BOSTON GLOBE: Wilkerson feeling the heat again
By Michael Jonas | August 24, 2008
Dianne Wilkerson can claim a bevy of big-name backers whose muscle could be crucial to helping her hang onto her state Senate seat in next month's Democratic primary. Her challenger, Sonia Chang-Diaz, is claiming something even more valuable: a big lead among likely voters in the Sept. 16 primary.
With that, the two candidates are heading down the homestretch of a rematch of their 2006 showdown, a race that saw Wilkerson narrowly retain her seat against a first-time candidate who was able to tap the buyers' remorse that voters were feeling about the senator they first elected in 1992.
Chang-Diaz's campaign released the findings of an internal poll last week that shows its candidate holding a sizable lead among likely primary voters in the Second Suffolk District, which reaches from Chinatown and the Back Bay through Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and sections of Dorchester and Mattapan. According to the campaign-conducted poll of 419 likely Democratic primary voters, Chang-Diaz holds a lead of 47 percent to 30 percent, with 23 percent still undecided.
Not surprisingly, the Wilkerson campaign isn't buying the numbers. "I'm not putting a lot of credence into that poll," says Mukiya Baker-Gomez, Wilkerson's campaign manager. History suggests that perhaps she ought to. Polling results released by Chang-Diaz during the 2006 race showed soft support for Wilkerson in the district, a finding largely supported by Wilkerson's far less-than-landslide 49-44 percent victory.
"Generally speaking, incumbent state senators are not vulnerable. This race is the exception," says Chang-Diaz campaign strategist Dan Cohen, whose firm conducted the poll earlier this month.
The reason for that exception is Wilkerson's oversized collection of ethical and legal baggage, which ranges from a conviction for failure to file income taxes for four years in the 1990s to a settlement reached earlier this month with the attorney general in which she admitted to multiple violations of campaign finance laws.
Amid her trail of transgressions, Wilkerson has been a forceful advocate for all manner of liberal causes, a record that has lots of advocacy groups backing her reelection. Baker-Gomez says there are also plenty of pols Wilkerson has supported who are ready to repay the favor, ranging from city councilors Charles Yancey and John Connolly to Mayor Tom Menino and Governor Deval Patrick.
Reprising the theme of her 2006 campaign, the equally liberal-leaning Chang-Diaz says voters shouldn't have to choose between their political values and high ethical standards in those who represent them.
Just how much organizational oomph the various pols and interest groups will provide Wilkerson is unclear. And even with their help, will it trump the clear sense among a decent-sized chunk of voters in the district that it's time for a change?
Michael Jonas can be reached at jonas@globe.com.
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