Development coalition hits airwaves in mayoral race

A coalition of unions and developers is hitting the TV and radio airwaves with a half-million dollar ad buy to push the crop of mayoral candidates to follow their agenda.

The advertisements come from the Responsible Development Coalition, a new 501(c)(4) political advocacy committee that includes the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters union and various local developers and contractors, which intends to “campaign to ensure responsible development remains a central issue in Boston’s mayoral race.”

The ads highlight a “pledge” they say all the candidates took that includes supporting unions and jobtraining initiatives and focusing on building more affordable housing. There’s no donor list available at this point of specifically where the money came from.

The ads will begin to air today and run for 10 days. The group is then expected to pump more money into ads as the race moves forward.

The ads don’t endorse or attack any particularly candidate. In the TV version — which will run on the broadcast networks during the evenings — carpenters union boss Joe Byrne addresses the camera, speaking at one point as the video cuts to footage of all of the major candidates’ faces and names on easels.

“Tell our candidates for mayor to support responsible development — to protect our neighborhoods,” Byrne says in the 30-second TV ad.

The coalition will host a mayoral forum July 15.

Former city economic development director John Barros, Acting Mayor Kim Janey, state Rep. Jon Santiago and city councilors Andrea Campbell, Annissa Essaibi-George and Michelle Wu are all running for mayor. The preliminary election, which will narrow the field to the top two vote-getters, will take place in September before the general election in November.

The race appears to be moving toward the airwaves as the preliminary draws nearer. A political action committee supporting Campbell went up on TV earlier this month.

Janey and Wu have led in the sparse polling publicly available so far. Wu and Campbell have big leads in money in the bank over the rest of the field.

Independent expenditure PACs — like the one that went up for Campbell — are expected to begin to converge on the race. They’re barred from coordinating with candidates and fundraise separately — with much fewer restrictions on individuals’ donations.