Wilkerson ends campaign

[Forkboy]

But bribery defendant doesn't resign; governor pushes for reforms

State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, lacking political support and out of options, terminated her reelection campaign yesterday after a dramatic meeting with black ministers in Roxbury who urged her to step aside after her arrest this week on federal bribery charges.

But Wilkerson continued to resist the call from the ministers and her colleagues in the Senate to resign, announcing from the pulpit of the Charles Street AME Church that she would wait until after next week's election to decide whether she would quit the Boston Senate seat she has held for 15 years.

"As of this moment today, though, I am certainly announcing the suspension, the termination, cessation," said Wilkerson, surrounded by stone-faced ministers. "I want to make it clear that I am ending any further campaign."

Wilkerson accepted the inevitable after several days of defiance, in which she stated her determination to carry on her write-in campaign, but as a practical matter could not even publicly show her face. Her demise was perhaps most fittingly symbolized Wednesday when she drove to the State House where her Senate colleagues were laying plans to expel her, but did not go inside.

-snip-

In addition, a second grand jury run by the state is seeking testimony on the dealings of a close cadre of friends of House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, who made hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees in a questionable computer software deal that has since been revoked.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/11/01/wilkerson_ends_campaign/

Maybe Mass will get a two-fer.

[BlueManDude]

1. She's been a deadbeat and a disgrace for years. Her arrest is a good thing.

[Forkboy]

2. I especially like the news about DiMasi.

He needs to go, too.