January 17, 2008
Even as Hillary Clinton remains a strong favorite among Democrats in the state, some Jewish voters in New Jersey are expressing enthusiastic support for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama less than a month before the state’s Feb. 5 primary.
One of them is Jessica Greenberg of Maplewood. She calls Obama “the kind of candidate our country is ready for” and one who represents “where we want this country to head.”
“When you are a member of any minority group,” she said, “it is doubly exciting to have someone else who is. When you’ve had 40-something white Christian males as presidents, this is going to be really exciting.”
Sylvia Steiner of West Orange, a veteran supporter of both Bill and Hillary Clinton, said she believes “Obama is a really bright guy and he speaks beautifully. I’m not so sure how he is on Israel, and I don’t know if the country is ready for a black president — or for a woman president either. But hopefully, we have a year and people will adjust to the idea, and there are woman presidents in many countries now.”
As she views the Republican competitors, Steiner said she believes “John McCain will put up the toughest fight. Rudy Giuliani has a lot of Jewish support in this area, but I think he’d make a terrible president. He’s the only person I know who benefited from 9/11. He shoots from the hip and he’s not a team player. He’s just not suitable.”
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton with Ben Chouake, president of NORPAC, at an August 2006 fund-raiser. Photo courtesy NORPAC
Both leading Democrats have their supporters among the state’s elected officials, with Clinton boasting endorsements from Gov. Jon Corzine and Sen. Robert Menendez, even as their fellow Democrat, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, clings to neutrality.
Leading the list for Obama is Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Dist. 9), who delivered a rousing warm-up speech before an estimated 2,000 people at a campaign rally in the crowded Yanitelli Recreational Life Center at Saint Peter’s College in Jersey City on Jan. 9.
Although the audience included people of all ages, Rothman aimed much of his brief remarks at the young people packed together on the gym floor and the bleachers.
He urged them to get out the vote to support “change for a progressive American agenda so we can change the world.”
His speech came one day after Clinton’s surprise victory and Obama’s three-point defeat in the New Hampshire primary, but the multiethnic crowd was not dispirited.
“I think he’s got a great chance of winning the nomination,” said Bert Lefkovic of Dunellen, a State of Israel Bonds executive.
“After winning Iowa the way he did, losing one primary isn’t going to turn everything around overnight. We are very well positioned to do very well in New Jersey, if not pull off an upset,” said Lefkovic. “If Barack Obama wins Nevada and South Carolina, New Jersey is absolutely in play.”
Obama is pinning his hopes on people like NJ Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Dist. 14) of Plainsboro, who started as a Clinton supporter, then switched to Obama.
“I thought I would support Hillary just because she’s a woman,” Greenstein told NJ Jewish News. “It was sort of my knee-jerk reaction. Then a bunch of friends who had been supporting Obama for some time really wowed me. One of them said, ‘This is a candidate who makes us better people and better Americans.’ I never thought of a candidate that way. I thought the Obama campaign was something I would like to be part of.”
One local observer says none of the Democrats has what it takes this year.
Ben Chouake, the president of NORPAC, the nonpartisan pro-Israel political action committee, says he is backing Republican John McCain. According to Chouake, the most qualified Democrats have already bowed out of the race.
“You had some unbelievably qualified people running — a guy like Joe Biden, a guy like Chris Dodd — mature, with immense experience. They’ve got no traction at all,” he said.
“Obama is an electrifying candidate,” Chouake added. “He speaks beautifully. He’s smart. But he’s a kid. He’s got two years in the Senate, he’s gotten nothing done, and all he is saying is, ‘I want change.’ Nobody here knows him.
“I think Obama is an immense talent. He is an exciting candidate who may turn out one day to be capable of being commander-in-chief, but it’s too early.”