McPhee: Boston pols playing the race card

The politics of race have taken an ugly turn here in Boston. This month, after Senator Diane Wilkerson lost her seat to a relative newcomer, some of her ardent supporters — including City Councilor Chuck Turner — took to the phones to make a round of “robo-calls” trying to rally the troops on her behalf.

In his calls, Turner urged Roxbury residents to “protect our power’’ but did it in a racially divisive manner that has no business in this city — ever.

“Over 30 years ago we fought to create a black senate seat in Boston that would represent the interests of blacks and Latins across the state,” Turner said in the calls, which I heard on a voice mail. “We’re now in danger of losing this seat. We have to protect our power. Please vote.”

Of course, the woman who unseated Wilkerson is Latin. Sonia Chang-Diaz is the clear winner, and this weekend’s recount confirmed that fact.

Let me get this straight. Wilkerson — who is a convict, a campaign finance scofflaw, and who cannot manage her own finances (she has been sued by her condo board and failed to pay rent on her Roxbury campaign office) — is the only way to protect voters in her district? I would think that anyone who lives in Boston deserves a better candidate than a convicted tax cheat.

Now we have another city councilor using the race card. Sam Yoon, who has been a complete disgrace on the City Council -- missing 24 out of 26 hearings during his first year in office -- has mounted a bid to become this city’s “first Asian-American mayor.”

His spokesman, Curtis Ellis, told me the slogan was created by Kul Kwon, the winner of the reality show “Survivor.”

All I can say about that is: Can we vote Yoon off my island of East Boston?

It is galling that a City Councilor who cannot bother to show up to do the job for his constituents even as he draws in a salary of more than $90,000 a year thinks he can mount an entire campaign based solely on his ethnicity.

The Michele McPhee Show can be heard on 96.9 FM WTKK weeknights 7 to 10 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. to noon.


******* Compare this to when Reconstruction Era Black men were expelled from the Georgia Legislature**** e.b.