A week in politics I: The Democratic State Convention

The first weekend of June featured the Democratic State Convention, in which our man Deval Patrick gave not one but two remarkable and inspiring speeches to rousing support and firmly sealed the party's nomination on the first ballot. Through Sal DiMasi's careful backroom work, Chris Gabrieli got his name on the ballot by 17 votes, and Tom Reilly kept running his stealth campaign.

The Second Suffolk, my district, was graced by our senator, Dianne Wilkerson, and her Democratic opponent, Sonia Chang-Diaz, who stepped in when Wilkerson failed to get on the ballot. The scene was well-described by the Boston Globe:

If delegates from the Second Suffolk Senate district felt a little squeezed last weekend at the Democratic State Convention, it wasn't just because the chairs were packed so tightly on the floor of the DCU Center in Worcester. It was also because the delegation included both the district's reigning state senator and a hard-charging young challenger looking to unseat her.

Dianne Wilkerson arrived in office 14 years ago pegged as a rising star with limitless potential. But the Roxbury lawmaker has made headlines just as often for her legal lapses and self-inflicted wounds that have foreclosed bids for higher office.

....

Talk to others across the district, and it's clear there is a degree of Wilkerson fatigue in the land that may only be growing. Brad Johnson , a South End convention delegate and organizer of the local chapter of Democracy for America, a grass-roots group formed out of the Howard Dean presidential campaign, expressed amazement at the string of miscues that have dogged the 53-year-old lawmaker. ``Any one thing isn't that much," said Johnson. ``But at some point all the little things add up, and Senator Wilkerson fits that mold."

That tally includes a 1997 sentence of six months' house arrest and a $2,000 fine that Wilkerson paid after pleading guilty to federal income tax charges. In 1998, Wilkerson paid $11,500 in civil penalties to settle a case involving allegations of irregularities in her campaign finance account. In 2000, she faced foreclosure proceedings for failing to pay her mortgage, but was able to halt the move without losing her condo.

And she is currently facing a civil lawsuit filed last fall by Attorney General Thomas Reilly involving new allegations of improprieties in her handling of campaign contributions and expenses.

Tim Murray and Andrea Silbert impressed in the lieutenant governors' race, while John Bonifaz made a very strong showing of 30% despite running a bare-bones campaign.

Of course, now the real work of campaign begins as we head toward the September primary.