It Girl, Friday, September 1: Sonia Chang-Diaz
Since it's an election year, many of the It Girls are candidates for office. The latest female candidate is 28-year-old, JP resident, Sonia Chang-Diaz who is running for Dianne Wilkerson's Second Suffolk Senate Seat (that's a lot of s's!).
Chang-Diaz is a serious Aries who has a history of dedicated civic service. She was on the board of the non-partisan MASS VOTE, a portal that protects voting rights and even campaigned for MASS EQUALITY. Chang-Diaz is a practicing Catholic and equal marriage supporter. Her ethnic background is Costa Rican and part Chinese; she's very easy on the eyes, but more importantly she is ready for the job as a freshman Senator!
We met at the lovely Cha Fahn Tea House in Jamaica Plain, my new serenity spot. It was there that Eric Hess took Sonia's photo. Sonia's only joke of the whole day was saying "Welcome to my Asian house" to the camera.
posted by Blue-Xela @ 9:15 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Sonia Chang-Diaz does not deserve our vote in this primary election. She is opportunist. If she really wanted to be the next state senator she would be on the ballot. When she saw that Senator Wilkerson was not on the ballot, she swooped in to kick her while she is down.
Senator Wilkerson has done so much for her constituents. Senator Wilerson has the power in the State House to improve her district. Not to mention how much she has done for the gay community.
The church leaders in the black community told Dianne Wilkerson that the gay community would turn our back on her when we were done with her. Is that true?
When Senator Wilkerson stood up at the concon for gay and lesbian people, she lost some friends and family members. Some people told her that if she supported gay rights, they would not consider her family anymore. Dianne stood up for us. It is time that we stand up for her. Give Senator Wilkerson the respect she deserves. Give Senator Wilkerson the VOTE she derseves.
Whether or not Dianne's stance on same-sex marriage has cost her support, it certainly has NOT costed her the seat. She has been continually re-elected because her constituents know what a powerhouse she is in the State House. Why would we give that up for a no name?
As for Wilkerson's opponent, she has not received the endorsement of ONE place she worked for. MassEquality? They have solidly backed Wilkerson. Fmr. State Senator Cheryl Jacques? ALSO openly supports Wilkerson. If "it" means no experience and no support, then yea, she's it alright.
Since when is it "opportunist" for a private citizen to run for political office? And shouldn't gay activists be a little more grateful for the work of a contender who volunteered her time at the organizations we work for?
I think the real question begs us to look at the larger picture, which is ... wow, look at all these pro-marriage equality candidates running for office!
Of course, Dianne has shown amazing character (at least in terms of gay equality), but Chang-Diaz has virtually no baggage ... maybe that's what this movement needs?
It is opportunist the way she only decided to run for office after she realized that Dianne wasn't going to be on the ballot. It is not like she was just a private citizen who decided to run for public office. She saw that Dianne was down, and took advantage of the situation. It's just not right.
So sad too because she could have done it the right way; waiting for an incumbent to retire, or running against a republican. Then she would have had the help of the gay community and other respected politicians. (Even Senator Jacques who she worked for has openly and publicly endorsed Dianne).
We would have all loved to work on Sonia's campaign in the future if she didn't do it by stabbing a leader of black and gay communities in the back. But she has blown her future political chances now by pulling this selfish stunt.
Grateful for Sonia's work?
Because of Sonia we need to take activists and organizers off of other races across the state and put them in Dianne's race. This costs us in other races and ultimately costs us at the concon.
Not to mention that if Sonia actually won it would mean that we would lose a pro-equality incumbent. The problem with this is that we need to re-elect every single one of our pro-equality incumbents to show the legislators on the fence that if they vote with us we will absolutely guarantee that they are re-elected.
Even if we elected another pro-gay candidate to replace her, it would show those reps on the fence that even if they voted with us, if they were not gay friendly enough, we would dump them for an even gay friendly candidate. It's just bad politics and hurts our movement.
Sonia has no baggage and absolutely no clout or power in the state house. Dianne's is very powerful in the Senate, and with the Senate president. Her district deserves the best it can get, and that is Dianne by far.
I can tell you right from the front lines that Sonia is doing more to hurt gay community than she ever did to help the us.
I see where you are coming from, but in a lot of ways, it will not be MassEquality's (or any other lobbying group's) fault in the slim chance that Wilkerson is not re-elected.
She has done much to hurt herself throughout the years.
While I haven't made up my mind if I'm going to vote for Sonia or not, I can tell you that she is like a breath of fresh air.
However, I as a private voter, will investigate all angles of both candidates.
True, it would not be MassEquality fault, but that does not matter. We need to be able to assure joe-shmoe-conservative legislator that if he votes with us, he WILL be re-elected. That is the power that MassEquality has. That is why we will win this thing with the seemingly impossible number of 151 votes. To get that number we NEED conservative legislators to vote our way. We can't have them say to us,"Look what happened to Dianne. In her liberal district she got beat in the primary. How can you possibly stop me from getting beat in the primary in my conservative district."
I am just looking at the race from where I stand; at the front lines of the gay equality movement.
I respect you very much as a journalist and as a friend. I am just disappointed to see Sonia as Friday's "It-Girl". You have created dialogue though, and that is incredible important in politics. Very well done.
It's kinda sad that we could lose them both at Dem primary, simlar with the time when Ralph Nader ran against Al Gore (RN seemed to have less baggages back then v.s. I heard AG even used to be anti-choice in 1960's)...
The vibrant debate on environment issues between two of them I enjoyed suddenly stopped to matter once Groege W was on the job. It sucks to live in this imperfect world, wishing for the complication-free, clean politics.
I am a non-registered voter myself, which is a form of 'legal-complication' in America today. It gives me hope to see two young people I care about vey much attaining this healthy dialogue with such admirable friendship and love for each other.
If we are not going to take advantage from opportunities, we are never going to win (Period).
In other words, stop talking about "opportunists", if you are not going to do anything, move out of the way and let the people who want to do it alone!
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