Wu blasts opponent Kraft: 'honesty and integrity are really important'

Calling his claims "quite irresponsible," Boston Mayor Michelle Wu turned up the heat on mayoral challenger Josh Kraft Tuesday as the political rivals continued to spar over the cost of rebuilding White Stadium.

Kraft says project costs have spiraled, without naming a specific source inside City Hall. Speaking with WBUR’s Morning Edition, Wu said the numbers Kraft is citing are “not real.”

“ Honesty and integrity are really important,” Wu said. “To pull something out without context, and misuse that, and apply something that’s a completely false context, I think says a lot.”

Through a deal brokered by Wu, Boston Legacy FC, a new Professional Women’s Soccer League franchise, will chip in on the rebuild, and will share the new stadium with Boston Public Schools once it’s complete.

Kraft says he obtained an internal document that shows the city’s share of the project’s cost is ballooning. He claims City Hall is bracing for a bill of $172 million dollars, far more than estimates Wu has publicly circulated.

“It’s quite irresponsible to be pulling something from a leaked document that has not been part of any discussion or connected to actual project costs and then saying this is a so-called ‘secret number,’” Wu said. She has described the $172 million figure as emerging from a hypothetical exercise modeling a “worst-case scenario” for cost overruns. Wu declined to counter Kraft’s claims with an updated estimate of her own, but said the city will have updated information on costs “likely within the next few weeks.”

A Kraft campaign spokesperson said Wu is not being transparent.

“The taxpayers deserve a straight answer from Mayor Wu on what White Stadium is going to cost,” the spokesperson said. “If the $172 million isn’t the right figure, she should tell us what the correct number is and she should do it now.”

Wu told WBUR Kraft’s accusations raise questions about his competence. She suggested Kraft perhaps did not understand how to read or interpret the internal document he obtained.

“You’re auditioning to have a job where trust is really important,” she said. “Having people be able to rely on your knowledge of the context of various processes, how different documents or numbers fit together —that all makes a difference.”

Wu added that her administration is working to identify who leaked the document to the Kraft campaign. City Hall, she said, has internal systems that “show who accessed what documents on what days.” She says the city has clear rules about what information is and is not to be shared with the public.