Jewish Democrats anointed Bill de Blasio as the King of the Jewish vote in Tuesday’s Primary for mayor. Hence, while a plurality of 38% of Jews voted for de Blasio over the remaining Democratic candidates in the race, some experts expect Republican mayoral nominee Joe Lhota to pull heavy Jewish support in the general election.
“I think that the Jews who did not vote for de Blasio are going to vote for Lhota in the fall,” Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant told The Forward. “And there’s a lot of them.”
Bloomberg received 75% of the Jewish vote, and 75% in the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park, in 2009. That’s part of a pattern that reaches back to 1993, when Giuliani got two-thirds of the Jewish vote against incumbent Democratic mayor David Dinkins.
One Jewish activist told The Forward that he had been contacted prior to the September 10 primary by people whom he described as Upper West Side Jewish leaders who were registered as Democrats and said they were looking to vote for the weakest Democrat against Lhota.
Outside one polling site, in the heart of a wealthy neighborhood full of Jews and liberals on the Upper West Side, Jewish Democrats voiced dissatisfaction with their party’s candidates and said they were open to voting for a Republican in November, Josh Nathan-Kazis reports.
Wendy Heilbut, 35, who identified as Jewish though “not in practice,” said that she had voted for Thompson. She said that she expected her husband to vote for the Republican candidate in the general election and that she herself was undecided.
In Brooklyn, while Orthodox voting blocs were divided between Thompson and de Blasio, many expect Mr. Lhota to make a play in the general.
“After all, Rudy Giuliani is very popular among Orthodox Jews,” one Thompson voter told YWN. “Bill de Blasio is a friend but his policies are not so friendly to the Jewish community.”
Joe Lhota’s Jewish heritage may also play well among Jewish voters. While he was raised Catholic, Joe Lhota’s maternal grandmother, Ita Steinberg, was Jewish.
“The fact is that on issues that matter to the Orthodox community, such as Metzitzah B’peh and tuition relief, Joe Lhota is 100 percent on our side,” one prominent Community leader, who wished to remain anonymous, told YWN. ”
At the end of the day, It all may come down to what the polls have to say in the coming weeks.
Abraham Biderman, a member of the board of the ultra-Orthodox umbrella group Agudath Israel of America and a Thompson supporter, told The Forward he thought it unlikely that the Orthodox community would switch its support to Lhota in the general election — so long as Lhota trailed the Democrat.
“They’re not going to go to a loser,” Biderman said.
(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)
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7 Responses
Orthodox Jews vote heavily Republican in general elections. This year will be no different than the last 30 years in this regard. I would expect Lhota to carry between 70 and 85% of the vote in the heavily Orthodox districts in Borough Park.
Some Jewish leaders publicly support the Democrat because they expect him to win and wish to curry favor with him once elected. While this may be a sound strategy, even they once behind the curtains of the voting booth tend to vote Republican.
Why do you keep referring to DiBlasio as “King of the Jews?” Its a very odd formulation of saying that he got a plurality of Jewish votes.
Can there be any doubt that the orthodox community will support Lhota? Do we want to return to the Dinkins years?Do we want rampant crime and the police hand cuffed by poiticians? Is the answer tax and more tax and then spend and more spend? These are issues that resonate in the Orthodox Community. Recall that the other candidate was integral in the Dinkins administration and his positions change based on his audience.
This article may a good discussion of political outcomes, but how about a discussion of the issues? What policies are DeBlasio and Lhota supporting, and why would those policies be good or not good for the Jews?
“Orthodox Jews vote heavily Republican in general elections.”
True in Brooklyn. Not true in Manhattan or the Bronx.
Lhota has endorsed same sex marriage. That didn’t hurt Bloomberg in the frum community at all and it should not hurt Lhota.
Lhota should be supported,for the simple reason that he is the lesser of all the evils. De blasio is so far to the left, which leaves us no other choice, regardless of the liberal positions of lhota himself.