Tuesday’s election brought sweeping change to American political life, most of it colored deep red.
Republicans retook the House of Representatives in convincing fashion, with 60 seats changing hands. In the Senate, Democrats lost a few, among them Wisconsin’s Jewish Senator Russ Feingold, but retained a majority.
We congratulate the Republicans and we hope their leaders will do their utmost to help the country solve its vexing problems. That means working with, not against, the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Senate.
We especially congratulate Virginia representative and presumptive House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who will become the highest-ranking Jewish congressman in history.
In California, the Republican wave hit a seawall, with Jewish Sen. Barbara Boxer winning re-election and Jerry Brown staving off Meg Whitman for the governor’s seat. We congratulate them, too, on their decisive wins.
So what did the 2010 midterm election say about Jewish voters? It is risky to read too much into the results. Most political scientists view off-year elections as midcourse corrections, and not necessarily as dramatic shifts in the mood of the electorate.
We cannot say whether this week’s results constitute a shift or not. But an extensive national poll of Jewish voters revealed fascinating data.
It’s true the poll was commissioned by the liberal Israel lobby J Street, which may raise some eyebrows, but it was conducted on Election Day by the reputable independent polling firm of Gerstein Agne.
The poll found that, despite the Republican trend, Jewish voters remain solidly Democratic, with 66 percent voting for Democratic candidates for Congress, 31 percent for the Republican.
The poll also found that President Barack Obama enjoys a 60 percent approval rating among Jewish voters, though that number drops to 53 percent when it comes to his handling of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
However, as we have stated often, Jews are not single-issue voters. In this poll, the economy and health care were by far the two most important issues to Jewish voters, with only 7 percent listing Israel as most important.
What does it all mean?
For Democrats, life goes on; the world has not come to an end. For Republicans, they still have their work cut out when it comes to persuading Jews to hop on their bandwagon.
This is democracy. As power in the House peacefully transfers from one party to the other, we hope we’re one step closer to that more perfect union.