To the editor:

In your glowing profile of “common sense” City Council candidate Darryl Nirenberg, it’s odd that you found the column inches to mention him working his way through college mowing lawns but couldn’t find room for the fact that he was chief of staff to Sen. Jesse Helms, who the late David Broder called “the last prominent, unabashedly white racist politician in this country.” Nirenberg was the consigliere for years to a man who called Martin Luther King Jr. a “Communist and pervert,” teased the first Black female U.S. Senator by singing “Dixie” on the elevator with her and turned his back on Nelson Mandela when the renowned leader visited Congress. I’m not usually a big fan of guilt by association, but Nirenberg was this guy’s chief of staff.

-Patrick Smith, Alexandria