Real Estate Developer Money Floods Into Framingham Mayor Sisitsky's Campaign War Chest

A major campaign issue in the Framingham Mayoral race is the fact that the Sisitsky campaign is largely funded by real estate developers, or people who don’t live in Framingham.

A typical example of this is Sisitsky's July 2025 fundraising.

$28,563 was raised, which is enough money to run an entire Mayoral campaign.

The Sisitsky July fundraising report can be accessed on the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance website by browsing to:

https://www.ocpf.us/reports/displayreport?id=984540

and then clicking Receipts.

Here are some remarkable facts, drawn from that report, which details the $28,563 in donations to the Sisitsky campaign for July, all from individuals, with this breakdown:

1. Real estate interests based outside of Framingham contributed: $13,000.
2. Other business interests based outside of Framingham contributed: $2,300.
3. Residents living outside of Framingham contributed: $5,365.
4. Framingham real estate interests contributed: $750.
5. Framingham business interests with past or present contracts with the city: $2,000.

That adds up to $23,415.

The remaining $5,148 in donations came from bona fide Framingham residents who have no past or present business connections with the city, and are not connected to real estate interests. That is less than 20% of the fundraising total.

It is very clear from this that the Sisitsky campaign is hugely dependent on money flowing in from sources outside the city, and that developers have undue influence with the city administration.

And that has been the case for the past 4 years, not just for the July fundraiser.

The entire Sisitsky fundraising record can be found at:

https://www.ocpf.us/Filers/?q=17001

By clicking Reports, it can be seen that the Mayor's campaign account balance started at $2,757.43 on 12/31/2021 and rose to $61,362.68 by 6/30/2025, just prior to the July fundraiser.

The fundraising pattern displayed in that period is almost identical to that of the July fundraiser. About $33,000 of that fundraising came from real estate interests - more than half of the total.

The message from all of this is that the current Mayor has no compunction about raising money in this manner in full public view.

He also shows a remarkable indifference to the importance of local communities compared to developer interests, as was evidenced in his blind-siding of the Nobscot community, when at the last minute and with no warning, he included the Edmands/Edgell parcel in the MBTA Communities Act compliance package to provide advantage to the developer J&Co.

This also aligns with his recent commentary carried in the MetroWest Daily News where he said: “… we're working hard to bring in new development and, like it or not, apartment buildings pay taxes."

What the Mayor fails to recognize is that property taxes from new apartment buildings don’t come for free.

First, there is a substantial cost impact on our aging water & sewer infrastructure and our roads, plus the added traffic, which already is at a very high density in many parts of the city, transforming erstwhile normal streets to high traffic volume at peak hours.

Second, the ‘by right’ MBTA Communities Act zoning which the Mayor enabled for all of the 225 acre Central Business District downtown, encourages family friendly 3 bedroom units more than 1 or 2 bedroom units, and consequently a much higher generation of additional students for the school system, which could easily turn downtown developments into net losses for the city.

Third, in many cases, the new buildings are not exactly architectural gems, can be out of scale with their neighborhoods, and commonly fall well below the expectations local communities had in their planning process.

The planned 173&179 Union Ave 5 story development comes to mind, as it dwarfs the neighboring low rise houses. See an article on the latter:

Local Framingham Couple Try To Defend Their Downtown Neighborhood

The 6 story building going up on Pearl St also completely disrupts the bucolic charm of Farm Pond viewed from the further side shore. The Planning Board seemed never to understand the visual impact on one of our city environmental gems.

In summary, the Mayor has never owned up to the fact that increasingly developers walk away with handsome profits in a year or two, while neighborhoods are left to grapple with real losses of quality of life and local character, and the entire city community has to carry the burden of substantial infrastructure cost impacts for decades.

At present, developers have an inside track at city hall, which is greased by political donations, while the community at large gets the short end of the deal.

It is quite clear how another 4 years of Sisitsky would play out.

It is time for neighborhoods to say enough is enough, and insist that city government put neighborhood and taxpayer interests ahead of developer profiteering.