Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is attracting the support of Jewish Democratic donors, a U.S. congressional newspaper reports.
The Hill, a popular daily Congressional newspaper, reported this week that in addition to the support of Independent-Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, McCain has received money and backing from elite Jewish Democratic donors such as Florida developer Stephen Muss.
“Many Jewish Democrats are sensing there is such an existential threat to Israel that you have to vote for an individual who strongly supports the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), chairman of the GOP’s Jewish Victory Coalition, told The Hill.
Stephen Muss is the biggest Democratic donor and fundraiser to pledge his support for McCain and the Republican National Committee, but there are others - and Muss, who gave $80,000 to the Democratic National Committee in 2000, is expected to help bring even more.
Brian Ballard, a prominent and dynamic Florida lobbyist and McCain fundraiser, said that several major Jewish Democratic donors have said they will join McCain’s camp. He specifically referred to people who had been supporters of Hillary Clinton, as well as those who are "not happy with [Democratic candidate Barack] Obama’s stance with regards to Israel and regards to Cuba... Democrats who are traditional large Democratic givers are coming over to our side."
Florida is considered a key state, both electorally and fundraising-wise. Its Jewish vote makes up some 5% of the state's electorate. The narrow final outcome of Florida's vote in 2000 gave Bush-Cheney a Republican Presidential victory over Gore-Lieberman.
Obama is cause for concern among US Jews for several reasons, not least of all because he attended a church for 20 years where the bulletin carried Hamas-supportive essays. He told a cheering AIPAC crowd a week ago that Jerusalem must remain undivided - and then backtracked the next day. He is famous for advocating negotiations with Iran and Syria, and told a crowd of activists last year, “Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people."
Politically, Democrats are more than a little concerned about the fact that Senator Lieberman, the Democrats' Vice Presidential candidate just eight years ago, has come out strongly in favor of McCain. Lieberman has even launched a grassroots group, Citizens for McCain, which he describes as "an organization ... for people who put country before political party and support the candidate for President who has a proven record of bipartisanship."
This past March, Lieberman accompanied McCain on a visit to Israel, including stops at the Western Wall and Sderot.
Lieberman explained his backing for McCain by saying they "agreed almost totally" on national security issues such as the war in Iraq, and noting that McCain was better able than Obama to work across party lines to get things done.
Lieberman served as Senate mentor for Obama, his junior party colleague, when the latter was first elected to the Senate in 2004. The U.S. press noted with amusement that when Obama and Lieberman met on the Senate floor this week, Obama took Lieberman aside for a few minutes and, if his body language was any indication, spent the time expressing his animated unhappiness with Lieberman's pro-McCain stance.