Sonia Chang-Díaz |
With all due respect to the various candidates for governor, the state Senate race in the Second Suffolk district is probably the most fascinating electoral contest of ’06. Dianne Wilkerson, the inspiring-and-infuriating incumbent, is running a write-in campaign to keep her job after failing to gather the 300 signatures necessary to get on the primary ballot. In the September 19 Democratic primary, she’ll face Samiyah Diaz, who happens to be a Republican (see “Potemkin Candidate,” News and Features, May 18); Sonia Chang-Díaz (emphasis added), who is, in fact, a Democrat; and possibly some guy named John Kelleher, about whom no one seems to know very much.More on Kelleher later — but first, let’s parse the Samiyah Diaz TV ad that debuted last week. It’s weird for a couple of reasons. First off, it portrays the South End as a barren cityscape that’s rife with crime, when the neighborhood — though not without the occasional shooting — is actually bustling and highly desirable. (Diaz makes too much of those bars on the windows of “garden-level” apartments; she also looks to have filmed her spot early on a weekend morning so that the streets would be unusually empty.) Second, Diaz — who’s a very attractive woman — ends up looking like some sort of spooky vagrant, an impression exacerbated by the fact that the eerie music used to set the stage keeps playing as she talks to the camera!
Back to Kelleher. The possibility of a fourth candidate jumping into the write-in race surfaced on the political blog Blue Mass Group several days ago, but the man and his candidacy remain enigmatic. The state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) has received no paperwork for a committee affiliated with “John Kelleher”; the two phone numbers Google provides for “John Kelleher” in Boston don’t help (one is disconnected, one just keeps ringing); and a source close to one of the actually existent campaigns professed ignorance about who Kelleher might be. The best guess: it’s the same John Kelleher who served as a state rep some three decades ago, went on to dabble in real estate, and calls Jamaica Plain’s Moss Hill neighborhood home.
In the coming days, watch for a dramatic entrance by the Mysterious Mr. K. And keep your eyes on the various campaigns’ first filings with OCPF, which should be available online (at mass.gov/ocpf) as of September 12. They’ll offer some additional clarity — just a bit, anyway — about a race that defies easy prediction.
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Incumbency, Potemkin candidate, The First Annual Spotty Awards, More 
- Incumbency
After state Senator Dianne Wilkerson’s bizarre failure, earlier this year, to collect enough signatures to get on September’s Democratic primary ballot, an obvious question loomed: did the senator still want her job?
- Potemkin candidate
This is the year to beat Dianne Wilkerson. And in theory, Samiyah Diaz is the sort of candidate who could actually do it.
- The First Annual Spotty Awards
Say, those Emmy Awards last week were something else, eh?
- The presidential hunt
Mitt Romney and his staff don’t leave home without their American Express cards — which gives the rest of us a chance to see exactly how, and where, they’ve been spending their gubernatorial campaign funds.
- Massachusetts pols with money in hand but no place to go
Had John Kerry decided to run for president again, the state’s political floodgates were ready to open.
- Dianne's special deal
Undeterred by her Democratic primary loss to opponent Sonia Chang-Díaz, State Senator Dianne Wilkerson is forging ahead in a sticker campaign to win re-election of her Second Suffolk seat in the state legislature.
- Blunt object
Question 2 supporters claim Massachusetts district attorneys committed “at least 15 violations of Massachusetts campaign-finance and election laws” in the runup to the marijuana-decriminalization vote.
- For governor: Deval Patrick
Progressive and reform-minded voters have two excellent choices in next week’s Democratic primary for governor: Chris Gabrieli and Deval Patrick.
- The political virgins
At this incalculably critical time — with a fiscal nightmare threatening billions of dollars of state-government spending and momentous budget decisions to be made — everyone in Massachusetts wants to be represented on Beacon Hill by someone with clout.
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Whereas Sarah Palin spewed folksy, confused verbiage, the Dodos played endearingly folk-y music for a stuffed Remis Auditorium.
- Parental discretionary donors
Polarizin’ Palin has people everywhere opening their pocketbooks to the pro-choice movement’s benefit.
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Topics:
This Just In
, U.S. Government, U.S. State Government, Election Campaigns, More
, U.S. Government, U.S. State Government, Election Campaigns, Elections and Voting, Politics, Dianne Wilkerson, Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Sonia Chang-Diaz, Samiyah Diaz, Less
