(BALTIMORE – June 3, 2026) – I was coming down Garrison Boulevard the other day and couldn’t help but notice.
Signs everywhere.
At Garrison and Liberty Heights. Up Rogers Avenue. Through Park Heights. Past the Caribbean restaurants that have become anchors of this community. Toward Pimlico. Along Northern Parkway.
Big signs.
Small signs.
Clusters on corners.
Enough to make you think somebody already won something.
But I’ve been covering Baltimore politics since 1994, and I know what campaign signs are.
They are a tactic.
They are a show of strength.
They are money planted in the ground.
And sometimes they are designed to create the impression that an election is already over before a single vote is cast.
But the signs are not the story.
The story is that the 41st Legislative District is preparing to make one of the most important political decisions in recent memory while its sitting state senator remains under federal indictment.
The people of this district deserve to make that decision with their eyes wide open.
The Voters Never Chose Her for This Office
There is one fact that keeps getting lost.
Dalya Attar was never elected State Senator by the voters of the 41st District.
The voters elected her as a delegate.
When the Senate seat became vacant, it was filled through the appointment process. The local Democratic Central Committee selected her, and Governor Wes Moore approved that selection before the federal allegations became public.
That distinction matters.
In fact, many of Attar’s campaign signs ask voters to “re-elect” her.
Yet the people of the 41st District never elected her to the Senate seat in the first place.
They elected her as a delegate.
Now she is asking voters to elect her to the Senate for the first time.
Those are the facts.
And facts matter.
Especially now.
An Indictment Is Not Nothing
Let’s be clear.
An indictment is not a conviction.
Our system of justice guarantees the presumption of innocence, and it should.
But an indictment is not nothing.
Federal prosecutors allege that Attar, her brother Joseph Attar, and former Baltimore City police officer Kalman Finkelstein participated in a scheme involving secret recordings, wiretapping, and extortion.
Those allegations are serious.
They were not brought by political opponents.
They were brought by federal prosecutors following a federal investigation.
Whether the allegations are ultimately proven in court remains to be seen.
But voters have every right to consider them before deciding who should represent them in Annapolis.
That is not unfair.
That is democracy.
The District Deserves Better Than This Conversation
This district should be talking about Park Heights.
It should be talking about Pimlico.
It should be talking about economic development, schools, public safety, housing, and the future of Northwest Baltimore.
Instead, the dominant conversation has become an indictment.
Hidden cameras.
Federal charges.
Court dates.
That is not what the people of the 41st District signed up for when they entrusted their political future to an elected official.
When an officeholder’s personal legal problems become the defining story of an entire district, voters have every right to ask whether that official can still effectively serve.
That is not a partisan question.
It is a leadership question.
The Right Thing To Do
I am not asking Dalya Attar to admit guilt.
That is for a court to determine.
I am asking her to consider whether remaining in this race serves the people of the 41st District or serves herself.
Public office is a public trust.
And when that trust is placed under this kind of strain, leaders should think first about the institution they represent and the people they serve.
Stepping aside would not be an admission of guilt.
It would be an acknowledgment that the district deserves a campaign focused on its future rather than on a criminal case.
The Responsibility Now Belongs to the Voters
If Attar remains in the race, then the responsibility falls where it always falls.
On the voters.
Not the signs.
Not the consultants.
Not the mailers.
Not the political establishment.
The voters.
The signs on Garrison Boulevard will come down.
The campaign literature will be thrown away.
The election trucks will disappear.
The plastic will be gone.
What will remain is the choice the people of the 41st District make for themselves.
This election is not ultimately about campaign signs.
It is not about who can afford the largest field operation.
It is not even about one politician.
It is about standards.
What standard of accountability are we willing to accept?
What standard of conduct do we expect from those who represent us?
And what message do we send when those standards are tested?
The signs are not the story.
The story is trust.
The story is accountability.
The story is whether the people of the 41st District are willing to demand the same standard from their elected officials that they demand from everyone else.
On Election Day, they will answer that question.
Doni Glover has covered Baltimore politics since 1994 and is one of the city’s longest-serving independent journalists. He is the founder and publisher of BMORENews.com, now in its 24th year, founder of the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards, now in its 15th year, and host of the Emmy-nominated Doni Glover podcast and The Doni Glover Show on WMAR-TV 2.
