Israel Matzav

Did J Street help or hinder its endorsees?

Did George Soros' 'pro-Israel, pro-peace' J Street lobby help or hinder the candidates it backed in the midterm elections? Jennifer Rubin points out that poster boy Joe Sestak (D-Pa) lost.

We have seen, to the chagrin of the left, more attention in an off-year election on Israel than we get in most presidential races. The Emergency Committee for Israel and the Republican Jewish Coalition have reasons to crow. ECI made Joe Sestak its top priority, featured him in its debut ad, and remained a thorn in his side throughout the race. The RJC spent an unprecedented amount of money on the race. These groups didn’t target Joe Sestak by accident or pick an easy race. Sestak was the quintessential faux pro-Israel liberal — touting his support for the Jewish state but signing onto the Gaza 54 letter, headlining for CAIR, and refusing to break with the president on his offensive against the Jewish state. For precisely these reasons, J Street made him its top priority. Sestak lost in a tough race. Was Israel a factor? In a close race, it is hard to say it wasn’t. The question for liberal Democrats is this: why take on the baggage of J Street for such little help and so many headaches?

And that doesn't even consider the fact that even Sestak admitted that signing the Hamas 54 letter was a mistake.

In fact, the other two nominees backed by J Street in Senate races - Robin Carnahan (D-Mo) and Russ Feingold (D-Wi) - also lost.

On the House side, J Street was a bit more successful, although Shmuel Rosner argues that those candidates may have done just as well without J Street.

Here are the totals:
Senate: 0-3
House: 47-11

However, that total for the House is a bit misleading, as many of the House races were little to no contest (at least one endorsee, Michael Capuano of Massachusetts, ran uncontested). Here’s our current count of J Street endorsees and whether they faced a significant GOP challenge (either lost, or won by less than 10 percent):

36 of 47 victors won by more than 10%.

21 endorsees faced a significant Republican challenge, and the ratio there was 10 victories to 11 losses, in races where a Democrat lost or won by less than 10%.

Adding in the 3 Senate losses, and their record on significantly-contested races overall was 10-14.

And then add William Delahunt (D-Ma), just because I really wanted to use this picture one more time. Delahunt led a J Street delegation of Hamas 54 signers to Israel, lied about being snubbed by the Israeli government, and then decided in March not to stand for re-election. I doubt J Street is counting him among the candidates that they backed, although I am sure they gave him some money.

My prediction: Knowing that ECI is now part of the picture, candidates will be a lot more hesitant to take money from J Street in the 2012 election cycle, and by 2014 J Street will be gone... unless another Soros-scale scandal gets rid of them before 2012 ever rolls around.

Jennifer Rubin sums up:

The election demonstrated two things. First, J Street is a weight around the necks of its selected candidates. Second, the voters, Jewish and not, heard more about Israel than in an ordinary midterm and dumped some of the worst Israel-bashers in the House, including Mary Jo Kilroy and Kathy Dahlkemper. The takeaway: voters remain overwhelmingly pro-Israel, and should candidates want to avoid the impression that they are not, they’d do well to steer clear of the foreign-funded J Street.

Indeed.

Labels: Emergency Committee for Israel, George Soros, J Street, Joe Sestak, William Delahunt

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:36 AM