|
|
October 29, 2004
Bush and Kerry court Jews
Editors are on the hot-seat over Republican ads late in the campaign.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The tensions surrounding this hotly contested U.S. presidential
election are being felt keenly in the Jewish community, especially
in the "swing" states where Tuesday's contest will truly
be decided.
A tempest arose this month when a Jewish Republican group placed
ads in numerous Jewish community newspapers nationwide. Supporters
of Democratic nominee John Kerry bombarded some editors with calls
and e-mails condemning the Republican ads and accusing the newspapers
of crossing partisan boundaries.
Mordecai Spektor, managing editor of the American Jewish World
in Minneapolis, Minn., received outraged calls and e-mails, as well
as cancelled subscriptions, after his paper ran a three-page paid
advertisement placed by the Republican Jewish Coalition. The ad
touts U.S. president George W. Bush as "a trusted friend"
of Israel and one who rejects the Palestinian "right of return"
and recognizes "the rights Jews have to settle and live in
peace on the West Bank."
Spektor said he tried to convey to his readers the difference between
paid advertising – which, with very few exceptions, any newspaper
will accept happily – and editorial content – which has
an obligation to remain balanced and non-partisan.
"I tried to encourage people to deal with the content of the
ads," he said.
Though Minnesota was once a reliably Democratic state, Spektor noted
that it has become a swing state, which goes Republican at different
levels and times, as well as "any which way" at times,
such as when voters elected the flamboyant wrestler Jesse "The
Body" Ventura governor.
Though Bush has his strong supporters within the Jewish community,
Spektor guesses that most of his readers lean Democrat. Jewish Republicans
tend to cite Bush's support for Israeli policies, while Democrats,
he said, tend to reflect historic Jewish voting patterns that emphasize
support for the disadvantaged, labor rights and an allegiance to
the policies and traditions of the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt's
war on the Nazis and for an economic "New Deal."
Spektor, like other editors, said their papers may have been lopsided
with Republican ads because the Democrats didn't contact them –
until after the Republican ads had run. Democrats are now scrambling
to respond. The National Jewish Democratic Council has responded
with ads in recent editions of Jewish community papers.
Carolyn Katwan, editor of Hakol, the Jewish newspaper in
Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, received similar calls of outrage
when Republicans placed an insert in her paper. Pennsylvania is
one of this election's hottest prizes – the two candidates
are in a dead-heat in the vote-rich state – and the Lehigh
Valley is the state's third-largest media market. Because Hakol
is a monthly paper, the Democrats will not be able to respond before
the election.
"That was a missed opportunity for the Kerry campaign,"
said Katwan. But she acknowledged the issue may have been complicated
for her readers in that the Republican ad took the form of a brochure
that fell out of the paper into the laps of readers, perhaps leaving
an incorrect impression that the newspaper itself was somehow backing
the incumbent.
"They view it as an endorsement," she said, though she
argued that readers don't come to similar conclusions when the paper
runs an ad for Lexus but not Chevrolet.
Though some of her readers argued the community newspaper should
not accept political ads, Katwan said the solution is not fewer
ads, but more. Had her newspaper more aggressively targeted Democratic
campaigns, the controversy may have been averted, she said, adding
that the Republican ad was placed right on deadline, leaving no
time for ad reps to canvass Democrats.
Closer to home, Joel Magalnick, editor of JTNews, the Seattle
paper formerly known as the Jewish Transcript, expressed
a familiar, pragmatic view.
"We would happily have accepted a Democratic ad, but they didn't
run one," he said. As anyone who watches Seattle's TV stations
will know, Washington is the site of pitched and bitter battles
for the governorship and a senate seat. The Bush campaign had earlier
harbored hopes that they might take the state, which has recently
leaned fairly dependably Democratic but, according to Sunday's New
York Times, the Republicans have recently given up on winning
the state for the president and have shipped their campaign workers
to swing states elsewhere.
Magalnick said Democrats are uncomfortable with Bush's policies
on "faith-based initiatives," a concept that critics say
blurs the lines between separation of religion and state.
Though some of his readers may not have appreciated the Republican
ad, Magalnick said he addressed the election issue head-on, calling
for readers to write in with their reasons why Jewish voters should
support their candidate.
Aaron Rose, a Seattle resident who is president of the B'nai B'rith
region that includes British Columbia, said Jewish voters are closely
watching the statewide race for attorney general, in which B'nai
B'rith member Deborah Senn appears to be narrowly leading in a recent
poll.
The deadlocked race for the White House has made every vote the
target of candidates' desperate efforts. The significant Jewish
constituencies in swing states like Pennsylvania and Florida have
helped raise the profile of groups like the National Jewish Democratic
Council (online at www.njdc.org)
and the Republican Jewish Coalition (online at www.rjchq.org).
Meanwhile, Kerry received a boost this month from the endorsement
of Muslim-American and Arab-American groups, who cite racial profiling
and the heavy-handed treatment under domestic security legislation
as central concerns in the election Tuesday.
Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.
^TOP
|
|
