| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| 12 percent of Jews who supported Gore switched |
| 2004-11-02 |
| The American Jewish Committee, in a tiny sampling of roughly 200 Jewish voters in five battleground states, found roughly 12 to 13 percent of Jews who voted for Al Gore in 2000 switched parties and cast their vote for President George W. Bush on Tuesday. "From our exit sampling, very strong support for Kerry. But strikingly, a fairly significant number of Jews switching from Gore in 2000 to Bush, somewhere in the order of 12-13%," said David Harris, AJC's executive director, who examined data, which he stressed was not scientific. Bush won 19% and Gore 80% of the Jewish vote in 2000, according to exit polling. An AJC survey of American Jewish voters in September found 69% would support Kerry and 24% Bush. AJC's Tuesday results suggested slightly stronger gains for Bush in the community. Harris said that nearly all voters who switched from Gore to Bush "identified either Israel or terrorism (and) 9/11 as the first reason for their decision." It was not clear if those gains in the Jewish community would be enough to propel Bush to victory. Overall turnout was extremely high on Tuesday and pundits speculated the large number of new voters would, overall, benefit Kerry. Also, whereas a percentage of Jews in the battleground states are voting for Bush because of his record on Israel or in fighting terrorism, Arab Americans — popular in the same key battleground states — have moved decidedly away from Bush, perhaps canceling out the gains. Harris was reluctant to give overall tallies of how Jews polled in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin voted. "Our principle aim was not numbers per say, it was Jewish voter motivation," he said. Larger exit voter surveys will provide that figure, he noted, "but they won't tell us what we want to know, which is why they voted the way they did and why they switched if they did." While those who voted for Bush cited Israel and the war on terrorism as key motivating factors, the Kerry voter "is usually driven by domestic issues or it's based on personal qualities defined mostly by their dislike of President Bush," Harris said. The surveys were sent to AJC members in the five battleground states via email. The email urged recipients to forward the survey to other Jews in their state. AJC also separately polled 370 Russian Jews at precincts in New York and Philadelphia. Harris said the results were the "mirror image in the opposite direction" of the AJC's September poll. At least 75% said they were voting for Bush, citing his Israel stance and his strong leadership in the war on terrorism. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |