Bagels & Ballots: Frozen Chosen Edition
Finding Jewish Candidates Where You’d Least Expect Them: Forward Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman takes us beyond the usual suspects New York in Florida and into … well, other places where Jews are running for office. Hint: think “beyond the lower 48.” (MitzVote)
Watch the Jewish vote — in state government: On the question of a rightward movement in the Jewish vote, Jewish former Bush official Tevi Troy writes: “The shift in the Jewish vote is already taking place — but at the state, not the national level.” (Politico)
Philly on the Fringe? In Pennsylania’s senatorial race, Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Joe Sestak are locked in a dead heat — now that Sestak is polling much better than in past months, when he was as much as 10 points behind. And last night, they debated each other. Their only common ground? Each says he believes his opponent is an extremist. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Details, Details: This week’s Forward editorializes that candidates’ gaffes about things like, say, the first amendment “are outrageous perversions of facts that cannot be waved away or minimized, and they speak to a worldview that ought to be well outside acceptable civic dialogue.” The message may come right on time for Wisconsin’s Republican senatorial candidate Ron Johnson, who, when confused about a policy point, stated that the election is not “about details.” (Talking Points Memo)