The Corrupt Forces Of The Status Quo Come After A Young Latina In Brooklyn-- Meet Julia Salazar

Blue America is primarily a PAC that endorses candidates in congressional races, but occasionally we endorse in a state legislative race. With thousands of legislative seats up for grabs, we look for men and women who will strengthen Democratic benches in their states or who have an important and extraordinary contribution to make. Right now we have a dozen candidates on our state legislative page, half of whom in primaries coming up imminently. One of our candidates is Julia Salazar, running for the New York state Senate next Tuesday in Brooklyn's 18th district, which stretches from Greenpoint and Williamsburg in the north all the way down through Bushwick to Cypress Hills in the south. Her opponent is Martin Malavé Dilan who was first elected to the Senate in 2002 and is generally considered an Albany sleazeball with financial ties to the IDC, the crooked Republican wing of New York's Democratic Party.

Salazar, a community organizer, is running as a progressive from Dilan’s left, focusing on issues such as affordable housing, healthcare, and immigration while refusing donations from the real estate industry, which has been generous to Dilan and, even more so, to Klein and the IDC. She has criticized Dilan’s record, particularly on housing and tenant protections, over his eight terms in office, highlighting the rampant gentrification that has hit the northern Brooklyn district, which includes Williamsburg and Bushwick, and taking aim at his vote for vacancy decontrol, which he has since disavowed.

..."The recent flood of endorsements for Julia Salazar and IDC challengers demonstrate how electeds and key institutional players are following the cues of progressive grassroots activists,” said Susan Kang, a spokesperson for No IDC NY, a group opposing the former IDC members which has its own multi-candidate campaign committee. “Incumbents like Dilan with deeper connections to the real estate interests than his own constituents are out of the step with the current political moment," she added.

Julia is a Democratic Socialist, like Bernie and Alexandria. She identifies as Jewish and because her father came to the U.S. from Colombia also identifies as coming from a working-class immigrant background. Her right-wing brother-- with his own political ambitions-- has called these claims into question and her honestly has become an issue, stoked by Dilan, his IDC allies and other conservatives within the Democratic Party. On Wednesday, 9 of her classmates from Columbia University stepped forward with a compelling OpEd in the Jewish Daily Forward to settle the ginned up controversy over her background.

We came to know Julia during her college years, a key period where her politics and Jewish identity were shaped and formed. Her personal story is complex, and it has been misrepresented by her opponents as she has gone from being a private individual to a public candidate for office over the course of just a few months.

We are writing this letter to affirm who we know Julia to be as a Jew and as someone with moral character that we believe more than qualifies her to represent North Brooklyn in the New York State Senate.

All of us lived in Jewish community with Julia at Columbia and Barnard. We knew her as a woman with her own place in Judaism’s complicated history who yearned to connect with her roots and her past. Julia’s story is a celebration of 21st-century American Jews who embrace Judaism and Jewish life as adults, even when provided few resources to do so while growing up.

As an activist and student leader in the Columbia Jewish community, Julia was a model of integrity. Fierce and committed, she was never afraid to stick her elbows out, especially when she perceived injustice or unfairness.

Yet she also approached leadership with a quiet dignity and humility. We knew Julia as someone who took risks yet wasn’t afraid to question her own beliefs or even change her mind.

She is the sort of Jewish leader we are proud to see seeking elected office in these times.

So we have been furious and saddened to see articles questioning her character.

It seems there are those who want to plant a seed of doubt about Julia, her Jewishness, her class background, and the many-layered heritage of men and women who come from immigrant families. We can only conclude this is an attack on her candidacy, in part because the policies, programs, and politics that she is advancing are resonating in her district and across the country.

It also suggests that Jews like Julia-- a working-class Latina woman who grew up outside of traditional Jewish educational settings-- aren’t fit to lead. These misdirections are plain wrong and deeply hurtful.

During Julia’s time on campus, we shared Shabbat dinners with her. We prayed with her. And we knew her in the many informal ways that living in a Jewish community draws its members close to one another.

We are happy and proud that Julia has found grounding and purpose in Judaism, in her values, and, now, in local politics. But we cannot be silent when cheap shots for political gain have placed a beloved member of our campus Jewish community under attack.

Now more than ever, we need truth to be at the center of our democratic process. We believe that Julia’s integrity and leadership qualities are unquestionable, and we hope this helps her potential constituents confirm what they have surely already sensed from her remarkable campaign.

The people of North Brooklyn have a chance to elect a new state senator with a serious vision for her district. Julia’s calls for universal rent control, affordable housing, single-payer healthcare, labor rights, immigrant rights, a living wage, and more are the kind of progressive policies that our unequal society-- and our Jewish tradition’s model of covenantal community-- demands.

Voters should be thrilled and excited to cast a vote for Julia on September 13th.

The right-wing campaign against Julia has them throwing every crap accusation they can muster and make up against her. The shady characters at Tablet, a status quo Democratic Party hack operation, has been leading the smear campaign. Their latest bullshit is that she was suspected of impersonating a family friend, Kai Hernandez, the then-wife of baseball player Keith Hernandez. The assholes at Tablet have been trying to get someone to run with this but no legitimate papers wanted to because Julia was never charged with anything. One of the UK scandal sheets did pick up on it from Tablet though, dredging up the "fake Jew" nonsense and claiming she was having an affair with the Mets legend while he was in the middle of divorcing Kai. Salazar sued Kai claiming she "engaged in character assassination by falsely accusing her." Kai paid Julia to settle the case. Tablet is so obsessed with destroying Julia-- and progressives in general-- that they're peddling this crap worldwide.

We agree and if you'd like to help Julia win her race against a corrupt, real estate developer-backed conservative, please consider contributing to her campaign by tapping on the thermometer above.