Support for Santorum crosses party lines at pro-Israel fund-raiser

by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

Rick Santorum, a conservative Republican who is fighting hard to hold onto his United States Senate seat from Pennsylvania, crossed state lines Jan. 10 to raise upward of $50,000 at a fund-raising dinner in Englewood sponsored by the pro-Israel NORPAC.

Santorum appeared at an off-the-record meeting at the home of NORPAC president Ben Chouake, a registered Republican who cochaired the event with a prominent New Jersey Democrat, Trenton attorney Lionel Kaplan.

The bipartisan event demonstrated the ability of a politician considered controversial among many in the Jewish community to hold onto support among Jews who are grateful for his strong pro-Israel stance.

“Santorum is a great friend of Israel,” said Kaplan. “I support Republicans, too, when they are good on Israel, and he has a terrific record,” Kaplan told NJ Jewish News, pointing out that he had hosted a “very successful” fund-raiser for Santorum last November.

“Israel is my most important issue,” said Kaplan. “He has been a terrific friend and is entitled to my support. You need to support your friends when they need help. If you don’t, you won’t have friends.”

Chouake, speaking the morning after the dinner, said he had “no idea” how many guests at the fund-raiser were Democrats.

“Santorum is part of the Republican leadership,” said Chouake. “He’s a very conservative guy. So people who are liberally prone would pass on this event — just as the people who are conservatively prone passed on the events we did for liberals.”

Chouake said the nonpartisan NORPAC has held fund-raising events for Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.,) and former Speaker of the House Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.).

Santorum has perhaps the top spot on the Democratic Party’s hit list as it works feverishly to recapture majorities in both houses of Congress next November. Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said the single-issue focus on Israel on the part of many Jewish voters is growing less potent.

“A lot of people these days are supporting NJDC because they can’t stand supporting candidates like Santorum or Jesse Helms just because of Israel,” Forman told NJJN. “They want to support pro-Israel candidates who also share their vision of what America should be. They can’t swallow the idea of voting for the Santorums of the world, even though they are good on Israel. People find his views on church-state separation abominable. They find his views on gays and other minorities abominable. They find his views on economics and tax cuts abominable. You can go on and on.”

A NORPAC e-mail cited Santorum’s strong support of legislation that opposes Iran’s nuclear capability and favors withholding some American funding for the United Nations because of corruption in its Iraqi oil-for-food program. He is a sponsor of congressional actions that condemn anti-Semitism, recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and support religious freedom in the workplace — positions that, according to NORPAC, entitle Santorum to broad Jewish backing.

“Santorum is running in a Democratic-leaning state and is in a fight for his political life,” said the same e-mail invitation to the Jan. 10 fund-raiser. “Rick Santorum has asked for our help and clearly deserves it.”

If reelected, Santorum would likely become the second-most powerful Republican in the Senate. But 10 months before the election, he is considered the most vulnerable Senate Republican on the ballot in November. A poll in December by the Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University showed him trailing 12 points behind Robert Casey, the state treasurer of Pennsylvania who is the senator’s likely Democratic opponent in November.

“Right now it is the biggest Senate race in the country. There is no question about it,” Clay Richards, a pollster at the Quinnipiac Polling Institute, told NJJN. “The Democrats are targeting Santorum. They would like very much to defeat him. He, among all the senators, is the symbol of strong Bush support. If the election were held tomorrow, I think he would lose, but the race is just getting started.”

According to Richards, the senator has been damaged by his strong support of the Bush administration and by allegations of ethical misconduct, including alleged quid-pro-quo fund-raising by the restaurant industry, and reports that a Pennsylvania school district picked up the tab for his five children to take part in an on-line charter school, although his family resides in Leesburg, Va. In November 2004, Santorum withdrew his children from the program.

To his backers in NORPAC, such allegations are irrelevant.

Democrat Kaplan said he was “not aware of any ethical issues” that had been raised in critiques of Santorum and would not answer “a hypothetical” question about such allegations.

Republican Chouake also said, “I’m not familiar with any ethical issues. People throw out all kinds of things, especially in an election year. This is a horrible situation, where you have all kinds of people making all kinds of accusations.”

Robert Wiener can be reached at rwiener@njjewishnews.com.

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