BOSTON HERALD

In wide-open field, our primary picks

By Boston Herald editorial staff | Tuesday, September 9, 2008

 Dianne Wilkerson seems to have located her inner campaign organizer. Unlike the fiasco in 2006 she has collected the requisite signatures to qualify for the ballot this year. She has also tidied up those ugly campaign finance charges, acknowledging violations that date back to 2000 in a settlement with the attorney general.

So for 1) qualifying for the ballot and 2) paying a big fat fine, voters are expected to reward her with a ninth term. Have our standards for public servants really fallen that far?

It might be different if voters in the Second Suffolk District didn’t have an alternative but they do. Sonia Chang-Diaz, the former public school teacher who nearly beat Wilkerson two years ago, is the Herald’s pick in the Sept. 16 Democratic primary.

Chang-Diaz is a ball of energy who in the course of two campaigns has shown spark and an admirable commitment to the district. She has rightly made an issue of Wilkerson’s past legal and ethical transgressions even when it risked some support.

Do we agree on every issue with Chang-Diaz? Not even close. But we are confident she has her constituents’ interests - and not her own - at heart.

Meanwhile another big Senate race comes courtesy of disgraced Sen. James Marzilli. Of the two Democrats seeking to replace him, the Herald backs Kenneth J. Donnelly of Arlington in the Fourth Middlesex primary. He is the one candidate who recognizes the jobs potential in the governor’s casino development proposal.

The same is true of Edward J. Mills of Hopkinton, who faces another Democrat in the race to succeed Rep. Paul Loscocco, a Republican who is retiring from the Eighth Middlesex seat.

Both Donnelly and Mills are favorites of organized labor which already has undue influence over this Legislature. But they would at least bring voices of reason to the State House on a major economic development issue.

The paltry number of contested races this year is a grim reminder of single-party power in this state. The GOP is contesting only 46 of 200 House and Senate seats - down from 70 in 2006, which on its own was pitiful. Among its first acts the 2008-2009 Legislature should address the obstacles to a healthy democracy, starting with the state’s absurdly low campaign donation limits.

But the seats that are being contested are important ones. Voters in those districts should make their voices heard.
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