(BALTIMORE – May 21, 2026) – Let me be direct.
Two nights ago, at the Candidates Night hosted by the Edmondson Village, Rognel Heights, and Uplands Community Associations on Walnut Avenue, Delegate Sandy Rosenberg stood before the voters of the 41st Legislative District and essentially told us that a sitting state senator facing a federal indictment was not worth our concern. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t hedge. He didn’t blink.
And that was one of the most disrespectful things I have witnessed at a political forum in decades of covering Baltimore.
Delegate Rosenberg, we are not stupid.
We understand due process. We understand innocent until proven guilty. Nobody in that room needed a civics lesson from you. What we needed — what we deserved — was honesty. What we got instead was the political establishment protecting itself while expecting the rest of us to smile and go along with it.
That is not leadership. That is condescension dressed up in a suit.
Here is what Delegate Rosenberg was so unbothered by.
Senator Dalya Attar, her brother Joseph “Yossi” Attar, and Baltimore City Police Officer Kalman Finkelstein were federally indicted on charges of conspiracy and extortion, among other counts. According to the indictment, they secretly recorded two people engaged in an intimate affair and used that recording to keep one of the victims quiet so as not to hurt Attar’s election chances. Court documents further allege they discussed showing the video to members of the Jewish community to silence the victims — and threatened the marriage of one victim and the marriage prospects of her children. The conspiracy covers events from January 2020 to July 2022. The Baltimore City police officer involved had his powers suspended in 2022 and has since been placed on unpaid suspension.
This is not a parking ticket. This is not bad paperwork. This is a 20-page federal indictment involving hidden cameras, blackmail, and the weaponization of someone’s most intimate moments to protect a political career.
Read the full WMAR-2 report here: https://www.wmar2news.com/news/region/baltimore-city/baltimore-city-state-senator-dalya-attar-indicted-on-federal-charges-of-extortion-and-conspiracy
Read the federal court docket directly here: United States v. Attar, Case No. 1:25-cr-00324 (D. Maryland) — https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71820859/united-states-v-attar/
And yet Delegate Rosenberg looked at the voters of this district and decided our concerns didn’t even register.
That is egregious. It is insulting. And it should not be forgotten come Election Day.
Then last night, at a second forum held at Bnos Yisroel School on Park Heights Avenue, the contrast only sharpened. The 41st District is having a real conversation — and some of its current representatives are still not being straight with the people.
And then there is Pimlico.
When Delegate Rosenberg spoke about the redevelopment of Pimlico, he did so with enthusiasm — as though it were a gift to this community. What he conspicuously left out is what community advocates have been saying loudly: that Black residents and Black businesses stand to be largely locked out of the economic benefits of the new Pimlico. In a majority-Black city. In a majority Black district. The rebuilding of Pimlico without genuine Black inclusion is not a community investment. It is a community extraction.
But that omission fits a pattern.
Let me say plainly what others whisper. The 41st Legislative District sits at the intersection of two distinct communities — a concentrated, highly organized Jewish political base, and a Black majority that outnumbers it nearly four to one across Baltimore City. For most of recent political history, those two communities have found ways to coexist. But coexistence is not the same as equity. And right now, the gap between the two is impossible to ignore.
The last time there was a serious political square-off between these two communities in this district, Lisa Gladden beat Barbara Hoffman. The Black community organized, turned out, and made history. The question before the 41st District today is whether that same political cohesion still exists — and whether the voters of this district are ready to use it.
I believe they are.
Delegate Rosenberg, you have served in Annapolis for a long time. But longevity is not the same as accountability. And what you demonstrated Tuesday night was not the wisdom of experience. It was the arrogance of a man who has been insulated from consequences for too long.
The voters of the 41st District are watching. And we are not — not now, not ever — going to pretend we didn’t see exactly what you showed us.
Malcolm Ruff is running to represent all of this district — with integrity, full focus, and no federal indictment hanging over the people’s business. That contrast could not be clearer.
Vote accordingly.
Doni Glover is the founder and publisher of BMORENews.com, now in its 24th year of covering Black Baltimore, and the founder of the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards, now in its 15th year. He is also the host of the Emmy-nominated Doni Glover podcast and The Doni Glover Show on WMAR-TV 2.
