Ex-Mayor Ed Koch, a lifelong Democrat, wants voters in next week’s race for Anthony Weiner’s House seat to choose a Republican for the first time in 88 years — and send President Obama a stern message about his hostile views toward Israel.

Actually, with the economy stuck in neutral and job growth nonexistent, even folks who couldn’t care less about the Jewish state see the wisdom of signaling their displeasure. Fact is, you don’t have to be Jewish to want to back Turner in Tuesday’s special election. Or even Republican.

Just thoroughly disgusted.

We sure are — and that’s one reason why The Post today strongly endorses Bob Turner in next Tuesday’s special election in New York’s 9th Congressional District.

Let’s face it: Turner’s rival, Assemblyman David Weprin, is a career Democratic Party hack. He was handpicked by party bosses (there was no primary) mostly because he comes from a powerful political family.

Indeed, Weprin doesn’t even live in the 9th District — how arrogant is that? — and he’s not bashful about his willingness to toe the Obama line.

He’s calling for higher taxes and more spending. (And anything else the Democratic establishment tells him to support.)

No question his election would embolden Obama & Co. to keep heading in the same direction — that is, nowhere.

Turner understands the frustration among his neighbors — four out of five of whom say the country’s headed in the wrong direction, including 73 percent of Democrats, a recent Siena poll shows.

It’s why Turner, a longtime district resident who’s fairly new to politics, decided to run for Congress in the first place.

And why he’s made the race a referendum on Obama.

Even the president’s backers realize that this Brooklyn/Queens face-off transcends local issues and is more about him.

Which is why they’re working overtime to help Weprin. And why Weprin is careful not to mention Obama’s name.

No doubt, a Turner win — the first Republican victory for the seat since 1923 — would register in the White House.

Turner, a businessman who surely understands job creation better than career pols do, wants to trim spending and taxes to “allow our businesses to grow.” He abhors Obama’s pressure on Israel (“America’s only dependable democratic ally in the Middle Eeast”) to accept pre-’67 borders.

No wonder a McLaughlin poll last week had him and Weprin in a dead heat, with 42 percent of the vote each.

Ninth District voters who want to change the nation’s course can make a difference next week — by voting for Bob Turner.

(Source: NY Post)