so great to us. I'm very
(29:01):
grateful for their support.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Well, Josh Craft, best best of luck you. You have
taken on Mayor race. You have contributed your own funds
to it. You've worked really hard on this. I hope
you get an outcome tomorrow that that puts you in
a in a position when in November where we're going
(29:23):
to have a race and have an opportunity to have
many more conversations with voters, with constituents and with you
as well. So thanks so much, Thank you, Dan.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Thank you Dan, And I just say to anyone listening,
I'd humbly ask for your vote and please vote tomorrow,
and of course be great if you vote for me.
So thanks so much and have a great night.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Absolutely absolutely, thanks so much. Josh Graft. Ladies and gentlemen,
candidate from mayor. All right, we will take a very
quick break. I'd love to get a few of you
jump on board here. Tell me if you like what
you hear, and if you decided who are you going
to vote for tomorrow? It will be as tradition dictates,
in a what is called a preliminary election, but as
(30:09):
a primary election, it generally tends to be a smaller
turnout than in September than November. There's reasons for that.
Part of the reason is that people are still trying
to get back to work and get back to school
and get their wives resettled from the summer vacation times.
But it's a very important day and if you have
(30:30):
any opportunity tomorrow, there'll be no lines to you're not
going to be waiting for three hours to vote anywhere
in Boston tomorrow. In the meantime, you can express your
opinion and who you would like to see elected at
six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty, six one, seven, nine, three, one,
ten thirty on Night Sign. My name is Dan Ray.
We will be right back with some of your phone calls.
(30:52):
Light it up. I'm not going past ten o'clock. After
ten o'clock, I have a different topic we're going to
talk about. So if you want to get in, now's
the time to dial.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Well, we had a couple of folks on hold I
for some reason, we've lost them. If they would like
to call back, we'll try to put them on as
quickly as we can. It's interesting when we talk about
issues in terms of Boston, and you talk about White Stadium.
There's a lot of people in the city who are
very upset about that, a lot of people who are
looking forward to it as an opportunity. You talk about
(31:30):
bike lanes, that's a subject that virtually everyone has an
opinion on. But what I'm trying to figure out is
if you're a Boston resident, are you going to vote tomorrow?
Do you care enough to vote tomorrow? And if you do,
who are you inclined to support? And in addition, why
what is it about either Mayor Wu or Josh Kraft
(31:55):
that will make you spend a few minutes tomorrow to
get to the polls. Now, there's no excuse why people
will not vote tomorrow. This is not like a presidential
election where it's in November and it's a bad weather
day and you have lines around the block at this
(32:17):
polling location and some other polling location. I would suggest
that tomorrow, literally most people could walk into a polling
place and cast abouot and be done with it within
no more than five minutes.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Literally.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Everybody complains about traffic, everybody complains about taxes, everybody complains
about dealing with city Hall. If something happens and you
get a parking ticket and you want to fight that
parking ticket, all the complaints that I hear, And yet
the two days every four years that you can have
an impact on actually who is the mayor of Boston.
(32:54):
One day is tomorrow, and then the next one will
be I believe it's November fourth, the final election. So
if you'd like to call in and give us a
quick indication as to who you are inclined to take
a few minutes out of your day and support both
of these candidates. And by the way, we did notify
Mayor Woo's office this afternoon. If she wanted to join
(33:15):
us tonight, she would just she would have been as
welcome as Josh Kraft, because they are the two people.
And also we had said earlier that if you're a
candidate for city council or something along that line here
in Boston, this is an opportunity for you to jump
on board and talk to your potential constituents. But I'm
(33:36):
most interested in Boston residents, all of whom have strong opinions.
I sometimes go over to West Roxbury and I talk
to people in West Roxbury, and it seems as if
everybody over there is appalled, is absolutely appalled at the
bike lane on Center Street. Well, you can't vote to
(33:56):
get rid of the bike lane, but you can express
your opinion as to who should be the next mayor,
or who should remain as mayor, whether it be the
person in the person of Michelle Woo or in the
person of the challenge of Josh Kraft. All I can
do is give you the opportunity to give us a
(34:17):
call at six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty
six one seven, nine three one, ten thirty and if not,
I'm going to well, I will change topics on the
other side of the ten o'clock news, that is for sure.
I will give you this a little bit of a preview.
There was an article today in the New York Times
that talked about the average price of a an NFL
(34:43):
ticket just to go to an NFL game, like two
and eighty two hundred and seventy nine dollars. It's like, uh,
it's incredible the cost of that. But we'll get to
that after ten o'clock. In the meantime, let me get
a call, call or two in here quickly. I wish
that Danny had called a little earlier. Danny, you're calling
(35:05):
from Boston. Who are you gonna vote for tomorrow?
Speaker 5 (35:09):
I think I think you mean Jamie Jamie.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Okay, Well, unfortunately Rob got Danny has Danny up on
the board. But that's okay, Jamie. I appreciate you calling
as well. Welcome. Who's who's your choice tomorrow? Jamie?
Speaker 5 (35:23):
It's definitely Josh Kraft.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
Michelle, I've been a resident for twenty seven years, owned
property here in Beacon Hill, had businesses here in the
back bany Beacon Hill. And uh, I just don't like
to wait showe who was in treating the residents in
the businesses. So and one thing you didn't bring up
that Josh didn't bring up either, is that Uh the
(35:46):
whole Christmas party thing that happened what two years ago?
Uh with Michelle?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, that was a minority elected officials.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Yeah, that just rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
I mean, we try to be an inclusive city and
she didn't even back down from what she did.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Okay, well again those are I thank you for having
the courage of your convictions and taking an opportunity to
call and express yourself. Do you have your you know
what polling place you are registered at?
Speaker 5 (36:20):
I do, yes?
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Okay, Well, won't won't take long tomorrow. There won't be
long lines with the polls. That's that's for sure, Jamie.
But I appreciate you, appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
I appreciate it. I'll be a Postmork all.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Right, thanks Jamie, Thanks very much. All right, have a
great night. Good night. If you get this last one
and very quickly robbed, that'll be fine too, and then
if not, we will move on. If you got this
person lined up, we can take them fairly quickly rob
if if you're ready, and if not, we'll just go
to the ten o'clock news. Okay, we're flat out of time,
fair enough, we will take a break. We come back
on to talk about the price to attend an NFL
(36:57):
football game in person, and how much money you have
to spend on tickets, let's say, for a family of four,
before you so much as buy a program or buy
a hot dog. We'll be back on nights side right
after the ten o'clock news
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, the preliminary election in Boston this year is tomorrow.
It's kind of snuck up on us. The polls will
be open at seven a m. I don't know if
there's been much male in voting in advance, but one
person who follows these elections, whether they're presidential elections in
(00:27):
November of a quadrennial year, or whether they are what
we call the off year elections of mayors and governors
in a couple of states like Virginia and New Jersey,
is Spencer Kimball of Emerson College. Spencer, you had a
poll that hit the Boston Globe last Friday morning that
(00:50):
caused a lot of people to caught their attention. Let
us say that for sure, the poll suggested that the
Boston mayor Earl's race might not be as close as
some people thought.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Tell us about it, well, then, always a pleasure to
be with you in your audience. So, yeah, we had
a chance to look at the Boston Mayor's race for
a second time. We took a look at it back
in February, and we had a pretty competitive race. Forty
three twenty nine but this time when we came back
in the field, we saw a big difference. The mayor
(01:32):
over was up seventy two to twenty two in what
seems to be a non competitive race for tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, of course, as I think Josh Kraft said today,
you know, polls don't decide election. The voters do, so
we'll have to see what happens. But you're kind of
out on a limb there. I mean, that's a big spread.
And if your numbers were accurate both in February, and
we'll never know if they're accurate. I mean, I'm sure
(02:00):
you believe they're accurate. We'll have to see what happens tomorrow.
Is it conceivable that a candidate could actually lose twenty
five percent of their support from February to September after
spending as much money as Josh Craft has in this campaign.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Well, he only dropped. He was only at twenty nine
percent at that time, so he's dropped about seven points.
I guess that's about a quarter of his support. Yeah,
and that's a yeah. It was very interesting because we
also has the name recognition question, so the favorability and
back in October, I mean back in February, Wu was
(02:43):
fifty seven to thirty five. So when I saw that number,
I'm like, oh, she's kind of punching below her weight
on her ballot test because she's only at forty three,
but her favorability is at fifty seven. Voters are still
making up their minds. Craft was at twenty seven four
twenty seven to twenty four at the time. Now he's
(03:04):
at twenty six fifty eight, So he's actually gone down
a point in his favorability as they've brought him out,
and his unfavorables have gone up thirty four points, so
they've almost made him non competitive because obviously you got
to get to the fifty percent threshold come to general election,
and these numbers suggest that this has not been a
(03:27):
good campaign as far as winning over voters for the
Craft people.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Now, I haven't followed it as closely probably as well,
I haven't polled it, but from my observations, Josh Kraft
has spent a lot of times in neighborhoods, meeting people,
speaking to small groups, showing up at events. He has
(03:53):
run sort of your traditional on the ground campaign, and
only in August he take to the airwaves and take
to the airwaves pretty big. You're convinced that your poll
has enough of a sample size that it would take
into consideration the hands that he might have shaken in April,
(04:16):
May and June, as well as the people who might
hit who he might have reached electronically through television or
radio in August.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, you certainly there's always the chance it's an outlier.
One out of twenty polls falls outside that margin of error.
But you know, when we start looking within those numbers,
there's so many spots, data points where it raises eyebrows
for Wu in that she has brought together a coalition
of a lot of her opponents. And if you heard today,
(04:51):
Nissa Sabi George came out and endorsed Craft the night
before the election. But even though about twenty five percent
of her voters were starting to break towards Wu, so
Kraft had infirmed up that full thirty five percent of
the vote that she had won in twenty twenty one,
Sabby George, I'm talking about And because of that, it
(05:16):
looks like Wu has made inroads with those voters, and
she's also won over the Janey voters and the Campbell
voters that were both competitive in that primary, So a
lot of the minority vote is breaking her way, and
she's very strong with the Asian community and demonstrated that
last time as well.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, the only counterpoint I'd love to and again I'm
not trying to punch holes in the poll. But WU
has had a lot of controversies that have caused concerns.
One is the mass and cast issue, which seems to
be as much of a problem today as it was
(05:59):
three or four years ago, arguably even a bigger problem.
The whole Franklin Park situation, White Stadium situation, which really
did adversely impact minority communities who had used White Stadium,
not only student athletes but family members. I think about
(06:21):
one hundred and forty trees have been have been taken
down for the the expansion of the new soccer stadium,
and I think the Globe today did a report that
they had filed a Freedom of information Act trying to
get some more information about the actual eventual cost of
White Stadium, and they did not get the the statistics
(06:43):
that they were looking at. Remember Mayowool antagonized a lot
of the North End restaurant tours a few years a
few years ago, and so she's taken on and created
some some some friction and and develop some people who
were not happy with it. But those numbers, into any
(07:06):
great numbers are not showing up in the.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Poland that's right. And to your point on the White
Stadium development redevelopment, it's still a popular overall forty eight
percent support, and when we pulled it back in February,
it was at fifty percent, so that number really hasn't changed.
Opposition has grown, so over the course of the eight
(07:30):
months people have talked about it, and that number has
moved from twenty two to twenty nine. But you can
see the amount of time it takes to persuade people
over on some of these issues, because the redevelopment of
White Stadium just might not be a front of mine
issue for a lot of voters. And on the front
of mine issues, that's where Wu has really been able
(07:52):
to clean up, particularly with her challenged by the Republicans
at the federal level and being able to go with
the sanctuary city policies of the city, which are popular
in the city and she represents that group. And that's
where Craft has had difficulty making inroads with some of
(08:13):
her base because remember she did win with sixty five
percent of the vote in twenty twenty one, so he
needs to pull back some of that vote. And really
since March that congressional hearing on Ash Wednesday, she's been
pretty solid and not just you know from other polls
that we've seen that kind of mirrored where you eventually
(08:34):
ended up.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, she had sixty four percent, and Anissa Savi George,
who endorsed Craft today at thirty five percent. That turnout
in the final election in November of twenty twenty one,
and there have been also again the Attorney General Andrea Campbell,
(08:55):
who at that point was on the city council. There
was an acting mayor who also was on the ballot,
did not qualify for the final election. But in November
of twenty twenty one, and again these are off years,
so about one hundred and forty two thousand people voted.
Do you have a sense as to how big the
vote would likely be in a preliminary election, which is
(09:19):
always going to be less than the final election because
people are, you know, still coming back from vacations and
getting kids ready for school and all of that. Do
do you have a projection as to how many people
might actually go to the polls tomorrow in Boston.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Well, Dan, that is the wild card in all of this,
And if you were on the Craft team, this is
where you can say, hey, maybe there's a turnout of
fifty thousand. What I've seen in the early reports about
twenty five to thirty thousand, and early voting has been
reported out in the state in the past. I would
(09:55):
estimate maybe another twenty or thirty on election day. So
if you have an EVA and split on election day
with the early vote, that will keep the race a
little bit tighter. But if the early vote is very strong,
if they say, hey, you know, we've got forty thousand
early votes and there's only fifty thousand total, then who's
(10:15):
going to run away with this by that fifty point margin.
But if Kraft does get out of vote tomorrow, he
can keep this to you know, in the thirties, maybe
low forties, but you know, that's just not competitive at
this point. So you know, and obviously he let go
of his staff, so he's looking at trying to figure
(10:36):
out a new strategy for the last seven week sprint
between the primary tomorrow, presuming he's going to win that
second place.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I think when I think the one thing we could
say about the polls that that's likely the couple of
other candidates in the poll is a perennial candidate out
of East Boston who generally is somewhere around less than
one percent, and also a uh A Pop Warner football
coach Tomigo's uh DeRosa, who's actually a really very decent guy. Uh.
(11:09):
And he's been upset with the the way, uh, you know,
the whole mass and cast situation has proliferated into into
communities surrounding mass and casts. So Spencer, you're you're out
there on a limb. Uh. You know you're you're as
I say, you and Dave Paleologus are two great posters
(11:29):
here in Boston, one at Suffolk and one at Emerson.
Uh and we will we'll see, oh sometime around this
time tomorrow night. How accute you are when you last
question when you do these polls in high profile races.
I know you're confident. I know you're confident, but I
I even know that you know, you know, major league
(11:51):
pitchers the night before or the morning of a start
in a big game, they still get a little nervous,
little butterflies on on days like this or do you
go into it saying, hey, we know what we're doing
and we're we'll be there at the finish line exactly
or pretty darn close to where we project.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, I mean I've already turned the page. We're working
on a New York City mayor's race. You'll find that
one out on Wednesday morning. So so, now that's an.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Interesting race as well, is that tougher? That's a that's
a much bigger constituency. New York City has more people
in it than the entire state of Massachusetts. As I'm
sure most of our listeners realize. Anything coming up on
that that's interesting that you're seeing already. Are you still well,
(12:39):
you're still polling. I assume tonight and tomorrow night, right,
do you do the rolling polls exactly?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
But I do get a sneak peek at those numbers.
And it would be an interesting race if everybody was
to drop out and endorse Cuomo against Mom Danni. But
we'll have to wait to see if.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
The flip side of that, obviously is that uh Mndamie
did win you know, an actual poll in June. They
have their preliminary elections earlier than we do.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
And yeah, and that was another one we sat out
on a limb. We were one of the few polls
that had Mamdanie pulling out that surprise victory. So it
happens from time to time.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
More than time for time with both you and Paleologus.
Both of you guys have done very both both of
you have done very well in polling in two of
my favorite posters, Spencer Kimball. Thank you much, appreciate your time,
really do.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Thank you so much my pleasure. Dan, thank you.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So we're going to take a break. I want to
give all of you an opportunity to weigh in on
the mayor's race here in Boston. I know that there
are other races around the Commonwealth, but the big one
tomorrow is the Mayor's race in Boston. And if you're
a Boston resident, if you're an observer, if you are
(14:00):
involved in any of the campaigns, and you'd like to
express your opinion, this is the night to do it.
Six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven,
nine three, one ten thirty. My name is Dan Ray.
It is the night, the eve of a Boston preliminary election.
Most of these elections, over time, uh, some have been
(14:21):
closer than others. Uh, incumbent mayors tend to win. Hasn't
an incumbent mayor hasn't lost a race for re election
since I believe it's nineteen forty nine. But we uh,
you got to wait till the votes accounted. So if
you'd like to join the conversation six one seven, two,
five four to ten thirty six one seven, nine three
one ten thirty. My name is Dan Ray. We're going
(14:42):
to talk a little politics, Boston politics. Right after this, It's.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
So tomorrow tomorrow is the preliminary mayoral election. It's like
a primary, except it's non partisan, so people do not
have to say they're Democrats, Republicans, independents, or whatever. I
believe that all of the four candidates in Boston are Democrats.
I only got a couple of minutes here until the
(15:13):
bottom of the hours. I want to give you a
chance to dial in. Uh six one seven, two, five
four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty.
And what I'm interested in is if you are going
to vote for either Mayor Wu or Josh Kraft, I
would like to know what is encouraging you. What is
(15:36):
propelling you to get to the polls tomorrow? Uh, if
it is your happiness with how Mayor Wu has run
the office here in Boston for the last three and
a half plus years, fine, If you're dissatisfied with what's
been going on, or if there's a specific issue, meaning
(15:58):
mass and cass bike lanes. Mayor Wu has put in
a lot of bike lanes to the delight of many
and to the consternation of some. What about again, the
White Stadium controversy at Franklin Park. There are some strong
feelings on that issue either way. You can go back
(16:18):
to the controversy over the North End restaurants and whether
or not they could set up sidewalk business not only
this summer, but for the last couple of summers. So
there's a lot of reasons why people might be motivated
to go to the polls. Obviously, if you work in
the city, and you live in the city, and you
(16:40):
happen to work for Boston City Hall, that's one of
the things that incumbent mayor always a well of wellspring
of support that that mayor will have, whether it's Tom Andino,
Marty Walsh, Michelle Wu, Ray Flynn, Kevin White. Oh, however
long you want to go back, I would like to
know motivated to get out there tomorrow? Do you care?
(17:02):
Maybe in Boston you're concerned about real estate taxes. Maybe
you're concerned about the price of housing in Boston. There
are some pretty wealthy neighborhoods in Boston. Certainly there are
places down on the seaport which are very expensive. You
have parts of Jamaica Plain which are very expensive, needless
(17:22):
to say, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, West Roxbury, parts of Brighton.
There are some nice, very nice areas in Roxbury, Dorchester, Charlestown,
East Boston, South Boston. Boston is a great city whoever
has been the mayor, There's no doubt about that. In
my mind, we are a city. The crime stats are
(17:46):
not nearly as bad as they are in a city
like Chicago. Now Chicago was a much bigger city. But
when you put it all into your your mind, where
does it lead you? Weird does it take you? And
who who will you support tomorrow? Or And if you're
not from Boston and like to join and talk about
a race that's going on in your community, I'm willing
(18:08):
to deal with that as well, so here are the
numbers six, one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one, seven, nine, three, one,
ten thirty. I got wide open lines here. Uh, don't
want it to be wide open for long. We're going
to take a news break and we will we will
be back. And also, by the way, I do want
to remind you. I'll remind you about this after the
break because I want to get to the news on
(18:29):
time light the phone lines up, we will be right back.
Whoever you form, not here to challenge you, just here
to get a sense of are you in line with
the Emerson poll or do you feel the Emerson pole
may be somewhat off. We will see tomorrow night for sure,
But tonight you can talk about it.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, there is a preliminary election tomorrow in Boston City
Council races. Those are important. I get a sense though
politics in Boston is not nearly as much of a
I call it a blood sport as it once was.
(19:14):
I mean, we've been We've seen much more exciting races
over the years. Maybe this race doesn't excite you, if
it doesn't feel free, tell us why. I mean I
think back to you know, races from many years ago.
(19:35):
You know Kevin White and Joe Timmlty. They were tough
races towards the end of White's term. Ray Flynn had
one tough race in nineteen eighty three, but once he
secured himself, he was in good shape. We have you know, others,
(19:58):
Tom Andina for a long time. So again, if you'd
like to join us and UH and talk about the UH,
the Emerson poll as well as the race UH. And
nobody is more qualified to talk about the race. I
suspect than someone who is right in the midst of it.
Joining us now is Boston Meyo candidate Josh Kraft. Let
(20:20):
me uh, Let let me bring the UH the candidate up.
Josh Kraft, Welcome back to Nightside.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
How are you, Dan?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
How are you?
Speaker 4 (20:29):
It's always great to be on night Side, So well
you were?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
You're with us tonight and a big day, a big
day for you tomorrow. I read your schedule. You've got
a couple of additional endorsements tonight. Tell us how you
feel the night before?
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Look, I feel great. We've worked hard, We've gotten out
and gotten in front of as many people as we can.
So that we can listen to them, learn from them,
understand what their fears, you know, what their challenges are,
what's upsetting them about the city, and just want to
(21:09):
make sure we know they know that as a mayor,
I will put them first. The residents will always come
first because I work for them. As mayor, I work
for the residents.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
And I noticed that with your campaign you seem to
do a lot of what used to be called retail politicking,
where you were going to as many meetings as you could.
I've watched your schedule very closely. You spent a lot
of time in March, April, May, June. How confident are
(21:42):
you that some of those connections, those one on one
you know, conversations, will result in a better than expected
vote tomorrow night.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Well, look, Dan, it's really in the end. As I said,
I report to the residents. As mayor, I work for
the residents of Boston. The residents make the decision. It's
not the media, not polls, it's not catchy press conferences
(22:14):
to people of the city. And I've been out, I've listened,
I've done my best to understand what the challenges are,
told them that, you know, my career thirty five years
in the city has always been about accessibility, going up
and listening, and that's why I'll always be and I
(22:36):
think people like that. And of course I don't know
what's going to happen tomorrow. I feel great about the
connections I've made, as you said, Dan, retail, politicking, listening, learning,
and we'll just see where it goes.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Of all the issues that Bostonians have talked with you
about all this, you know, it's what seven months March, April, May, June, July, August,
and into September and a little bit of February. What
are the issues that do you think are going to
make people go to the polls tomorrow? Is it Mass
(23:15):
and Cass Is it the bike lanes? Is it White Stadium?
Is it how restaurant owners are treated in the North End?
Is it the fact that you the other night promised
me that if you're elected, not only do you want
to serve this four year full this term in its entirety,
but you also, if you are fortunate enough to be
(23:37):
re elected, you would serve two full terms or whatever.
Has Mayor Wiu finally got around to saying, yeah, she's
in this for the entirety of the term if she
indeed is re elected.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
I don't know because I don't know if anyone in
the media has ever asked that, And.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I can't worry the show, so I have not had
a chance to ask you that question. But I guarantee
you I would have asked that question.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
So now and I know, but my and my guess
is the other media outlets probably wouldn't ask that. If
I had to guess.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
What do they say in Latin race hips aloquid? If
it hasn't been asked a lot of people had a
chance to talk with it. What are the major issues?
What is your sense?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
You know understand those issues you just mentioned are all
issues that will bring people to the polls, as well
as you know, middle class housing, affordability, taxes, But really
what supersedes it's all those are the issues, but there's
(24:47):
a huge but they're all wrapped up in one thing,
and that is people do not feel connected to the
city or heard by the city. And we have a
tradition in this city of mayor being accessible and showing
up and listening. I'll go, you know, too young with
Mayor White, but you know, Mayor Flynn obviously, Mayor Menino
(25:11):
and Marty Walsh. That's all they did. They showed up,
they listen, they supported, and people do not feel that now.
And whether it's getting bike lanes, you know, thrown into
the streets with that no preparation and no community feedback,
White Stadium ram down the throats of neighbors that live
(25:33):
in out those neighborhoods, you know, the South End and
other neighborhoods, not dealing with quality of life issues, but
dealing with public safety issues. End quote, the safest city
in America because of the lack of containment and support
for those struggling at Mass and Cast and just people
(25:55):
just don't fee. They just don't feel heard, they feel ignored,
and they're angry.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I saw some clips from the meeting that you attended.
I do not believe you spoke at that meeting. But
now this is the meeting that we talked about the
other night with you, that at that hotel over by
Mass and Cass. There's a lot of anger in that room,
interesting them being. The anger was because they felt they've
(26:22):
been ignored. I want to comment on that.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yeah, and they have them they have been. I was
over at Titus Swallow Park this afternoon meeting with a
bunch of families in the South End, and that's what
they feel, you know. And look, as I keep saying,
the mayor works for the residents and can't ignore your people.
(26:48):
You work for, You got to them.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
My last question I want to ask you, and it's
an issue that I think the city it's going to
have to deal with, and whoever is the whoever's it
gets elected in November, it's going to have to deal with,
and that is the commercial tax base in Boston. There
are so many buildings where people have left and that
the workers haven't come back in downtown Boston. How would
(27:14):
you handle that situation?
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Yeah, and just to say we're going to lose one
point seven billion over the next five years in commercial
real estate and the mayor says, oh, our budget's fine. No,
we're heading into tough fiscal times. I think the number
one thing, obviously is to look hard at our own
budget and find savings. But second, we need to create
(27:38):
revenue sources, especially around tax commercial taxes. The best way
to do that is, as mayor, the city will be
open for business. We are going to incentivize businesses to
move their headquarters where secondary headquarters are expand into Boston,
and that will lead to businesses coming here, tax revenue, jobs,
(28:01):
and of course philanthropic community, uh support for nonprofits.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Last question, there was some good news today, Hasbro company
out of Rhode Island who's decided to relocate to Boston.
I assume you welcome that.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
No, definitely, we'll welcome. We welcome all anny and all
businesses there. We need it, We're gonna need it.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I think that that that Boston is My analysis is
pretty much the same as yours. Very quickly, You're going
to be all over the city tomorrow. Where do you
start and where do you end?
Speaker 4 (28:41):
You know, I know I start in the North End
and then we will end over at the Iron Workers
Hall for the end of the night. And you know,
the iron Workers Local seven and iconic union in the city,
and they have been so great to us. I'm very
(29:01):
grateful for their support.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Well, Josh Craft, best best of luck you. You have
taken on Mayor race. You have contributed your own funds
to it. You've worked really hard on this. I hope
you get an outcome tomorrow that that puts you in
a in a position when in November where we're going
(29:23):
to have a race and have an opportunity to have
many more conversations with voters, with constituents and with you
as well. So thanks so much, Thank you, Dan.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Thank you Dan, And I just say to anyone listening,
I'd humbly ask for your vote and please vote tomorrow,
and of course be great if you vote for me.
So thanks so much and have a great night.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Absolutely absolutely, thanks so much. Josh Graft. Ladies and gentlemen,
candidate from mayor. All right, we will take a very
quick break. I'd love to get a few of you
jump on board here. Tell me if you like what
you hear, and if you decided who are you going
to vote for tomorrow? It will be as tradition dictates,
in a what is called a preliminary election, but as
(30:09):
a primary election, it generally tends to be a smaller
turnout than in September than November. There's reasons for that.
Part of the reason is that people are still trying
to get back to work and get back to school
and get their wives resettled from the summer vacation times.
But it's a very important day and if you have
(30:30):
any opportunity tomorrow, there'll be no lines to you're not
going to be waiting for three hours to vote anywhere
in Boston tomorrow. In the meantime, you can express your
opinion and who you would like to see elected at
six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty, six one, seven, nine, three, one,
ten thirty on Night Sign. My name is Dan Ray.
We will be right back with some of your phone calls.
(30:52):
Light it up. I'm not going past ten o'clock. After
ten o'clock, I have a different topic we're going to
talk about. So if you want to get in, now's
the time to dial.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Well, we had a couple of folks on hold I
for some reason, we've lost them. If they would like
to call back, we'll try to put them on as
quickly as we can. It's interesting when we talk about
issues in terms of Boston, and you talk about White Stadium.
There's a lot of people in the city who are
very upset about that, a lot of people who are
looking forward to it as an opportunity. You talk about
(31:30):
bike lanes, that's a subject that virtually everyone has an
opinion on. But what I'm trying to figure out is
if you're a Boston resident, are you going to vote tomorrow?
Do you care enough to vote tomorrow? And if you do,
who are you inclined to support? And in addition, why
what is it about either Mayor Wu or Josh Kraft
(31:55):
that will make you spend a few minutes tomorrow to
get to the polls. Now, there's no excuse why people
will not vote tomorrow. This is not like a presidential
election where it's in November and it's a bad weather
day and you have lines around the block at this
(32:17):
polling location and some other polling location. I would suggest
that tomorrow, literally most people could walk into a polling
place and cast abouot and be done with it within
no more than five minutes.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Literally.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Everybody complains about traffic, everybody complains about taxes, everybody complains
about dealing with city Hall. If something happens and you
get a parking ticket and you want to fight that
parking ticket, all the complaints that I hear, And yet
the two days every four years that you can have
an impact on actually who is the mayor of Boston.
(32:54):
One day is tomorrow, and then the next one will
be I believe it's November fourth, the final election. So
if you'd like to call in and give us a
quick indication as to who you are inclined to take
a few minutes out of your day and support both
of these candidates. And by the way, we did notify
Mayor Woo's office this afternoon. If she wanted to join
(33:15):
us tonight, she would just she would have been as
welcome as Josh Kraft, because they are the two people.
And also we had said earlier that if you're a
candidate for city council or something along that line here
in Boston, this is an opportunity for you to jump
on board and talk to your potential constituents. But I'm
(33:36):
most interested in Boston residents, all of whom have strong opinions.
I sometimes go over to West Roxbury and I talk
to people in West Roxbury, and it seems as if
everybody over there is appalled, is absolutely appalled at the
bike lane on Center Street. Well, you can't vote to
(33:56):
get rid of the bike lane, but you can express
your opinion as to who should be the next mayor,
or who should remain as mayor, whether it be the
person in the person of Michelle Woo or in the
person of the challenge of Josh Kraft. All I can
do is give you the opportunity to give us a
(34:17):
call at six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty
six one seven, nine three one, ten thirty and if not,
I'm going to well, I will change topics on the
other side of the ten o'clock news, that is for sure.
I will give you this a little bit of a preview.
There was an article today in the New York Times
that talked about the average price of a an NFL
(34:43):
ticket just to go to an NFL game, like two
and eighty two hundred and seventy nine dollars. It's like, uh,
it's incredible the cost of that. But we'll get to
that after ten o'clock. In the meantime, let me get
a call, call or two in here quickly. I wish
that Danny had called a little earlier. Danny, you're calling
(35:05):
from Boston. Who are you gonna vote for tomorrow?
Speaker 5 (35:09):
I think I think you mean Jamie Jamie.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Okay, Well, unfortunately Rob got Danny has Danny up on
the board. But that's okay, Jamie. I appreciate you calling
as well. Welcome. Who's who's your choice tomorrow? Jamie?
Speaker 5 (35:23):
It's definitely Josh Kraft.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
Michelle, I've been a resident for twenty seven years, owned
property here in Beacon Hill, had businesses here in the
back bany Beacon Hill. And uh, I just don't like
to wait showe who was in treating the residents in
the businesses. So and one thing you didn't bring up
that Josh didn't bring up either, is that Uh the
(35:46):
whole Christmas party thing that happened what two years ago?
Uh with Michelle?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, that was a minority elected officials.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Yeah, that just rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
I mean, we try to be an inclusive city and
she didn't even back down from what she did.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Okay, well again those are I thank you for having
the courage of your convictions and taking an opportunity to
call and express yourself. Do you have your you know
what polling place you are registered at?
Speaker 5 (36:20):
I do, yes?
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Okay, Well, won't won't take long tomorrow. There won't be
long lines with the polls. That's that's for sure, Jamie.
But I appreciate you, appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
I appreciate it. I'll be a Postmork all.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Right, thanks Jamie, Thanks very much. All right, have a
great night. Good night. If you get this last one
and very quickly robbed, that'll be fine too, and then
if not, we will move on. If you got this
person lined up, we can take them fairly quickly rob
if if you're ready, and if not, we'll just go
to the ten o'clock news. Okay, we're flat out of time,
fair enough, we will take a break. We come back
on to talk about the price to attend an NFL
(36:57):
football game in person, and how much money you have
to spend on tickets, let's say, for a family of four,
before you so much as buy a program or buy
a hot dog. We'll be back on nights side right
after the ten o'clock news
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