ANALYSIS

Republicans Ramp Up Jewish Outreach

Big Bashes, Both During And After The Convention, Aim To Attract Key Voter Group

by Peter H. Stone

Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008


A couple of weeks before the Republican convention, Fred Zeidman, a veteran Texas money bundler for both of President Bush's campaigns, spent two days in Detroit with Sens. Joe Lieberman and John McCain hunting for Jewish support and campaign cash.

Zeidman was reprising a role from the 2004 presidential contest, but this year he has moved up a notch in the hierarchy. He is co-chairman of Jewish outreach for the McCain campaign, along with Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the House deputy minority whip. Cantor has also been on the money trail this summer, making fundraising stops in key cities including Chicago, Miami, New York, and Philadelphia.

The outreach effort, which has paid financial and political dividends for the GOP in the past two presidential cycles, is again crucial, given the tightness of the race and the role that Jewish votes play in pivotal states such as Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

As an indicator of just how important the effort is, McCain-Palin Victory '08 -- the joint fundraising operation of the campaign and the Republican National Committee -- has asked that it raise as much as $10 million.

To help reach their goal, Cantor and Zeidman will no doubt be doing lots of networking this week. Both men are expected to appear at a Wednesday brunch honoring Jewish Republicans at the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis and at a Thursday afternoon bash at the Guthrie Theater sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition, a powerful pro-Israel advocacy group. Cantor is slated to speak at the event, billed as a "Salute to Congress."

Cantor and Zeidman, both longtime RJC board members, have taken leaves from the group to work on the McCain outreach drive. The coalition, which boasts a few dozen wealthy and powerful Jews on its board, is separately expected to raise sizable sums for independent ads in several states, much as it did in 2004, according to sources. (The board includes, for example, heavy-hitting donors and fundraisers Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino mogul whose net worth is about $26 billion; and Elliot Broidy, the RNC's finance chairman.)

After the convention, the drive is expected to host several big bashes including one in New York City in early October that will feature Cantor and Lieberman.

Zeidman is upbeat about the fundraising results and the drive to raise the GOP ticket's share of the Jewish vote from the 27 percent that Bush corralled in 2004. He cited McCain's long backing for Israel's security needs as an inducement. "We're getting a ton of Lieberman's time and every second that Eric's got," Zeidman says. "I think McCain will do much better than Bush did in 2004."

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