Posted on 02/10/2003 5:06:54 PM PST by SJackson
The top two officers of the Palm Beach County Republican Party are Jewish. That's right. Palm Beach County, Jewish and Republican.
The chairman, Sid Dinerstein, acknowledges how startling that is to some because it runs counter to the stereotype of monolithic political allegiance of Jews to the Democratic Party.
"There's nothing in the Democratic Party for any Jewish person other than history," Dinerstein says. Of course, that's the kind of rhetorical excess one expects from a party chairman. That's his job.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
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Beneath the rhetoric is an unmistakable trend of Jews moving toward the Republican Party.
It's acknowledged by Jack Sadow, who is Jewish and vice chairman of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party. Both he and Dinerstein were elected to their party leadership posts late last year.
Jewish politicians and political activists identify three key reasons for the change: age, affluence and Israel. Dinerstein says it can be seen "as you go down the age curve and up the affluence curve."
In other words, younger people no longer have the same ties to the Democratic Party felt by their parents, and especially their grandparents. Sadow, 72, says many Jewish Democrats came of political age "when fewer people had money and people were still grateful for things like creation of Social Security."
Dinerstein, 56, says older Jews are tough to sell on the Republican Party. Many in the older generation tell him they hear pro-Republican thinking from their children and grandchildren.
"There is a generational transformation that has opened the door for the Jewish community to the Republican Party," says Adam Hasner.
He should know. The first-term Republican state representative from Delray Beach is 33.
As for affluence, political behavior of Jewish voters is like everyone else's.
As people become more affluent, they become more concerned about lower taxes and wealth preservation, and consequently tend to lean toward the party seen as more concerned with those priorities.
Boca Raton, an affluent community, is home to many Jewish Republicans, including Mayor Steven Abrams. But it would be a mistake to think the phenomenon is confined solely to affluent communities. The trend is a national one.
A big player nationally is the Republican Jewish Coalition, which has plenty of local ties, including developer Ned Siegel.
National Republicans pay attention to the RJC, and its members get invited to White House meetings with senior Bush administration officials.
As many as 200 RJC members are gathered at the Boca Raton Resort & Club this weekend for a retreat. Speakers include U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who defeated former Vice President Walter Mondale in November.
The biggest name at the retreat is not Jewish and has strong ties to the Christian right. The appearance by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, helps illustrate the third major factor in the shift.
DeLay is popular with many Jews because of his staunch support for Israel. Hasner says support for Israel from national Republicans plays a significant role.
"Jews should recognize that the Republican Party has been the real supporter of the state of Israel and if that's important to them they should open their minds and give the Republican Party a chance," he says.
Even so, these factors did not randomly come together. Sadow says the Republicans effectively went after traditionally Democratic Jewish voters and thinks his party needs to come up with money for outreach.
"After evaluating election voting patterns, they know where they need to strengthen their turnout, and they have assigned people and dollars to that," he says. "What can the Democrats do? Find a tremendous benefactor."
Though voters in November sent Hasner to Tallahassee and elected Monroe Benaim to the Palm Beach County School Board, officeholders lag behind the trend.
Jewish Democrats occupy elected offices at all levels, city and county government, the state Legislature and Congress.
Dinerstein, who predicts the voting trend will continue to move in his direction, thinks it would be even more pronounced if U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., had not been the 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate. That helped Democrats maintain lots of Jewish support, he says.
Still, Dinerstein says Republican Jewish Coalition polling shows 20 percent of Jewish voters supported Republican George W. Bush. Steve Melcer, chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, says Bush got better than 50 percent among voters under age 30.
If that percentage of Jewish voters is willing to vote Republican when a Jew is on the Democratic ticket, Dinerstein sees nowhere to go but up.
Adds Hasner: "The mantra that all Jews are Democrats is a thing of the past."
As my mother (once Democrat, now Republican) would say: "From your mouth, to God's ears!"
You need to do some more recollecting. Texas changed from have a two-year-term for governor to a four-year-term in 1974. Because of this change, Texas does not have a race for governor in the same year as a US Presidential election. Bill Clements was elected governor in 1978, two years prior to Reagan's election as President.
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