Michelle Wu has raised over $1 million from Boston business leaders for her inaugural festivities
"Every inauguration has the same issue: perceived risk of undue influence."
Mayor Michelle Wu has raised more than $1 million for her inaugural festivities, the bulk of it from Boston’s traditional power brokers, including big business, lobbyists, and real estate developers with projects before the city, campaign finance data show.
As an unabashed progressive with ambitions to transform the city, Wu has made it clear she intends to be a different kind of mayor. But her inaugural fund, while more modest than her predecessor’s, places her squarely within an age-old political tradition: tapping the wealthy and powerful to fund festivities where top donors gain access to the city’s new leader.
The event, originally set for January, was postponed until sometime this spring because of the pandemic, and the fund has not taken in any money since the first week of the year. Wu has raised less than her predecessor, though both leaned on a similar crowd of high-dollar donors. For his first transition and inauguration in 2014, former mayor Martin J. Walsh raised $1.4 million. For his first inauguration in 2015, Governor Charlie Baker raised $2.4 million.
Many of Wu’s contributors have business before the city, or will soon. That “does raise red flags,” said Geoff Foster, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts. “Every inauguration has the same issue: perceived risk of undue influence,” Foster said. But the requirement that the donations are publicly reported helps ease those concerns, since ethics watchdogs will be able to track “if some of these developers do appear to be having undue influence,” he said.
A spokesperson for Wu’s inaugural committee said the donations do not present a conflict of interest.
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