General Discussion

If Nida Allam had run a clean, positive campaign I think there's a very good chance she would have won this primary. She had my vote two weeks ago.

Unfortunately, her campaign appears to be run by outsiders who didn't bother to find out anything about this community.

For no strategic reason the campaign shot itself in the foot by suing an older Black woman candidate for running one negative but factual ad. The hypocrisy is startling because ALL of Allam's ads are negative. She doesn't speak in her ads: it's all Bernie Sanders in his Brooklyn accent yelling about the older Black lady who has served at every level of politics, working her way up from local to state to national. Terrible optics.

The reaction has been swift. A lot of white progressives like myself switched our votes from Nida to Valerie because you just don't treat people like this and get away with it. The Black political machine here - which is formidable - is furious at Allam.

So the bottom line is a lot of bad feelings, schisms among Democrats, and a very promising young Democrat's career kneecapped for no good reason.