Sonia Chang-Diaz

Giovanna Negretti spoke with the Dorchester Reporter this week about stepping down from Oiste. She also dispelled rumors that she would mount a run against state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz -- for now. As first reported by AP on Sunday, Negretti's leaving after 10 years at the helm of the organization.

The first African-American elected to the state Senate on Tuesday endorsed City Councillor At-Large Sam Yoon for mayor.  Read more

Aiming for a second term, City Councillor At-Large John Connolly has hired a strategist who helped Sonia Chang-Diaz topple Sen. Dianne Wilkerson in last September’s Democratic primary for the Second Suffolk District.

Dan Cohen also consulted for Connolly in the 2007 campaign for City Council. Cohen’s other clients include Sara Orozco, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran against Sen. Scott Brown (R-Wrentham) last year.  Read more

The need to raise giant campaign funds and the power of incumbency can stifle democracy City Councillor Sam Yoon said in a panel discussion last Thursday. The forum explored the possible reasons why the Commonwealth ranks among the lowest percentages in the nation for contested local elections.

Yoon said the highest hurdle for a challenger is raising the money to compete. The Dorchester Democrat said that he has to spend a tremendous amount of time on the phone raising money, to stay competitive in the coming mayoral race.  Read more

Weeks into the job, state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz is already playing defense.

The freshman lawmaker, like others who are facing their first year on Beacon Hill, is up against a billion-dollar budget crisis that is causing prized programs to get pared down or eliminated entirely.

The issues facing legislators are steadily mounting, including a reorganization of the state's transportation bureaucracy, ethics reform and with the departure of House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, casinos are back on the front burner.  Read more

The resignation of House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, an avowed opponent of casino gambling, was barely official last week before eyes on Beacon Hill turned to the renewed potential of bringing three casinos to the Bay State.

DiMasi's successor, Rep. Robert DeLeo, is a supporter of slots at the state's racetracks and is open to discussing casinos. Last year, under DiMasi's watch and direction, House lawmakers overwhelmingly defeated Gov. Deval Patrick's proposal to expand gambling.  Read more

Sonia Chang-Diaz, the newly-minted Democratic nominee for the state Senate's Second Suffolk seat, took a victory lap this week with some of the state's top Democrats as incumbent Sen. Dianne Wilkerson battled back against renewed allegations that she lied under oath at a 2005 court hearing.  Read more

The latest round in the slugfest between incumbent state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (D-Roxbury) and Democratic nominee Sonia Chang-Diaz has taken a racially-charged turn, after one high-profile Wilkerson supporter said that Chang-Diaz is not a "person of color", even though Chang-Diaz is of white, Asian and Latin descent.  Read more

Along with asking for a recount, the two Democratic candidates in a close race for state senate in the Second Suffolk District are bracing for the possibility of yet another rematch. At a meeting tonight with supporters at the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge in Grove Hall, Senator Dianne Wilkerson said, if the recount fails to give her the nomination, she will run as a Democratic sticker candidate in the final election November 4.  Read more

Sonia Chang-Diaz, who prevailed in her primary challenge of incumbent State Senator Dianne Wilkerson on Tuesday, is greeted at her Jamaica Plain victory party by supporter and mentor Barbara Lee. Photo by Bijoyeta Das.

By a narrow margin, voters in the Second Suffolk district on Tuesday handed the seat of incumbent state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson to her challenger, Sonia Chang-Diaz, who is now heavily favored to win the Senate seat in November.  Read more