JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Super Tuesday: The Jewish Vote

By Ami Eden · February 6, 2008

JTA’s Ben Harris has a story breaking down the Jewish vote on Super Tuesday:

Hillary Rodham Clinton scored a major victory with Jewish Democrats in New York and New Jersey in Super Tuesday voting, Barack Obama won a majority of Jewish support in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the battle was close in California.

For those who don’t like reading, we make it easy for you with our “The Democratic Jewish Vote on Super Tuesday” map (thanks to JTA’s super duper director of digital media Dan Sieradski).

0 Comments | Share This | Barack Obama, Featured, hillary clinton, Presidential Race, Super Tuesday

WPOST: More attack e-mails on eve of Super Tuesday

By Ami Eden · February 6, 2008

The Washington Post reports on “last-minute chain e-mails” attacking various candidates on the eve of Super Tuesday:

One alerted recipients to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s “alarming” views about Israel, another challenged Republican Sen. John McCain’s account of his Vietnam War service. Another alleged that Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton opposed the Civil Rights Act as a teenager, even though she did not. …

In e-mails forwarded to The Washington Post, senders attacked Republican Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, and offered a misleading account of Obama’s voting record in the Illinois Senate. Some were unsigned and impossible to trace.

Several experts asserted that such tactics are becoming more potent, for a variety of reasons:

“Clearly, the speed of delivery has enabled these last-minute attacks to become much more potent,” said Peter Pasi, an executive of Emotive LLC, a firm specializing in online communication strategies.

Zephyr Teachout, a former director of Internet organizing for Howard Dean who now teaches law at Duke University, said: “What’s different, even from four years ago, is that across-the-board people are using e-mail to talk about the election. . . . Because you’re getting them from friends, they take on an air of authenticity.”

Among the e-mails making the rounds, was a message from the Republican Jewish Coalition attacking Obama (first reported here by JTA):

Some of those sharing the e-mails did so innocently. Sherry M. Saffer, a Los Angeles lawyer, said that she sent a group of Jewish friends an e-mail about Obama that she received from her aunt in New York. The message, from the Republican Jewish Coalition, criticized an interview Obama gave in the French publication Paris Match in which he proposed organizing a summit of heads of state in the Muslim world.

The coalition’s executive director then noted: “Nowhere in the Paris Match article does Senator Obama affirm Israel’s right to exist. Nor does he condemn the repeated terrorist strikes against Israel – the only stable democracy in the region.”
The executive director, Matt Brooks, said last night that he stands by the e-mail.

But the Middle East was touched on only briefly in the interview. Denis McDonough, a top foreign policy adviser to Obama, said yesterday that the suggestion that Obama does not support Israel is “baseless, groundless and without merit.”

McDonough added: “Barack has strongly condemned terrorist attacks against Israel, has strongly affirmed Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and just last week was firmly on the record urging our U.N. ambassador to veto any resolution out of the Security Council that did not condemn missile attacks on Israel from Gaza.”

According to Teachout, an Obama supporter, confronting these sorts of e-mails is like trying to “battle a ghost.”

“They’re very difficult to respond to, because you don’t want to engage the idea,” she said.

Teachout said that such transactions are vexing to campaigns because they cannot track or combat a misleading message as it jumps around the country. “If you see a falsehood on television, at least you can go back to that same channel and try and correct it,” she said. “Here, the channel disappears. The waves wash up the minute the ideas have been written in the sand.”

5 Comments | Share This | Barack Obama, hillary clinton, John McCain, mitt romney, Presidential Race, Super Tuesday

Hillary wins Jewish vote in California (UPDATE: Not)

By Ami Eden · February 6, 2008

The exit polls are giving Hillary Clinton the win among Jewish Democrats in California, with 48 percent to Barack Obama’s 44 percent. Jews made up 5 percent of the Democratic electorate. [UPDATE: The figures were adjusted… Obama won with 49 percent, with Clinton at 47 percent and Edwards at 4 percent.]

0 Comments | Share This | Barack Obama, California, hillary clinton, Presidential Race, Super Tuesday

Obama wins Jewish vote in Conn.

By Ami Eden · February 6, 2008

The exit polls say that Barack Obama took 61 percent of Jewish Dems in Connecticut, compared to 38 percent for Hillary Clinton. Jews made up 10 percent of the Democratic electorate there.

0 Comments | Share This | Barack Obama, hillary clinton, Super Tuesday, Uncategorized

Obama wins Jewish vote in Mass.

By Ami Eden · February 6, 2008

Exit polls say Massachusetts is the first sate with a significant Jewish population to see its Jews voters go for Barack Obama. He won 52 percent of Jewish Democrats, with Hillary Clinton taking 48 percent.

Jews made up about 6 percent of the Democratic electorate in Massachusetts.

0 Comments | Share This | Barack Obama, hillary clinton, Massachusetts, Presidential Race, Super Tuesday

Hillary wins Jews in N.J.

By Ami Eden · February 6, 2008

UPDATE: This post has been changed to reflect new numbers up at MSNBC.

Hillary Clinton won the Jewish vote in New Jersey, but the exit polls say her margin was much slightly smaller than her win in New York. In N.J., Clinton won 56 63 percent of Jewish Democrats compared to 44 37 percent for Barack Obama.

Jews made up 9 percent of N.J.’s Democratic electorate.

0 Comments | Share This | Barack Obama, hillary clinton, New Jersey, Presidential Race, Super Tuesday

Exit Poll: Big Jewish win for Hillary in N.Y.

By Ami Eden · February 6, 2008

UPDATE: This post has been changed to reflect new numbers up at MSNBC.

MSNBC now has exit polling up about the Jewish vote in New York.

According to the polling, conducted by Edison/Mitofsky, Hillary Clinton took 69 65 percent of Jewish Democrats, compared to 29 33 percent for Barack Obama. That’s a wider gap than in Florida, where Clinton beat Obama 58 percent to 26 percent, with John Edwards pulling 13 percent.

In New York, Jews made up 17 16 percent of the Democratic electorate – about double the percentage of Jews in the Empire State’s overall population.

0 Comments | Share This | Barack Obama, hillary clinton, New York, Presidential Race, Super Tuesday

Hillary wins N.Y., N.J. & Mass.

By Ami Eden · February 6, 2008

As expected, Hillary Clinton has taken three states with large Jewish populations: New York, New Jersey & Massachusetts.

Of course, the exact percentages and delegate breakdown are still unclear. And no sense yet how Jews or Jewish areas voted. Hopefully more on that tonight.

0 Comments | Share This | Barack Obama, hillary clinton, Presidential Race, Super Tuesday

Supressing the Jewish vote?

By Ben Harris · February 5, 2008

Probably not. But still, this story out of Los Angeles is a little troubling.

Bernie Cade, the electoral inspector at the Westside Jewish Community Center, said the equipment hadn’t arrived, hours after polls opened.

Cade said he had not received voting machines or the ink that goes in them for any of the seven booths in the polling station. Dozens of people were sent to other polling places nearby, but Cade said a voting troubleshooter was on hand and the polling place was accepting hand-marked ballots.

Still, Cade said the process was slow, and that he was worried about more delays.

0 Comments | Share This | California, Presidential Race, Primaries, Super Tuesday