Boston Mayor Michelle Wu used campaign funds for ‘electeds of color’ holiday party, records show

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

BOSTON — Records show Boston Mayor Michelle Wu dipped into her $1.4 million campaign war chest to pay for last year’s controversial “electeds of color” holiday party, but did not use taxpayer funds as previously speculated and initially considered.

A series of emails, obtained by the Herald via a public records request, show that while city officials from the mayor’s administration were responsible for planning an exclusive holiday party hosted by Wu at the city-owned Parkman House, the event was ultimately paid out of her campaign coffers — which continue to grow given her prior remarks that it is “very” likely she will seek a second term.

While city funds were not ultimately used, the emails reveal that was not always the chosen case, with the mayor’s intergovernmental relations department — which sent the mistaken email invite to white city councilors that went viral after it was first reported by the Herald — initially set to pick up the tab.

“For the electeds of color party on 12/13, we’re expecting 20-25 people,” Ellen Quinn, the mayor’s director of state relations for the intergovernmental relations department, wrote on Nov. 16.

“I checked with Miriam in our office and IGR can pay for the food for that party, IGR can handle the electeds invites for both 12/13 and 12/14, but confirming that we don’t have to actually do any of the food ordering.”

Ultimately however, the city’s IGR department did not pay for the food.

Emails between city officials indicated that food from a Chinatown restaurant would be purchased for the event, but it’s unclear whether that was the case as there were no relevant campaign expenditures in November, when planning began, and December, the month the party took place.

A spokesperson for the mayor, however, confirmed that campaign funds were used for the electeds of color party.

The mayor’s campaign coffers list a number of holiday party-related campaign expenditures, totaling more than $17,000, including $3,334 on Nov. 16 for Gourmet Caterers, which city officials described as being booked for two separate events in emails discussing the electeds of color and the general holiday party that is open to all city and state officials.

The Herald previously reported that the Attorney General’s office had received four complaints for the Dec. 13 bash that disinvited white councilors by email, but deemed that it did not appear to violate the public accommodation law — which prohibits discrimination in public places — since it was not open to the public.

While not in apparent violation of any laws, a look at 560 pages of internal emails provided to the Herald shed light on the firestorm the exclusive holiday party created, both locally and on the national level.

After news of the event broke on Dec. 12, the mayor’s press office was bombed not only with media requests, but with criticism of what some members of the community perceived as the mayor’s decision to hold a divisive, racist party, including some feedback that directed racist remarks at the mayor.

“Obviously Michelle Wu is a flaming racist,” one anonymous 311 report read. “Maybe she should just go back to China. We do not need her kind here.”

Another unnamed 311 report used derogatory terms for the mayor’s Asian heritage.

The emails also show that the mistaken email sent by Wu’s director of City Council Relations Denise DosSantos, to all city councilors, prompting her to apologize for having to rescind the white member invites, was apparently meant to be a reminder to councilors of color, given that initial invites went out to the relevant city and state elected officials of color on Nov. 21 and 22, respectively.

The invites to councilors of color included Gabriela Coletta, who has some Mexican heritage but was initially thought to be among the seven white councilors not invited, and were sent after an email clarifying that the mayor wanted to also include then Councilors-elect Enrique Pepén and Henry Santana.

Critical emails also went out to councilors quoted in the Herald story, including now Council Vice President Brian Worrell, a black member of the body who defended the party at the time as an annual event that makes space “for all kinds of specific groups” in city government.

“I saw your comments regarding Mayor Wu’s party and felt the need to remind you that there is no home for racism in Boston,” a Dec. 13 email from John Campbell read. “Hosting a party where one group is excluded solely based on the color of their race is the textbook definition of racism.”

Resident Tom Perkins chose to direct his ire at Councilor-at-Large Ruthzee Louijeune, now the body’s president, who was among those defending the party, stating that she had made former Councilor Frank Baker, who is white and called the event divisive, “look like a voice of reason, which isn’t easy to do.”

“There was a time,” Perkins wrote, “when a bunch of the at-large councilors only seemed to care about Southie and West Roxbury. And where are we now? The colors have changed but the parochial, divisive, exclusionary and fundamentally race-based approach to governance remains.

“This isn’t progress.”

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