American Jews have long proved a solid voting bloc for the Democratic Party, with about four out of five voting for President Obama in 2008, according to exit polls. Jewish voters are driven by a broad range of concerns, but for some the security of Israel is dominant. Now, with the peace process in the Middle East at a stalemate and Palestinians taking their case for statehood directly to the United Nations, Republicans are stepping up their efforts to peel off Jewish voters.
While this constituency is clearly in play, a new Gallup poll shows that Jews are no more disillusioned than other Americans are with Mr. Obama. According to the poll, his Jewish support has declined since the election in 2008 — but at a rate no different from that of Americans as a whole. Even with that drop-off, 54 percent of Jewish voters told Gallup in August and September that they approved of the job the president was doing (compared with 41 percent of American voters over all). In fact, Jews continue to be far more enthusiastic about Mr. Obama than other Americans — a 13-point difference that has remained sizable throughout the president’s term.
The fresh focus on Jewish voters was prompted in part by the victory of a Republican, Bob Turner, in a special election last week in New York’s Ninth Congressional District. With a heavy concentration of Orthodox Jews, the district is not representative of Jewish voters nationwide; the Orthodox lean far more Republican than the vast majority of American Jewry.
Nevertheless, the election generated excitement among Republicans that the Jewish vote could be up for grabs. Reporters visited three communities with heavy concentrations of Jewish voters for impressions of any shift in their allegiances.
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/us/politics/jewish-voters-and-president-obama.html?_r=1&ref=politics
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