The Boston Election Commission has confirmed that Dianne Wilkerson, who waited until 12 minutes before the deadline to file her nomination papers, has fallen about 30 signatures short of being listed on the Democratic ballot for state Senate. Now the $64,000 question is whether any other Democratic activist in the district is finally fed up enough with such repeated follies to launch a sticker campaign for the Democratic nomination. Think anyone intends to step up to the plate? Or will Wilkerson continue her unchallenged monopoly on shouldering the Democratic mantle?
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Or not intentional, but some deep rooted, odd way of her bowing out? What a trainwreck she is. And it’s so odd because she’s often very compelling in person.
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Seems to me she has a couple of options:
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1. Run a sticker campaign (can she even do that since she tried and failed to get on the ballot?)
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2. Challenge the election commission’s ruling in court.
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3. Step aside. Her “Republican” challenger, Samiyah Diaz, is most likely not a Republican at heart. According to this Globe article, she was unenrolled until recently. In this week’s South End News, however, she appears to have been influenced by the state GOP party because she is NOT saying she favors gay marriage, but rather is saying she is “opposed to rolling back the constitution. (Click on top article on her media page here).
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I’m actually quite torn about this. I have a massive distaste for most Republican philosophies and over at MassChange I made some incorrect and unfounded accusations on that point. But I am a fan of “old time”, Yankee Republicans. While they may not have believed in everything we believe in, they were fiercely fiscally prudent, generally hands-off on social issues, and, for the most part, nice people. Jim Jeffords and Lincoln Chaffee are about the only surviving examples these days, with maybe Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Otherwise, they are a dead breed.
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But I also like people like Mike Bloomberg and Cory Booker, both of whom are pragmatic and results-oriented leaders who are not afraid to take on positions that others feel are unpopular – like favoring school choice.
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Diaz appears to have taken a page directly from Bloomberg’s playbook: run as a Republican because it’s the only way to challange the insiders’ club – something else I respect, hence my appreciation for candidates like Deval and, increasingly, Silbert — both of whom are the clear outsiders running successfully against a machine that presumes someone else is entitled to the post they seek (i.e. Reilly and Murray).
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I guess I would encourage Samiyah Diaz to pull an “Andrea Cabral” and come back to the Democratic Party if she ends up winning. Then again, she could also go back to “unenrolled” and be even more of a maverick were she to win. She doesn’t strike me as a Romney Republican. Rather, she seems to be a Cabral Democrat.
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Looks like things just got very interesting…
It is even possible to run sticker campaigns in BOTH parties in the primaries. It had been discussed in a number of state house and senate races in ’04 that incumbent democrats run write-in campaigns against weak Romney-recruits inthe GOP primary. I’m not sure that anyone actually followed through.
For me, this is like that time when I thought the Red Sox were going to swap Manny for Tejada, only to have it not happen for some dumb reason. I bet she appeals and “magically” ends up with 301 signatures. What are the odds!
She’s done.
I see no reason to think that Samiyah Diaz is a Democrat just yearning to break out of the Republican label under which she’s been forced to run. if so, she should declare as a Democrat right now because Wilkerson has missed the nomination. But if that happens, I’ll eat my hat. And I don’t expect to be shopping for new hats any time soon.
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What has Diaz said that’s progressive besides her support for same-sex marriage? And what good does that support do when it also provides great PR for the Republican party? She’s also use dthe rhetoric of “personal responsibility” in her campaign. While everyone likes personal responsibility, in politics, it usually means victim-balming and welfare-mother-bashing. The fact that she’s willing to play into that tells me that she’s an opportunist, not a closet Democrat.
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I don’t want to repeat my earlier post on this subject (which you can find here ). But if Wilkerson’s constituents want an alternative, I hope they don’t choose Diaz.
The most notable sticker race I can remember was back in 1980 when State Rep. Barney Frank moved to Newton on short notice to run for Father Drinan’s seat. While candidate Victor Themo did appear on the ballot, a host of Democrats jumped in — from eventual winner Tom Vallely, to Dennis Quilty, Alex Bok (of minor league baseball stadium fame), Herb Weiss, Smoki Bacon (of Chris Gabrieli mom-in law fame) and a couple of others (feel free to chime in).
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The primary took place on an unusually warm September day and many of the stickers at my polling place ended up falling off the machine. Fortunately, Vallely won fairly easily, so there were no challenges.
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State Rep. Byron Rushing had to run on stickers one year, as did Rep. Nelson Merced, who lost to Althea Garrison (!), who served one term before ceding the seat to Charlotte Richie.
oh, and Bill Galvin, when he was a state rep, won the Republican nomination for his seat on stickers a couple of times, I believe, at least once beating a Republican who was on the ballot ….
Do you mean he got himself nominated by both parties for his seat – Democratic nominee through signatures and primary, Republican nominee through stickets at the primary?
Hi Cos —
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Exactly so, I think his Republican opponents tended to be newcomers to Brighton, maybe just out of BC, and had no base. The Galvin folks knew who the R’s were, and got them to vote for him.
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H.
RINO Congressman Silvio O. Conte most recently pulled a similar trick back in 1982. He defeated Democratic write-in candidate Mary L. Wentworth 9,2258 to 3,286 to not only earn the Democratic and Republican nominations, but to appear on the November ballot as a “Republican-Democratic”.
Think about it- what kind of grassroots organization do you need to have to get over nine thousand write-in votes? Especially in a mid-term election when the Republican president was at a near-nadir in popularity. Pretty impressive.
PS- To howardjp: what were the circumstances surrounding Galvin’s double nomination(fusion voting?!?)? Which year was it?
I was in Brighton from 1984-1994 (though I also grew up there earlier), Susan Tracy replaced Bill in 1990, so it was probably around ’86, ’88, maybe ’84.
Bretschneider pulled the same trick on Nantucket, running for Sheriff – on THREE primary ballots. Course, since he decided on Unenrolled, and has no been arrested for beating his wife, we say he’s a Dem.
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This is a weird glitch in Mass law which shold be fixed.
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And Hoss – maybe she’s a HEALEY Republican….
Clearly Wilkerson is as conscientious about collecting signatures as she is about paying her taxes.
This once happened to Byron Rushing, too. It’s embarrassing, but he survived it, and almost nobody remembers it anymore.
see my post above ….
I believe that John Bonifaz lives in Wilkerson’s district. I don’t think his campaign for Secretary of State is taking off; perhaps he should run for her seat.
John Bonifaz is a solid reformer, widely liked, and would be a credit to the campaign. You’re right: he won’t have a prayer against Bill Galvin yet he would be a serious contender in a write-in campaign for the Democratic nomination for the Second Suffolk Senate district. Has somebody asked him?
Plus, he could continue to argue for his beleifs in a legislative setting. I think to do it, though, he’d need to convince Wilkerson to NOT wage a sticker campaign.
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What about Susan Passoni? She ran a strong City Council campaign there last year.
Michael Ross also would be a strong contender for that seat and has expressed interest in the past. Wilkerson would not have to skip the campaign for other candidates to be competitive. If anything, a crowded field makes a sticker campaign more problematic and the results more unpredictable. It’s a name recognition and field organization game at that point…and Wilkerson’s failure to get signatures proves she has no field organization. Passoni also would be another one to watch. This is a very interesting race.
Ross can’t afford the pay cut.
Former State Senators Royal Bolling, Sr. and Bill Owens as well as State Rep. Byron Rushing have all failed to either submit nomination papers at all, or failed to submit enough valid signatures. Fortunately, with the exception of Owens — who had Royal Bolling Sr. running against him, it didn’t hurt them since no one else was running. This seems to be a repeat of Nelson Merced, when Republican Althea Garrison was running and subsequently got elected because Merced didn’t submit his papers on time. The State House News Service is already reporting that Samiyah Diaz is considering runnnig a write-in campaign in the Democratic primary.
I am absolutely intrigued by this, just another episode of the Diane Wilkerson soap opera. I do not live in the district, but then again to run for State Senate you do not have to, but you must live in the district at the time of swearing in. I can not fathom how this district continues to re-elect Sen. Wilkerson time and time again, she is a misfit! She does not know what it is like to play by the rules, she only continues to create her own along the way, I do not know if Samiyah is the answer, her candidacy is all over the place, is she a Republican, a Democrat or what? First Samiyah needs to identify herself to the voters, flip flopping political parties sends a message that she will have a tough time taking stands, it also shows that she is an opportunist that would do anything to get what she wants. I think this race needs another candidate, I am seriousely thinking about entering, I have been elected before ( Revere City Council), Currently, I do not live in the district, but I know how to play by the rules and would move upon election.
Further info. to be posted soon.
I think this race needs another candidate
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And now there is one.