The Eyes of Coakley

You gotta love the local weeklies. This time, The South End News found the details on the Sen. Dianne Wilkerson controls.

The previous week, she accepted a plea deal on campaign-finance irregularities over 2006 and 2007. The local dailies reported her fines and that she and her campaign will have more stringent money controls that others do.

The weekly's managing editor, Linda Rodriguez, reported on the particulars. These include:

• She can't write checks from her committee's funds payable to herself
• The committee will file monthly reports of receipts, reimbursements and expenses
• She and the committee each must pay vendors with campaign credit or debit cards
• Those card's monthly statement(s) must also go to the state Office of Campaign & Political Finance
• The campaign must submit a record-keeping policy to and have it approved by the OCPF
• The OCPF can immediately refer any violations to Attorney General Martha Coakley
• Any new violations come with $2,000 fines each

At the time of the plea deal, Wilkerson's official statement was:

The stipulation of dismissal and agreement filed by the AG today affirms my assertions,. I consider the matter now closed. My committee has worked to install several new practices and policies to ensure that these types of accounting errors will not be repeated.

The new rules appear to provide the necessary structure.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, senator, Dianne Wilkerson, South End News