Adam Kredo
Perry surges, Romney slips
Mixed reviews among GOP Jews as new party frontrunner emerges
WASHINGTON—Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s surge to the front of the GOP presidential pack has Jewish Republicans reckoning with a field that suddenly looks much different from what it did just a few weeks ago.
According to the latest Gallup poll, 29 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents favor Perry, with 17 percent supporting Mitt Romney, the previous front-runner.
A former Massachusetts governor, Romney is regarded as the business-friendly favorite of establishment Republicans. He also has been popular with Jewish donors to the GOP. While Perry’s harder-edged conservatism and religion-tinged rhetoric may make him a tougher sell to centrists, however, prominent Jewish GOPers say he will have little trouble courting Republican Jews should he win the nomination at next summer’s convention.
With Murtha gone, what are ramifications for Israel?
Some Jewish communal officials and observers are wondering what the ramifications of the recent death of Rep. John Murtha could be for the pro-Israel community.
Murtha, a stalwart supporter of Israel who was not Jewish himself, presided over the powerful House Appropriations defense subcommittee, which oversees and allocates every federal dollar spent on America’s military preparedness, including hundreds of millions spent on joint missile defense projects with Israel.
The next subcommittee chair has yet to be announced, and publicly, Jewish insiders expressed optimism about Israel’s financial prospects in the future. Others who offered to speak on background, however, described a delicate dance with lawmakers when it comes to ensuring that joint U.S.-Israel projects are a chief priority.
