Mike Ball surveys some of the issues in the repeat race between incumbent state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson and challenger Sonia Chang-Diaz.

The Globe reports on state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson's desire to avoid another embarrassment like two years ago, when she, oops, forgot to file her nomination petitions on time. The paper writes:

This year, Wilkerson qualified for the primary ballot with a whopping 3,000 signatures, 10 times the amount she needed.

Not quite. As Linda Rodriguez at the South End News reports, Wilkerson actually only qualified with 428 signatures, just one more than her opponent, Sonia Chang-Diaz. This doesn't mean the remainder of her 3,000 signatures were bad, necessarily, just that elections officials stopped looking after a certain point.

What one could call the opening round in the race between State Senator Dianne Wilkerson (D- 2nd Suffolk) and her Democratic challenger, Sonia Chang-Diaz, takes place tonight.

Boston Democratic Ward Committees are hosting a forum featuring the two candidates. After the forum, Boston's Ward 5 Democratic Committee is taking an endorsement vote. It might be only June, but this race has begun.

Here's an email I received regarding the event from the Boston Ward 5 Democratic Committee Chairman (NOTE: I am a member of the Boston Ward 5 Democratic Committtee):

----// snip

State Rep. Carl Sciortino of Medford says a whole bunch of his nomination petitions have disappeared and he wants the police to investigate (speaking of Wilkerson, this time around, she filed 10 times the required number of signatures to make sure she's on the ballot).

Left Ahead posts an hour-long interview with Chang-Diaz, making her second run for the 2nd Suffolk Senate seat now held by Dianne Wilkerson.

ParkwayBoston.com has the scoop: She'll be running for re-election this fall.

So John Tobin might want to start thinking about running for mayor in 2009.

Takes out nomination papers. Does he know something we don't about incumbent Marian Walsh becoming a judge, or is he running regardless?

On myDedham, Brian dishes that consiglieri for Boston city Councilor John Tobin and West Roxbury state Rep. Mike Rush had a little breakfast chat in Dedham Square on Saturday. Purpose: To discuss their guys' possible senate runs should incumbent Marian Walsh get named a judge (the district includes both West Roxbury and Dedham, along with some other neighborhoods and towns). The two have run against each other before - for the city-council seat Tobin now holds. No word if they came to any meeting of the minds or how they took their eggs.

Brian also handicaps other possible candidates for a seat the incumbent herself has yet to actually say she's vacating.

Announces bid on Blue Mass Group. She'll be running, again, against 2nd Suffolk incumbent Dianne Wilkerson, who perhaps will pay a bit more attention to filing deadlines this time around.

State reps regress to fourth grade.