Let me be among the first to say that I hope that the Governor, Senate President, Mayor, MassEquality, and every other politician and organization that supported Wilkerson in the primary will back Sonia Chang-Diaz in the general.
The Democratic party has a nominee (recount pending). It’s a shame Wilkerson isn’t willing to accept that fact, but everyone else should.
Please share widely!
The Democrats have to suffer Lieberman because of the close numbers in the Senate, and hopefully that will end in January when people such as Mark Begich (ahem) get to the Senate.
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p>Say the scant Republicans in the district push Wilkerson over the edge and into the Senate. Why would the Democratic caucus reach out to her more than any of the Republicans? They don’t need her, and she’s making it clear she has little respect for them.
I didn’t think she would actually do it! Now it looks otherwise.
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p>Some people never learn…
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p>Um…honey. You can’t run as a Democrat. In fact, it’s expressly the fact that you are NOT the Democratic nominee. (And to be honest, I thank goodness you lost, and lost the ability to call yourself our Democratic nominee, as you made Democrats look bad.) If you so much as call yourself a Democrat, running against the actual Democrat in the race, we’ll know that your ego is bigger than your desire to listen to the will of the people.
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p>Eury, I second your call that the people who endorsed Wilkerson had better get behind Chang-Diaz if she indeed remains our nominee after the recount.
you know they are no longer fit for elective office. What a disgrace.
If it is indeed the “will of the people” that Sonia be the state senator, Diane will just lose again. Her choice, her waste of time and energy, her loss.
I mean, the voters spoke. They said, “you are not our nominee.” So what, she’s entitled to the nomination even though she didn’t get it?
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p>Obviously she has every right to try a write-in campaign (and personally, I expect she’ll be humiliated by it) but ignoring the will of the (party and unenrolled) voters is just…gall.
Let’s see, wasn’t that Kris Kristofferson’s song? Too bad Diane isn’t singing it and just moving on. When it is time, it is time. Must be bitter for her, and bittersweet for some others. But still true.
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p>For the rest of the lyrics and so forth: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/k/k…
Good song. I agree that Wilkerson should fold ’em. There’s still such a thing as sore sportsmanship- I should know, I’m a terrible sport.
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyri…
Activists will be tied down in Boston of all places when they could or should be headed to New Hampshire or Pennsylvania or Ohio or Florida.
Isn’t McCain-Obama a much bigger priority?
Instead of rebattling out the same damn race all over again, progressives in that district should, some of them, be headed up to canvass for Obama. Instead, Wilkerson, due to her selfishness, will keep both sides (both Chang-Diaz and Wilkerson supporters) in Massachusetts fighting it out once again.
For some reason I was thinking of “activists” as somehow not directly connected with the race, which doesn’t make sense anyway. Sorry.
You won’t hear judgment from me! My head has literally been swimming these last few days on all the data I’ve had to digest.
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p>I feel like I’m back in school studying stuff. I’m just not cut out for economic stuff normally. I have to work hard to think about mathy things.
grown ups can decide for themselves what should be a priority for them. Agree or disagree with Wilkerson’s decision, ( I happen to disagree) it is still her right to wage a sticker campaign if she sees fit. To assume that somehow this will have some major effet on the Obama campaign is ridiculous. This is a State senate race for crying out loud. I am sure Wilkerson and Diaz won’t have every activist in MA working on their campaign.
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p>-Margaret Mead
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p>The fact is that if this race costs Obama 10 hours of canvassing in New Hampshire, that’s roughly 50-100 votes he lost (5-10 IDs per hour is about right). Considering the vote in Florida was decided by less than 500 votes in the year 2000, a state of around 20 million people, 50-100 votes matters. Big time. More importantly, these local volunteers could be tackling Sara Orozco’s campaign in Massachusetts or any number of other local campaigns that have the potential for greatly impacting this state.
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p>There are only so many people willing to invest big chunks of time into canvassing. Community organizing has been openly mocked among half this country’s political elite during this Presidential election. It is not easy to field committed volunteers – and the need for them is great. Dozens of volunteers in Sonia’s campaign will have to sacrifice time they could have spent helping other campaigns in order to ensure Sonia defeats Wilkerson again.
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p>Wilkerson is being selfish. She lost and needs to get over it. I sincerely hope Governor Patrick and Mayor Menino can talk some sense into her. If she wants to run again in 2 years, challenging Sonia in the primary, more power to her – but a Democrat should never try to subvert the will of the Democratic voters in their district. I don’t know how to say it any clearer than that.
it’s the waste of the entire party’s time and energy – the very party she claims to be a proud member of.
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p>there are races we could have focused on – like sara orozco’s – but now we have to stem off Wilkerson’s sticker bid. Even though it’s a sticker bid, you can’t discount it. Just this past election, Carl Sciortino overcame being off the ballot to defeat someone who was on it. It’s tough, but can be done. So that means Sonia’s supporters will have to continue to focus their time and energy into this race – as will the party infrastructure, if they want to maintain a shred of dignity in this whole situation.
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p>Not everyone is into or cares about party politics. However, a disproprotionate amount of BMG readers DO and are heavily involved in their party infrastructure – state and local committee members, active volunteers, campaign contributors. Primaries are important and should be active, but we’re supposed to come together afterwards. Wilkerson thinks she’s above that. From the perspective of anyone who believes in the Democratic Party, that should be unacceptable.
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p>I’m a partisan, unapologetic supporter of the Democratic Party because that’s the best vehicle we have, as a country, to enact change. It’s tough enough on its own, without more Joe Liebermans trying to divide and conquer. Moreover, if Wilkerson cared about her constituents and wanted to keep her decency, she could have pulled a Dukakis instead of a Lieberman. Dukakis lost a race as an incumbent Governor of Massachusetts, then worked for four more years to fix that mistake and ran again. Wilkerson could have done that, but pulled the Lieberman lever instead.
However, it is certainly disappointing. As someone who had been hoping that Dianne would come out on top, I am disappointed with her decision not to bow out gracefully. As someone previously stated, regardless of her win/loss she would have for ever been the first Black woman elected to the MA Senate. I just don’t understand why she would want to bring more drama to an already tumultuous situation. This is a desperate move, expect some of her supporters to bail on her. However, even with that, she may still win in November.
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The write-in mountain is a very large one to scale, even for an incumbent. Her name will not appear at all on the ballot, and Sonia’s will. She’ll lose, and lose big. I’m guessing there’s lots of soft support that voted for her in the primary who will be happy to vote for Sonia in the general. It’s more likely Wilkerson is headed for humiliation than victory to my mind.
She could very well win in humiliation. Just the fact that she is doing this is humiliating IMHO. However, voter turnout will be massive amonst her key constituents especially with Obama being on the ballot. I am not too sure Sonia has this thing locked down.
But write-ins are really hard. That’s all I’m saying. I’d say Wilkerson has an uphill battle, and as I said a lot of her soft support may well defect. In which case she’ll lose big.
she couldn’t even scramble enough volunteers to get recounts in all the precincts she desired. So I think Lynne has nailed it.
soon enough. I don’t even live in Suffolk County, but I would have to say that I wish she would have accepted defeat. This is embarrassing even for those who have gone to bat for her.
There will be three Wards recounted by the Senator’s request — Wards 8 and 9, which are relatively small, and Ward 12, which is Roxbury’s principal ward. Interestingly, Ward 14, another strong DW ward, was not submitted for recount.
she apparently wanted that one recounted too, but couldn’t get the sigs in time.
As evidence that write-ins are really hard.
She’s pulling a Vinnie Ciampa. Ciampa lost worse than two to one in his sticker campaign after just narrowly losing his race to Sciortino (by 93 votes) in the 2004 Primary. People can win sticker campaigns in PRIMARIES (Sannicandro in 2004, Sciortino last week) because the voters are likely just heading to vote on that particular election. But in a solidly Democratic district contending with presidential election turnout, this is totally unrealistic.
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p>Has anyone ever pulled something like this off in a General Election?
Oh yes, here.
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p>[I’m allowed to toot my own horn once in a while]
Barbara Gray lost the Republican primary, but won the Democratic primary as a write-in many years ago.
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p>I can think of a few who tried, but not one who was successful.
Who knows? In recent Massachusetts politics? I doubt it.
Given Wilkerson’s noted problem with paperwork and pesky details, what do you think her chances are of running an effective sticker campaign?
but that was in a primary against a write-in opponent. A general campaign against an opponent on the ballot in the highest turnout election in 4 years is another story.
cangiamila failed to get his name on the ballot in arlington. he bagged 73 of the 1,000 write-ins needed.
of the current political scene in MA, that probably the only shared opinion between the (mostly) progressive commenters on BMG and the (mostly) cro-magnon/reactionary commenters at the Boston Herald website is an almost visceral hatred of Dianne Wilkerson:
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p>http://www.bostonherald.com/ne…
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p>It’s almost enough to make me feel sorry for her predicament…almost, but not quite.
I don’t think the folks around here hate her. On the contrary, they appreciate the good she’s done for the community.
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p>But, when not inside the room with the cod, she stinks. Her repeated trouble with campaign law is something lots of us have a big problem.
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p>She’s more of a tragic figure.