RESURFACING FOR A RUN?
Former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson pulls papers for old seat
Former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson appears to be trying to make her return to the Senate seat she once had to resign after taking a bribe from a federal informant.
Wilkerson has pulled papers to run for the 2nd Suffolk seat, according to Secretary of State William Galvin’s office, which said a representative for her came in on April 15, Good Friday, to pick up the nomination papers.
Pulling papers comes with few strings, according to Galvin’s office — anyone can come in and get the packet that’s for collecting signatures. People don’t have to formally announce a run or create a political committee, and it’s common that people pull papers and then just decide not to submit them to show up on the ballot.
Wilkerson’s campaign account with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance remains inactive, as it has been since 2010 after opening in 1992.
This run is significant for a woman who was once one of Boston’s ascendant politicians, an intelligent and influential state senator who at one point some speculated could be the city’s first Black mayor — only to see her career come crashing down as she ran afoul of the law and did two and a half years in federal prison.
The Boston Democrat had a few different run-ins with the law when she held this 2nd Suffolk seat; first in the 1990s when she pleaded guilty to not making tax payments, and then, more notably, in 2008, when the feds revealed the now-infamous picture of Wilkerson shoving $1,000 in cash bribes under her shirt and into her bra. Wilkerson pleaded guilty and ultimately was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison, and she served 30 of them.
In the years since her 2013 release, Wilkerson, who’s also a lawyer, has rumbled about returning to the political fray. There was talk about her running for this seat in 2015, and she’s been back in the public eye over the past few years — particularly during the heat of the coronavirus pandemic, when she led the Boston Black COVID-19 Coalition that strived to get good information and access to testing and vaccines to the city’s minority communities, many of which are in the 2nd Suffolk.
She’s also been on something of a media-rehabilitation tour over the past year or two, including a recent Boston Magazine profile that suggested that Wilkerson’s legal issues were all a big misunderstanding.
She joins what’s already a serious field, one that includes state Reps. Nika Elugardo and Liz Miranda and the Rev. Miniard Culpepper.
The race is to replace sitting state Sen. Sonia ChangDiaz who successfully primaried Wilkerson as her legal troubles mounted nearly a decade and a half ago. Chang-Diaz is running for governor rather than reelection.
Wilkerson, reached by phone on Tuesday, said she was on a retreat and didn’t have time to talk, but said she looks forward to talking more about her vision in the coming weeks.