But there’s another, better, story about the letter, and the Republicans’ effort to capitalize politically on Bush’s lofty stature as a leader in the war on terror. I’m told–not by the GOP–that the letter has been mailed to moderate Jewish Democrats in New York, who rarely if ever give to Republicans, but who have been impressed by what one such donor called Bush’s “moral clarity on the issue of terrorism” and support for Israel.
Mike Granoff is an example. A biotech venture capitalist who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, he describes himself as a “staunch Democrat” who contributed heavily to, among others, the Gore-Lieberman campaign of 2000. And yet he was astonished the other day to find the Cheney letter in his mailbox.
The text was carefully tailored–complete with an invitation to Granoff to serve as a “leader” of New Yorkers who might want to come to Washington to take part in the dinner. A quick survey among his Jewish friends in business and philanthropy found at least three others who had received the letter. Asked if he planned to buy a ticket for the dinner, Granoff said: “Absolutely not!” But he said he had warned Democrats that they needed to take the apparent new GOP effort to woo Jewish voters seriously.
When I asked them about the mailings, officials at the GOP and the White House denied that there was any new effort under way specifically to woo suddenly “persuadable” Jewish Democrats–even as they bragged that donations from Jews were the “fastest growing category” of cash flooding into Republican coffers since last fall.
GOP officials explained that the party’s committees are constantly “buying lists”–computer files of names and addresses of donors to and activists in various causes. GOP officials specifically denied they had purchased “Jewish” or other ethnic lists, which can be compiled by software that identifies surnames or zip codes.
FUND-RAISERS’ TRICKS
But there are many ways to skin a fat cat. Sophisticated fund-raisers know how to comb the lists of contributors to federal and state campaigns, to charities that list their donors (some do and some don’t) and business group leadership rosters.
And, while they denied doing so, it would make a lot of sense for the GOP to target high-rolling Jewish contributors–and Jewish-American voters generally. The party has fared poorly among them ever since the New Deal and FDR. Richard Nixon managed to woo 38 percent of Jewish voters in 1972–the high point in modern times. Jewish-Americans compose only about 2 percent of the population, but they are dutiful voters, eager participants in politics and tend to live in major “swing” states.
Bill Clinton and Al Gore were especially popular with Jewish voters: Bob Dole got only 16 percent of the Jewish vote in 1996; George W. Bush did little better, garnering only 19 percent. Raising that percentage in 2004 is an obvious goal for Bush, if for no other reason than to give himself a better chance of winning Florida next time without the assistance of the U.S. Supreme Court. (Bush will be wooing Cuban-Americans in Florida soon with a new get-tough policy on Fidel Castro.)
GOP officials are understandably squeamish about discussing the existence of “Jewish lists”–the very phrase has an ominous connotation to a people whose modern consciousness was shaped by the Holocaust. So how is it that, apparently, a number of Jewish Democrats are suddenly finding themselves being invited to dine with Bush?
THE HILLARY CLINTON FACTOR?
One possibility: a search for Democrats in New York who give generously to Democratic candidates–but who didn’t give in 2000 to one specific Democrat, Hillary Rodham Clinton. At that time, Clinton was viewed with suspicion by many supporters of Israel, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, for her early declaration of support for a Palestinian state and literal embrace of Yasser Arafat’s wife.
Granoff himself fits that bill. (“Several years ago,” he said, he gave some money to GOP candidates because of his interest in the Caribbean Basin Initiative. But he lived at a different address at the time, and discounts that as the reason he has appeared on GOP radar screens.)
GOP mailers may also be scanning lists of Jewish-oriented community and service groups–who, like other charitable fund-raising groups–sometimes sell or rent their lists to like-minded groups. Another recipient of the Cheney letter fits into that category: He receives, unsolicited, many appeals from Jewish charities.
Yet another potential source of names could be donors who show up on federal campaign lists–and who have a history of giving to both Democrats and Republicans–and who live in certain zip codes. I’ve been told of at least two such examples on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
There is, of course, nothing nefarious about any of this: It’s the American way–unless and until there is a far more sweeping reform of campaign laws than anyone can now imagine.
