In case you missed it, Yvonne Abraham yesterday had an interesting piece that raises the question of whose campaign is really for sale: Sonia Chang-Diaz, who took $500 from some woman in Cambridge, or Dianne Wilkerson, who took $7,000 from the management company at the Roxse Homes project (from which Wilkerson rents her campaign office)?
House Speaker DiMasi to endorse Sonia Chang-Diaz in 2nd Suffolk state-senate race.
Councilor Turner tells PoltickerMA that he doubts Sonia Chang-Diaz is really Latina and that her support really comes from white women who can't stand the idea that a black man could get into the White House instead of Hillary Clinton.
Needless to say, Turner is backing incumbent Dianne Wilkerson in her sticker campaign, calling her "a treasured resource" the 2nd Suffolk District - or rather, real blacks and Latinos in the district - can't afford to give up.
No word yet if she will continue her "Chang-Diaz is a white devil controlled by Cambridge honkies" strategy, however.
PolitickerMA reports that should the state Senator lose her recount, she'll run a sticker campaign in November:
"If it not successful," Wilkerson said referring to the recount, "I am prepared to run as a Democrat in a sticker write in campaign on the ballot in November."
If the convicted tax evader does lose the recount, she can't run as a Democrat, of course. Just ask Joe Lieberman.
Is anyone surprised? Wilkerson and Chang-Diaz have sought paperwork for a re-count.
Interesting to see how Wilkerson can master that recount paperwork, but not actually filing for elections or campaign finance reporting (twice.)
PolitickerMA has both stories:
Chris Lovett, meanwhile, files an election-night report that would seem to indicate Wilkerson was still in a fighting mood, claiming that Chang-Diaz won't represent the overwhelmingly black precincts in their 2nd Suffolk district:
... "I think what [the primary outcome] proves is that you could be a state senator without representing a good core of this community," said Wilkerson, "and that makes me sick."
Unless she wages a write-in campaign in November against Sonia Chang-Diaz - who unofficial results show is the winner in their rematch for the 2nd Suffolk state senate seat.
Click on the link for other Boston results in today's Democratic primaries, including: In the 5th Suffolk (Dorchester and Roxbury) state rep's race, Marie St. Fleur easily beat back longtime politico Roy Owens, while in the 6th Suffolk (Roxbury, JP and Roslindale), incumbent Willie Mae Allen showed Faustina Gabriel what's what. Over in the 10th Suffolk (West Roxbury and South Brookline), it was incumbent Mike Rush in a cakewalk over Pamela Julian.
Worst Mailer Ever:
I just got this mailing from State Senator Dianne Wilkerson. She's running for re-election against Sonia Chang-Diaz.
What's ironic is the "PAST DUE" notice on the front of the mailer.
From the Boston Globe, "Wilkerson in 1997 pleaded guilty to failing to file tax returns from 1991 to 1994. She was sentenced to house arrest, then sent to a halfway house for 30 days by a federal judge after twice breaking a court-ordered 9 p.m. curfew."
PAST DUE.
Ironic.
Today's Boston Globe endorsed Sonia Chang-Diaz in the Mass. 2nd Suffolk State Senate race. The election is Tuesday, September 16. From the endorsement:
Chang-Diaz has demonstrated solid knowledge of the issues facing the district ... she understands the familes in the 2nd Suffolk and elsewhere are starved for better educational opportunities.
Mike Ball reports from a pair of debates at Boston English High - the first between incumbent state Rep. Willie Mae Allen and challenger Kathy Gabriel and the second between incumbent state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson and challenger Sonia Chang-Diaz.
Elsewhere in Debateland:
John Kerry vs. Edward O'Reilly.
A nice review of the 2nd Suffolk Senate race aired on WCVB-TV last night.
The primary between Sonia Chang-Diaz and Dianne Wilkerson is scheduled for September 16.
Full disclosure: I am supporting Chang-Diaz.
While many of us were following breaking developments regarding Senator Wilkerson's finances this past weekend, the Boston Phoenix published a nice state-of-the 2nd Suffolk Senate race overview in its current edition.
Full disclosure: I recently posted an endorsement of Sonia Chang-Diaz in this race.
Some interesting take-aways from the story:
Herald: Sen. Dianne Wilkerson reaches $10,000 settlement with AG:
... As part of the settlement, Coakley said Wilkerson acknowledged violations of campaign finance laws by failing to keep proper records from 2000 to 2004. ...
Sen. Wilkerson unable to account for money? Gosh.
Mike Ball surveys some of the issues in the repeat race between incumbent state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson and challenger Sonia Chang-Diaz.
The Globe reports on state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson's desire to avoid another embarrassment like two years ago, when she, oops, forgot to file her nomination petitions on time. The paper writes:
This year, Wilkerson qualified for the primary ballot with a whopping 3,000 signatures, 10 times the amount she needed.
Not quite. As Linda Rodriguez at the South End News reports, Wilkerson actually only qualified with 428 signatures, just one more than her opponent, Sonia Chang-Diaz. This doesn't mean the remainder of her 3,000 signatures were bad, necessarily, just that elections officials stopped looking after a certain point.
What one could call the opening round in the race between State Senator Dianne Wilkerson (D- 2nd Suffolk) and her Democratic challenger, Sonia Chang-Diaz, takes place tonight.
Boston Democratic Ward Committees are hosting a forum featuring the two candidates. After the forum, Boston's Ward 5 Democratic Committee is taking an endorsement vote. It might be only June, but this race has begun.
Here's an email I received regarding the event from the Boston Ward 5 Democratic Committee Chairman (NOTE: I am a member of the Boston Ward 5 Democratic Committtee):
----// snip
State Rep. Carl Sciortino of Medford says a whole bunch of his nomination petitions have disappeared and he wants the police to investigate (speaking of Wilkerson, this time around, she filed 10 times the required number of signatures to make sure she's on the ballot).
Left Ahead posts an hour-long interview with Chang-Diaz, making her second run for the 2nd Suffolk Senate seat now held by Dianne Wilkerson.
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