Three residents have filed a complaint with Maryland Democratic Party officials calling for the removal of Ronald Rosenbluth from the 41st District Central Committee after an incident in which he harassed a woman at an early voting center.

The complaint includes an additional account of the June 17 incident, which was described in a Baltimore Brew story by the target of the harassment, 78-year-old Betsy Krieger, and a woman who tried to intervene on her behalf, Erica Puentes.

“I witnessed Ronald Rosenbluth screaming at Krieger, saying he didn’t like ‘Jewish folks like her’ and demanding that he tell her how many of her family members died during the Holocaust and to prove her lineage,” Lorena Diaz is quoted saying in a letter sent yesterday to Tammy Stinnett, chair of the Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee.

Like Puentes and Krieger, Diaz was present at the Public Safety Training Center polling place in northwest Baltimore to campaign on behalf of senate candidate Malcolm P. Ruff.

Rosenbluth was there campaigning for the incumbent, Senator Dalya Attar.

“In fear that he would physically attack her, Puentes got between them and kept repeating to back away and stop harassing her,” Diaz wrote. “When Rosenbluth started to yell at Puentes, I went between them and told him to back away.”

But Rosenbluth, according to Diaz, “did not back away and would not stop yelling at Krieger and Puentes.”

“His rage focused on Krieger because he said he ‘didn’t understand how a Jewish person could support Malcolm instead of Dalya,’” Diaz recalled.

After about 10 minutes of this, Rosenbluth “started following Krieger with his phone on speakerphone, playing a campaign song in support of Dalya Attar,” Diaz wrote.

“He kept taunting her and would not let up. Puentes kept asking that they back away and leave her alone. But he would not stop,” Diaz recalled, describing efforts to get him to stop by other volunteers and by 41st District Central Committee candidate George Buntin.

What Puentes and Krieger experienced “was horrific” and “could have quickly escalated into a physical confrontation,” said the three 41st District residents who signed the letter, Alexandra Lazerow, Claudia Leight and Amalie Andrew Ward.

“His conduct was intimidating, hostile and abusive to campaign volunteer Betsy Krieger, including conduct based on the volunteer’s religion, including Krieger’s testimony that Rosenbluth screamed ‘I hate Jews like you’ at her,” the three wrote.

Their petition for removal is cc’d to Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart L. Pittman Jr., chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, Executive Director Karen Darkes and Party Affairs Coordinator Justin Butler.

Powerful Players

While Ruff won decisively in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election (60% to 40%, with provisional votes still to be counted) the continuing controversy about the high-profile race reflects months of abrasive rhetoric.

Attar’s eight-count federal indictment on extortion and conspiracy charges, unsealed last October, set the stage for a volley of allegations of racial bias and antisemitism flying back and forth between the two camps.

Factional conflict has long plagued the 41st. The majority African American district (63% Black) also includes the city’s largest concentration of Orthodox Jewish residents who take pride in Attar’s distinction as the first Orthodox female member of the state legislature.

• Always an election season hot spot, Baltimore’s 41st District is extra edgy thanks to criminal charges one candidate is facing (6/13/26)

Rosenbluth, as well as his wife Sandy Rosenbluth, sit on the 41st District’s eight-member central committee, a body with significant power since it recommends to the governor who should be appointed to fill any legislative vacancy. An older cousin of City Councilman Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer, Rosenbluth has been a member of the committee for years.

The complaint initially was sent to Pittman, asking for state party leaders to remove the 63-year-old based on a provision in the rules prohibiting “malfeasance.”

Party Affairs Coordinator Butler informed them by email that their allegation is a potential “Code of Conduct” violation, which first must be submitted “to the local Central Committee for their review and possible remedy.”

Before filing a complaint to the state, “the complainant must take significant steps to have it addressed at the local level,” Butler wrote. “If the issue is not addressed, then a complaint may be filed with the chair of the Maryland Democratic Party.”

Butler cited a provision in the Code of Conduct that prohibits “harassment,” defining it is as “unwelcome conduct based on race, color, religion or lack there of, sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity or familial status), national origin, age, disability or genetic information (including family medical history). Harassment is when the conduct is severe enough that a reasonable person would consider it to be intimidating, hostile or abusive.”

The petition was re-submitted to Tammy Stinnett, who chairs the Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee and also chairs the 41st District Central Committee.

Asked by The Brew how the request for Rosenbluth’s ouster will be handled – and when a meeting to discuss it publicly might be held – Stinnett has not yet replied.

Conduct “should not be tolerated”

In addition to the June 17 incident outside the Public Safety Training Center voting location, people who campaigned on behalf of Ruff at the polling place have said they were harassed by Attar supporters throughout the six day Early Voting period.

Attar supporters would hover near Ruff supporters and harass them whenever they tried to talk to voters about Attar’s indictment, campaigners for Ruff have told The Brew.

“What I and other volunteers experienced while attempting to speak with voters was another form of intimidation,” Diaz said in her statement as part of the complaint about Rosenbluth. “They were actively trying to silence us and interfere with our ability to engage in the democratic process.”

“The conduct of the Dalya Attar campaign volunteers, both on this occasion and over the course of the campaign, has been egregious and should not be tolerated,” Diaz continued.

Attar has not responded to a request from The Brew for comment.

The Brew has also inquired about the presence of Senator Attar’s brother, Joseph Attar, at the early voting center, where he campaigned beside Rosenbluth.

Rosenbluth was not charged in the criminal case, but his name came up in connection to it. He is on a list of people that the three defendants (Joseph Attar, Dalya Attar and Baltimore Police Officer Kalman Finkelstein) are to have “no contact” with by order of a federal judge, the Baltimore Banner reported last November.

Amid that disclosure, Rosenbluth resigned from his job at the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office.

Queried by The Brew, prosecutors had “no comment,” according to Kevin Nash, spokesman for the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office.