Why Specter’s switch hurts the GOP with Jewish voters

Sen. Arlen Specter’s (Pa.) switch to the Democratic Party will have a significant impact on the Republican Party is with Jewish voters, Douglas Bloomfield writes in the Jewish Daily Forward.

Specter has always been a staunch ally of Israel, though he hasn’t always agreed with groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In particular, Specter’s relationships and diplomacy with Syria’s leaders have infuriated the Israel lobby over the years.

But in switching, Specter has highlighted an underlying problem facing the GOP with Jewish voters.

“Specter’s decision to switch parties is about more than one man’s ambition to hold on to his Senate seat, although that was admittedly a motivation,” he writes. “It is also a tale of a Republican Party that, in its search for ideological purity, is moving further and further away from the American mainstream, and particularly from Jewish voters.”

Bloomfield interviews Tom Dine, a former executive director of AIPAC, who hits at why Specter may feel more comfortable around President Obama, who has advocated for engaging with Iran, one of Israel’s enemies, and the Democrats.

“He is a man who believes in engagement, the most commonly used word in foreign policy parlance these days,” Dine told Bloomfield, who formerly lobbied for AIPAC. “He was way ahead of his time. But it often had him on the outs with several Republican administrations and some Jewish groups that didn’t approve of his trips to Damascus or Baghdad.”

Ultimately, Bloomfield says, Specter’s remarks that the GOP has become more pure and, therefore, less appealing to a broad swath of voters, spell doom for the GOP and Jewish voters.

“As the GOP becomes even more conservative, it also becomes less attractive to mainstream Jewish voters,” Bloomfield writes. “Jews most comfortable in the Republican Party these days appear to be longtime loyalists and ideological conservatives, like Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia – who, depending on the outcome of the disputed Minnesota Senate race, may end up being the only Jewish Republican on Capitol Hill.”

jeremy.jacobs@digital-stage.thehill.com