Amid campaign shakeup, Kraft hopes to gain ground in preliminary election

Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft hopes to show “significant momentum” against Mayor Michelle Wu in next week’s preliminary election. New polling released Friday shows 50 points of ground for Kraft to make up.

In an interview with WBUR’s Morning Edition, Kraft also floated an “outside-the-box” proposal for Boston’s school bus system.

Here are the key takeaways from that conversation:

This week, Kraft parted ways with veteran campaign advisers Will Keyser and Eileen O’Connor, citing “strategic differences.”

“I don't want to discuss differences, but I will discuss this: I'm very grateful to Will and Eileen. I had never done this before, and they got me going,” Kraft told WBUR.

Kraft said he plans to stay the course on his current campaign strategy. And, at least for now, he doesn’t plan to bring in new advisors.

“We’re just so focused on September 9th,” he said, referring to the day of the non-partisan preliminary election that will narrow the field of Boston mayoral candidates to two.

Kraft has consistently trailed incumbent Mayor Wu by double digits in polls. A new poll out from Emerson College Friday, after WBUR spoke with Kraft, showed a 50-point gap between the candidates. That same poll found over half of voters have an unfavorable view of Kraft.

“If I paid attention to polls, I would have never got in the race in the first place,” Kraft said Thursday. “Our goal for Tuesday is to show significant momentum.”

Kraft acknowledges the idea is “outside-the-box.” He hasn't yet run it by anyone at the T. But he said the school bus system could use a steady hand.

"Our thought is, we've been so impressed by [T General Manager] Phillip Eng and the work he's done to improve the MBTA, let's figure out a partnership between the MBTA and the Boston Public Schools regarding school buses,” he said.

Kraft did not go into specifics about how he envisions the state’s largest transit agency could help run the school bus network.

The school bus system has been under scrutiny after kindergartener Lens Joseph was struck and killed by a bus in April. A recent review found lax record-keeping and other issues at Transdev, which is the bus contractor for Boston Public Schools.