| A couple of weeks ago, we talked with Sonia Chang-Diaz, who is running a "sticker campaign" (like a write-in campaign, only stickier) against controversial incumbent Diane Wilkerson in the Second Suffolk Senate District. Chang-Diaz is a veteran of several political campaigns, including the Dean '04 campaign. She was the senior legislative aide for former State Senator Cheryl Jacques.
Of course, a "sticker campaign" poses a unique challenge for all candidates, since it's not just a matter of inking a spot next to someone's name. A voter has to actually take a sticker with a name and apply it to the ballot. It is stunning that Wilkerson, with her years of experience and presumably strong volunteer corps, was unable to hand in her signatures in time to get on the ballot, which has left her wide open to her two challengers. Chang-Diaz admitted there was a "huge voter education component" involved in a sticker campaign, but pointed to her campaign experience (as a precinct captain for Sen. Pat Jehlen, and as manager of Angus McQuilken's failed Senate race) as evidence of her shoe-leather savvy.
David asked first: Why jump into race? Chang-Diaz replied that the voters deserve and expect two things: that their elected representatives represent their values, and uphold a "high standard of conduct and accountability". She says people are familiar with Wilkerson's record: "They've reached saturation point in terms of frustration." Mind the gap ... |
In light of the recent murder of Analicia Perry, who was killed on the same spot as her brother some four years earlier, David asked, What is it going to take for city and state to react to public safety crisis? Chang-Diaz related the horror of the people in her district to the uptick in murder: "People aren't used to this violence." (That's perhaps more than one can say for the Boston mayor and police -- ed.) Chang-Diaz suggests a simple return to the effective strategies of the 90's: Reinstate summer jobs and after-school programs, and have the police cultivate close relationships with the communities that they patrol. She bemoaned the cuts in these programs that seems to have allowed the violence to spiral out of control. I asked how to get other folks in the legislature to give a damn; she emphasized the importance of building coalitions, and the preventative value of these programs:
"What we're doing now is penny-wise and pound foolish."
[I will take this opportunity to climb on my personal soapbox: How is it that conservative "Government is the problem" dogma has soaked through our political discourse so thoroughly that a *manifestly successful* government program like the Boston Miracle of the 1990's can get de-funded and taken apart in various ways when the chips are down with the budget? In our current discourse, government gets all the blame and no credit. Somehow it's "not cool" to actually say government is doing something right; that going beyond a jut-jawed "lock 'em up" strategy to crime prevention actually worked, actually saved lives, and deserves to be celebrated and *protected* at all costs. And where was city and state leadership when that was happening? Here endeth the rant.]
I asked about charter schools, and what role they should play, if any. She replied that she supports their intended function as incubators of new and innovative methods in teaching, but there are flaws in the way charter schools are funded. She hoped to find a way to keep those functions without engendering anger from teachers and administrators: "Teachers want to do what's best for their students ... They'll change if given a better model."
David asked about housing. Chang-Diaz fears that "The middle-class is becoming endangered species in Boston." She advocates a regional solution to the housing crunch: "It's going to take a variety of solutions. It's not a Boston-only problem or Boston-only solution." She pressed the need to preserve affordable stock in Boston, to boost production in and out of city, and to connect new housing to transit.
Chang-Diaz is young and energetic, which cuts both ways in her race: Compared to the grizzled vet Wilkerson, she'll come across as either a breath of fresh air -- or as a little green. But she is bright, has election experience, and the sticker campaign sounds like anything could happen, not least of all because her other primary opponent shares one of her names: Samiyah Diaz -- no relation.
And I gotta leave you with this: Sonia's dad is an astronaut. How cool is that? |
