Jewish Republicans Dance On Jon Ossoff’s Grave — Gloat At J Street Loss

Karen Handel Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman June 21, 2017

Now that Georgia’s dramatic special election is over, it’s time for Jewish groups to fight over bragging rights.

The Republican Jewish Coalition, which backed GOP candidate Karen Handel to the tune of $50,000, celebrated the victory with a fundraising email blast urging supporters to donate now, because “as the GA-6 election showed, Republican turn-out is the key to winning in these hard-fought races.”

The group made a point of noting that Handel’s opponent, Democrat Jon Ossoff, “earned his support from J Street by backing the Iran deal and refusing to support the Taylor Force Act.” RJC board member Phil Rosen was clearer with his gloat over the dovish lobby’s loss, tweeting: “Most important for Israel – this was a resounding defeat of J Street which raised a chunk of the $26m Ossoff raised for this election.”

J Street PAC brought in $80,000 to Ossoff’s hefty war chest, and made clear it has no regrets about the money spent. The group’s vice president of communications Jessica Rosenblum, noting that he managed to erase a 20 point lead in his district while supporting the Iran deal, openness to refugees, and U.S. involvement in Middle East peacemaking.

In fact it’s not clear whether Jewish issues played much of a role in the vote and Jewish-linked fundraising groups made up a small fraction of the nearly $60 million spent.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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