Lieberman a tough sell among Jewish donors

Joe Lieberman, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination for 2004, isn’t breaking any records for collecting campaign contributions from fellow Jews. Some of them argue this isn’t the right time for a Jewish candidate.

Potential Jewish donors fear a Jewish president could stir up anti-Semitism in the middle of the war on terrorism and the military occupation of Iraq, Jews in both parties say.

“To be Jewish is to sometimes feel insecure in the world,” says Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic presidential-campaign consultant.

In theory, the senior senator from Connecticut has a lot going for him as the only Jew among the nine Democrats in the intensifying hunt for the 2004 nomination.

But some of his co-religionists also say Jewish donors feel drawn to President Bush, who is turning out to be the best friend Israel has ever had in the Oval Office.

“The smart political money in the Jewish community right now is sitting on the sidelines or supporting the president,” says Lee Cowen, a Washington-based Jewish fund-raiser.

“Joe Lieberman has one problem: George W. Bush,” says Rep. Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican. “Bush is the strongest president on U.S.-Israel relationships we’ve ever had.”

Mr. Cantor, chief deputy Republican whip, says Mr. Bush “is more committed to Israel as a Jewish state than any other president.”

“That is fundamental when it comes to Jewish voting patterns for 2004,” he said.

Mr. Cantor, who is Jewish and was elected from a district that is only 1 percent Jewish, said: “At the end of the day, Jews are coming to realize they can’t afford to be Democrats.”

Perhaps, but Republicans have been making empty predictions about winning the Jewish vote for 80 years. Warren G. Harding was the last Republican to pull a majority of the Jewish vote. That was in 1920. Ronald Reagan won 39 percent of the Jewish vote in 1984.

More typical was 1992, when a dismal 11 percent of the Jewish vote went to the first President Bush. His son has embraced Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, ousted Israeli nemesis Saddam Hussein from Iraq, and visited the World War II concentration camp at Auschwitz.

As a Texas Republican and born-again Christian, Mr. Bush embodies a combination not usually the first choice of Jewish voters. By contrast, Mr. Lieberman is an Orthodox Jew and, like most Jewish voters and donors, a Democrat. Jewish Democrats have the historic chance to help make Mr. Lieberman the first Jewish presidential nominee in either party and perhaps the first Jewish president.

Yet, Mr. Lieberman, though well-known nationally as Al Gore’s running mate in 2000, estimated Wednesday that on the official reporting date of July 15, his campaign will tell the Federal Election Commission that he has raised only something more than $5 million from April through June of this year.

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