Wilkerson: It's Time to Go

Mike is right, it's well past time for Senator Dianne Wilkerson to either retire or be unseated. Her latest ethical lapse of judgement is perhaps her worst, and she's paying a mighty fine because of it: $10k.

State Senator Dianne Wilkerson has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine as part of a settlement with the attorney general's office in which the Boston lawmaker admitted violating campaign finance laws for five years....

The agreement stems from a Suffolk Superior Court civil lawsuit filed in 2005 alleging scores of campaign law violations, which included failure to report $26,935 in political donations and failure to explain $18,277 paid to her by her political committee. The lawsuit accused Wilkerson of using campaign funds for "personal benefits," accepting prohibited contributions, making improper reimbursements to herself and others, and failing to disclose certain contributions and expenditures in campaign filings.

As much as I love the fact that she's been a leader on glbt rights, I'm tired of the GLBT community continuing to prop her up against a very solid, glbt-friendly challenger in Sonia Chang-Diaz. Her leadership does not excuse her very obvious and self-admitted wrong doing. Enough is enough. We can do better than Senator Wilkerson. It's time for Senator Wilkerson to go.