Post: GOP Effort to Attract Jews “Stalls”

For decades, GOP operatives have been insisting that the historically Democratic Jewish vote is turning their way.

In 2004, one key Jewish Republican leader even claimed that 35-40 percent of the Jewish vote would swing towards George W. Bush. (In fact, only 22 percent of American Jews voted for Bush.)

For more than five years, Karl Rove and the rest of this White House -- in addition to the now-disgraced Tom DeLay and the entire GOP -- have been working tirelessly to attract Jewish support.

The results? According to a wide-ranging analysis of the Jewish vote in today's Washington Post, bubkes:

"But the much-trumpeted effort by the Bush White House to make deep inroads on the Democrats' historic claims on Jewish voters -- and, even more important politically, the campaign contributions of Jewish donors -- has not materialized in any convincing fashion, according to poll data, fundraisers and campaign finance reports."

As the Post notes, Jewish support for Bush in 2004 "was substantially below the 35 percent level Republican presidential candidates averaged through the five elections of the 1970s and 1980s." And of course Jewish support for Bush has only dwindled further as all Americans -- American Jews included -- have further soured on the terrible policies of this administration.

These numbers reflect the issues NJDC works on every single day -- educating American Jews where the two parties stand on issues so important to the vast majority of American Jews... whether it's maintaining the separation of church and state and pushing back against the far-right; or protecting a woman's right to choose; or ensuring America's close, strategic relationship with Israel, our only Democratic ally in the Middle East.

Or as Democratic Party Chairman Gov. Howard Dean put it best, "...the Democratic Party is more in line with the issues that are important to Jewish Americans because of our commitment to social justice, equality and economic opportunity and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. Even with the overwhelming support of Jewish Americans, Democrats will continue to fight for every vote in the Jewish community."