Senator's run has a new urgency

Only 20 or so seniors showed up to a Roxbury apartment building for a campaign event on a recent Wednesday, but state Senator Dianne Wilkerson spent two hours lavishing attention on them.

She doled out ice cream sundaes, urged the seniors to volunteer on her campaign, and handed out ``Stick With Dianne" stickers.

Normally, these seniors living in the heart of Wilkerson's district would be an electoral lock for the seven-term incumbent.

But Wilkerson cannot take anything for granted this year.

She is campaigning harder than she has in years to salvage her career from a disaster almost entirely of her own making.

After financial problems and alleged campaign spending violations, Wilkerson failed to gather the 300 signatures needed to get her name on the ballot this year, forcing her to run a write-in campaign and boosting the chances of three lesser-known candidates.

Now, she is going door-to-door in all 73 precincts in her district for the first time in eight years, and is planning to double the number of volunteers she has to 600 to ensure that voters get to the polls, she said.

``I'm in a tough campaign, and I'm treating it as such," Wilkerson said.

With three eager opponents trying to drum up support in the Second Suffolk District -- which includes Chinatown, the South End, Fenway, Roxbury, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and parts of the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Dorchester, and Mattapan -- political observers say the seat appears up for grabs.

``This is going to be a challenging election for Senator Wilkerson," said Darnell Williams, president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. ``This is a footrace of who brings more people to the polls and who has a better organization. I don't think anybody has a crystal ball to predict."

Wilkerson's failure to secure the signatures, which she blamed on a campaign worker she said she has since fired, immediately led Democrat Sonia Chang-Diaz, a 28-year-old former schoolteacher, to run her own write-in campaign.

Another challenger, Republican Samiyah Diaz, 28, who appears on the ballot as a GOP candidate, also decided to run as a Democratic write-in candidate on Sept. 19 to maximize her chances in the heavily Democratic area.

Earlier this month, Boston police Detective John Kelleher, a Democrat and former state representative who left the Legislature in 1977, announced he would run.

None of the candidates' names will appear on the primary ballot, which means voters have to write in their choice or affix a sticker with the candidate's name.

Candidates are mailing stickers to voters, and on election day campaign volunteers armed with stickers plan to stand outside each polling place.

Wilkerson's challengers are running in part on her transgressions, which include her failure to pay federal income taxes. She had been sued by the state attorney general's office for failing to explain money paid to her by her political committee.

Chang-Diaz, 28, of Jamaica Plain, said voters are frustrated with Wilkerson. ``I'm very encouraged going in the last two weeks," she said. ``You should see the number of times a day I hear `time for a change.' "

Over Labor Day weekend, Chang-Diaz, a fund-raising coordinator for the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, knocked on doors in Jamaica Plain's Moss Hill, an affluent section dotted with handsome brick homes and neatly trimmed lawns.

Those who answered seemed impressed with the neophyte. One woman told Chang-Diaz she already voted for her by absentee ballot.

``I know nothing about her," said Carl Hudson, 66, a retired business owner who lives on Moss Hill Road. ``But she articulates very well. She just seems to know what she's talking about. I just feel comfortable with her . . . Dianne Wilkerson . . . had some terrible missteps. That's not the type of person I want to have representing me at this point."

Diaz, meanwhile, has fine-tuned her positions on issues like education and crime to make her appeal.

``We know what it takes to get this done," said Diaz, a law student who lives in the South End. ``This is the time to get some change."

Kelleher, who said friends who helped get him into office in the 1970s have been calling him, plans to have 300 to 400 volunteers at the polls on election day.

``I wouldn't have gotten in this if I didn't think I could win," he said.

Asked what she thinks of her opponents, Wilkerson said matter-of-factly, ``I really don't."

``Voters, they could care less about what I think of my opponents or what my opponents think of me," she said. ``What they want to know is what I'm going to do for them."

Political watchers believe that voters in Jamaica Plain and the South End, which has a large population of gays and lesbians, will reward Wilkerson for her outspoken advocacy of gay marriage.

And some black voters feel loyal to Wilkerson, who is known for rallying legislators to back her on issues important to minorities, like healthcare and affordable housing, said Horace Small, executive director of the Union of Minority Neighborhoods.

And while Diaz and Chang-Diaz are minorities who identify themselves as progressive, it would take them years to develop that kind of clout, Small said.

``She knows the process," he said. ``. . . Dianne is a player. Dianne is a wizard. That's why so many people are nervous about losing that."

During Wilkerson's visit in Roxbury, some of the seniors seemed worried as well.

They asked her aides at least four times to explain the sticker campaign . As the meeting broke, they toted her campaign literature and embraced her.

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com. Globe librarian Lisa Tuite contributed to this report.