Former Boston mayor Marty Walsh – despite taking a high paid job leading the NHL players’ union – still looms over the Massachusetts political scene and the current mayor’s race.

Sources say Walsh, the former Labor Secretary under Joe Biden, has taken an interest in who will be the next mayor, including possibly taking a leap and endorsing Josh Kraft.

Walsh still lives in Dorchester even though the NHLPA is in Toronto, and has always had his roots in Boston.

And it looks like Walsh, an adviser to the great Kamala Harris and part of the braintrust that picked Tim Walz as the VP candidate last year, still has the political bug.

He’s one of the Democrats mentioned as possibly taking an interest in the 2026 governor’s race, though it’s questionable whether he would challenge incumbent Maura Healey.

It’s more likely that Walsh will eventually back Kraft, whose campaign he’s been informally advising, according to sources. Would that be a boost or a risk to the mayoral challenger and could it actually play into the hands of incumbent Michelle Wu?

Wu was going to challenge Walsh before the former mayor cashed in on his union connections to join the Biden administration. Then he broke the bank when he took the $3 million a year job running the National Hockey League Players’ Association.

Walsh, though a diehard liberal Democrat, is part of the “old Boston” that Wu talks about running the city for centuries. As mayor, he signed into law a bill making Boston a sanctuary city for immigrants.

A Walsh endorsement of Kraft could reinforce the stereotype that the son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft is part of the old coalition of white males who used to sit in the mayor’s office.

That’s not the message Kraft is trying to sell to voters.

And it’s questionable how much clout Walsh still has in the city and state.

Last time he got involved in a political campaign, it was for congressional candidate Dan Koh, his former chief of staff. Koh was defeated by current U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan.

Even if Walsh stays out of the race, Josh Kraft got a reprieve of sorts when developer Thomas O’Brien announced on Monday that he won’t be running for governor.

That means Kraft is likely to have a much easier path securing one of the two slots in the preliminary election to make it to the November final.

“Sources” close to O’Brien – a former redevelopment czar under Mayor Thomas Menino – insisted he was running last week. Now that looks more like it was a trial balloon and nothing else. O’Brien obviously had some sense talked into him by people who know he would have been destroyed by Wu.

Like Kraft, O’Brien is a wealthy white guy. He would have been a walking poster child for conflict of interest if he had decided to run.

O’Brien has his hands in some of the biggest development projects in the city and his interests would have been questioned by Wu.

In his statement bowing out of the race, O’Brien took a swipe at Kraft by essentially endorsing Wu. He obviously hopes his flirtation with running won’t hurt him secure permits for all his development projects.

“I’ll keep working to make our city a more affordable, inclusive and vibrant place to live, work and thrive – and I look forward to partnering with Mayor Wu, her administration and others to help achieve that vision,” he said.

Ouch.