Ever a source of political drama and factional fighting, Baltimore’s 41st District is staying true to form in the run-up to the June 23 primary election.

The incumbent, despite an eight-count federal indictment packed with lurid details, is widely considered to be the front-runner.

Senator Dalya Attar, a former city prosecutor, is facing federal extortion and conspiracy charges, along with her brother and a Baltimore Police officer.

Attar’s opponent, a Baltimore attorney with a solid reputation in Annapolis and a top-shelf stack of endorsements, is viewed as the underdog.

Delegate Malcolm P. Ruff has the support of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and a who’s who of state and local Democratic elected as well as labor unions and progressive groups.

Add to this intriguing match-up allegations of racial bias and antisemitism sizzling back and forth on social media for weeks, and the result is on par for this diverse north, northwest and west Baltimore district where distinct Black and Orthodox Jewish communities have been challenged to co-exist for decades.

“I have always been one for unity, and I don’t like to see this division between the Black and Jewish communities,” remarked Tammy Stinnett, Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee chairwoman, speaking with The Brew after a recent candidate event. “I’ve never seen it this bad.”

Attar supporters say district residents either don’t know about her indictment or – proud of her performance over eight years as the first Orthodox Jewish woman elected to the Maryland legislature – don’t care.

According to prosecutors, she and her co-defendants carried out a complex scheme to blackmail a political consultant who once worked for Attar to prevent the woman from speaking out against Attar ahead of the 2022 election.

The defendants are alleged to have secretly taped the consultant in bed with a married man (cameras were said to be hidden in smoke detectors), then threatened to show the tape to the consultant’s family – “and every Rabbi in town” – unless she promised to stay away from the race.

None of this much troubles veteran 41st District Delegate Sandy Rosenberg, who is running on a slate with Attar and fellow 41st District Delegate Sean Stinnett (he’s the husband of the party leader quoted above, Tammy Stinnett.)

“I say that Dalya’s been a good legislator to work with and that she’s innocent until proven guilty,” Rosenberg says, explaining how he answers when asked about Attar’s criminal charges. “I’m sticking with my team.”

In terms of her political strength, party insiders point to the likelihood of a strong turnout for Attar by her base, the district’s Orthodox community.

They also note the plethora of Attar campaign signs on major roads and the near-daily mailers district residents have been receiving promoting her and her slate.

“Have you rolled through the 41st District lately? Unless you’re Stevie Wonder, you’re gonna see those signs,” quipped Robin Boston, the Central Committee’s 2nd vice chair.

Ruff Takes Off the Gloves

Exasperated by this kind of talk, Ruff says his opponent’s team is “putting up all those signs because they know they’re in trouble.”

“As much of a nice guy as I am, the facts are the facts, and in my heart of hearts, I know I’m the strongest, most fit candidate who reflects the values of this district,” he said, speaking with The Brew at a recent North Baltimore meet-and-greet.

“And I don’t think an indicted senator reflects those values,” added Ruff, whose “values matter” tagline on campaign signs and literature is intended to remind voters of his opponent’s “sextortion” charges.

A new mailer that hit district mailboxes late this week showing Ruff and his wife and children made it explicit: the flip side calls Attar “an embarrassment” and splashes headlines (“conspiracy case involving secret sex video”) from outlets in Baltimore, Washington and beyond.

As for the “innocent until proven guilty” rationale, Ruff points to an online post by Attar in which she acknowledges engaging in some of the activities cited in the indictment.

It was published on October 31 in the Orthodox community-oriented Facebook page, “Baltimore Scoop.”

Attar: I am the Real Victim

Claiming that she was the sordid saga’s real victim, Attar said in the post that she did have the consultant followed and that her family did make a video of the consultant – footage she claimed was “taken publicly,” therefore, making it legal.

“I wish I had known this woman’s true character when I made the mistake of hiring her,” Attar wrote in the statement captured by The Baltimore Banner before it was taken down. She alleged the woman sent her a text message after being fired that said, “Beware. When you least expect it, expect it. Goodbye. This is my final warning.”

The next six years were a “nightmare,” Attar wrote. “I feared for my family’s safety, so much so that my family had her followed when she visited Baltimore to make sure she stayed away from me. As a result we discovered she was engaging in an inappropriate relationship with another person from our community,” she asserted.

Some of the What’sApp messages between Attar and her co-defendants were included in the federal indictment. “I just want her to be a non-issue in my mind and in reality that won’t happen as long as she is relevant or doesn’t have anything to worry about,” Attar is quoted in the indictment as texting.

The 35-year-old  lawmaker and her two alleged co-conspirators – brother Joseph Attar and Baltimore police officer Kalman “Kal” Fineklstein – have pleaded not guilty.

She declined through an intermediary to be interviewed by The Brew. 

When the felony charges were announced last year, she released a statement saying, “I look forward to sharing my side of the story,” adding, “We have yet to see any tangible evidence to support the claim that I knew of any illegal actions taken on my behalf.”

From Park Heights to Roland Park

At the North Baltimore gathering, Ruff fielded a few one-on-one questions about Attar’s indictment, but in remarks to the crowd the 42-year-old stuck to his stump speech.

He told them how he went to kindergarten right up the road at Roland Park Elementary/Middle, then the private Gilman School (“I’m a Gilman-ite through and through!”) before heading off to Duke University on a football scholarship.

But he also described the strangeness of attending school in one of the city’s most affluent areas, while growing up under the watchful eye of his librarian mother in one of Baltimore’s decidedly non-affluent Black neighborhoods.

“One of the most stark experiences for me was living in Park Heights and coming out of my house every day, looking at three vacant row houses, and what I ultimately found out was an open air drug market right in front of my house,” he said.

“And then driving down Greenspring [Avenue], coming across Cold Spring [Lane], coming into Roland Avenue, into a whole new world of tree-lined streets, and you know, beautiful homes,” he continued. “And thinking to myself there was nothing inherent about me and my community members that, you know, should have required us to be in a place that didn’t reflect our ultimate greatness.”

A trial attorney in Billy Murphy’s law firm, Ruff was appointed by Moore in 2023 to fill the vacancy created when Delegate Tony Bridges stepped down.

(He was less successful last year, when Senator Jill P. Carter stepped down and the 41st District Democratic Central Committee handed fellow delegate Attar the seat.)

Annapolis Accomplishments: Ruff

Ruff went on to explain how, as the House chair of the capital budget subcommittee, he and fellow delegates were able to bring more than$12 million back to the district for things like schools, hospitals and the Forest Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Library. Some of the funds, he noted, were used to advance what he called his “legacy project,” to make Gwynns Falls and Leakin Park a joint city and state park. The 2023 sexual assault of a 71-year-old woman there added urgency to the effort.

Describing his bill to create the Vehicles for Change program, which prepares people coming out of prison for jobs as certified auto mechanics, gave him a chance to illustrate his progressive views.

“We can try and police our way out of public safety, or we can do a different approach,” he said. “For me, that’s mean supporting people coming out of prison and making sure they have the support systems necessary to actually be successful as opposed to succumbing to the recidivism rate.”

Talking about another bill, to require any child under 13 involved in an incident that results in someone’s death to be referred to the Department of Juvenile Services, gave him a way to send a more nuanced message.

“All we wanted to do was make sure that somebody in DJS took a look at this kid’s life and gave them services they might need which might also include prosecution – that’s one fork in the road in the process,” he said.

“But let’s first figure out what the right thing to do is, so that we’re not throwing that kid away but also not leaving that neighborhood to police itself.”

Annapolis Accomplishments: Attar

In her campaign literature, Attar talks about the same $12 million of state funding lawmakers sent to the district “to support our school, healthcare, housing and community organizations.”

Rosenberg said Attar was particularly effective on the issue of facilities for people with disabilities or substance use disorder that cause problems for neighborhoods, discovering that they could be policed by tightening the annual inspection process for them and pushing through legislation  to do so.

“We had always felt stymied and awkward in opposing any of these facilities coming into a neighborhood, which a neighborhood always opposes but are protected under the fair housing law or Americans with Disabilities Act,” he said. “It was an example of how she really takes an issue and grapples with it.”

Including a law-and-order message in her pitch to voters, Attar has secured the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police and State’s Attorney Ivan Bates. Bates was recently pressed to explain his support, as the city’s top prosecutor, for a criminally indicted lawmaker.

Saying that he endorsed Attar before the indictment news broke, Bates has nevertheless refused to withdraw his support while promising he “won’t get involved” in the race.

One of Attar’s recent mailers touts votes “to protect reproductive freedom,” but in 2022, she ran afoul of pro-choice groups.

Following the Supreme Court’s rollback of constitutional protections for abortion, activists called out Attar and five other Democrats for voting against a measure that expands the kinds of clinicians who can perform abortions in Maryland.

Old Tensions Flare

While the candidates’ literature stresses issues for the most part, their supporters have been fighting on another level.

One flap was over comments by former 41st District Senator Jill Carter. Were they antisemitic as some argued? Or a bad faith twisting of her words, as others said?

Another controversy arose when some saw racial bias in the fact that Attar, who is white, was allowed to keep her legislative committee assignments, while indicted lawmakers who are Black were not.

A previous 41st District senator, Nathaniel T. Oaks, for example, was stripped of his committee duties after a 2017 indictment for corruption charges.

“That didn’t seem right,” said longtime Howard Park community leader Joyce Smith, who complained to Senate leadership.

Such comparisons can be tricky in the world of Maryland politics, though. Smith said she was told Oaks’ harsher treatment stemmed from the fact the bribery indictment was his second criminal charge. (Elected to the House of Delegates in 1982, Oaks was forced to forfeit his seat in 1989 after being convicted of theft charges related to double-billing his legislative expenses.)

A Question of Turnout

Now as election day approaches and early in-person voting, both sides are focusing on turnout. Even this has proven contentious.

Ruff, for instance, publicly complained about a Baltimore-area rabbi group urging people in an online post to choose a political party and vote in the primary.

The post doesn’t specify which party to switch to or who to vote for, but it includes a link to the state election website page where voters can change parties and was interpreted as an effort to get voters to switch their affiliation to Democrat to help Attar.

Many Ruff supporters, like Smith look, at the turnout issue in stark demographic terms. Census data show the 41st to be 63% Black and 24% white.

“It wouldn’t make sense for him to lose, considering two thirds of the district is Black,” Smith said. “We’ve got to mobilize.”

Both sides are urging voters to check the box not only for Ruff or Attar, but for the candidates on their slates vying for seats on the 41st District’s eight-member central committee.

“If Dalya wins and then is found guilty, she has to step down,” Smith points out.

That means, she said, that the eight-member central committee, not the voters, “will be the people who will decide on our next senator.”