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United States United States National Affairs AMERICANS,ISRAELIS, and Palestinians held elections during 2006, leaving a dramatically different cast of leaders by year's end. When all the ballots were counted in the U.S., a record number of Jews were among the winners. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict influenced all aspects of the Ameri- can Jewish public-affairs agenda. Internationally, it impacted Jewish attitudes toward the war in Iraq, the prospect of a nuclear Iran, and even Jewish advocacy to end the genocide in Darfur. Domestically, ad hominem attacks on "the Israel lobby" had the ring of anti-Jewish spiracy charges, and much of the Jewish interfaith encounter re- ived around the positions of evangelical and mainline Protestants on ael. THE POLITICAL ARENA "term Elections Election Day 2006, Democrats swept into power in both houses of ress, returning to full control after 12 years in political exile. In the Democrats gained 30 seats, sending 22 incumbent Republicans to defeat. They would have a 17-vote majority in the 110th Con- In the Senate, Democrats defeated six incumbent Republicans, in- ng their own strength from 44 to 49. With the benefit of two 'dents opting to caucus with the Democrats, they would hold a 51- enate majority. olls showed that the war in Iraq and the condition of the economy the list of issues motivating voters, displacing appeals to "values" iad spelled success for Republican candidates in recent elections. ndments and referenda restricting marriage to heterosexual couples 63 64 I AMERICAN JEWISHYEAR1300K,2007 were on the ballot in several states, but the issue seemed to be losing steam, going down to defeat in one state and passing in others by closer margins than in previous years. Pundits also suggested that swing voters and even part of the Republican base were turned off by an unpopular war and a series of scandals involving administration officials, congres- sional leaders, well-placed lobbyists, and an outspoken evangelical leader (see below). Every Jewish member of Congress who sought reelection was success- ful. In all, 43 Jews were elected to the new Congress, all Democrats with the exception of the two independents in the Senate and three Republi- cans, one in the House and two in the Senate. A record 13 senators would be Jewish, including two newcomers, Ben Cardin (D., Md.) and Bernard Sanders (I., Vt.). Two incumbent senators, Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) and Herb Kohl (D., Wis.), were handily reelected. In the House, newly elected Jews came not just from areas with high Jewish populations but also from states with few Jews, including Ten- nessee, Kentucky, and New Hampshire. Another Jew, Gary Trauner, nar- rowly lost his bid to replace Barbara Cubin (R., Wyo.) for Wyoming's at-large seat. The six new Jewish House members were Steve Cohen (D. Tenn.), Gabrielle Giffords (D., Ariz.), Paul Hodes (D., N.H.), Stevi Kagen (D., Wis.), Ron Klein (D., Fla.), and John Yarmuth (D., Ky.). Two Jewish Democrats were widely credited with doing much to their party's return to power. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Rah: Emanuel (D., Ill.) chaired, respectively, the Senate and House Democr tic campaign committees. Meanwhile, the ranks of Jewish governors gr to three with Elliott Spitzer (D., N.Y.) joining the reelected Linda Lin (R., Hawaii) and Ed Rendell (D., Pa.). The new Congress included the first Muslim and the first two Bi dhists. It would also witness the highest political rank ever achieved a Mormon and a woman, with Harry Reid expected to become Sen majority leader and Nancy Pelosi speaker of the House. And for the time, Congress would include more Jews than Episcopalians. Jews, j percent of the population, would hold 7percentof House seats and percent of Senate seats. To be sure, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians together tinued to hold a larger share of seats in Congress than pews in Amer Albert Menendez, a researcher and writer who biennially tracked th ligions of members of Congress, noted that those mainline Protestant nominations would account for 20 percent of the new Congress, times their share of the general population—but down from the 43-i U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS/65 cent share the three denominationsrepresented in the 1972 Congress. Among religious groups, the most notable electoralshift, according to John Green of the Pew Center for Religion and PublicLife, was that De- mocrats garnered a majority of Catholicvoters for the first time in years. many The Jewish electorate remained unresponsive toa concerted campaign to get it to vote Republican, givingas much as 87 percent of Jewish to Democratic candidates. The votes 12 percent of Jews votingfor Republicans was half the level of support givento President Bush in 2004, buke to the Republican Jewish and a re- Coalition, which had takenout numerous ads painting the Democratic Party as anti-Israel, weakon terrorism, and beholden to critics of Israelsuch as Jimmy Carter and Cindy Sheehan. antiwar activist The largest segment ofJews to vote againsta Democratic candidate lived in Connecticut, where Joseph Lieberman garneredjust 60 percent of the Jewish vote in winning reelection. The three-termsenator ran suc- cessfully as an Independent, having lost the Democraticprimary to an- tiwar candidate Ned Lamont. Pro-Israel campaign contributions bolstered severalsuccessful incum- bent candidates including Lieberman, and aided challengerssuch as Shel- don Whitehouse (D., R.I.), who ousted RepublicanLincoln Chaffee, considered cool towards Israel. However, significant pro-Israelcampaign dollars did not stave off defeat for four Republicansenators: Rick San- torum of Pennsylvania, Mike DeWjne of Ohio, ConradBurns of Mon- tana, and James Talent of Missouri. In the House,one race that was closely watched and later celebrated by friends of Israelwas in southwest Indiana, where six-term incumbentJohn Hostettler,a Republican, went down to a crushing 20-point defeat at the hands ofa local sheriff, De- mocrat Brad Ellsworth. On Election Day, the residentsof Somerville, Massachusetts, defeated a hard-fought, handily multiyear, pro-Palestinian effortto pass two non- binding resolutions. The first,affirming the so-called Palestinian of return," was defeated "right by 55 to 45 percent. Thesecond, calling for di- vestment from Israel, failed by 70to 30 percent. A broad coalition the Boston Jewish Community led by Relations Council and theJewish Labor Committee was instrumental in defeating themeasures. Speaking out in various forums against them and in support of Israelwere Congressman Mike Capuano, Massachusetts governor-elect Deval Patrick,Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, and Somerville mayor Joe Curtatone,as well as the Boston Globe and theBoston Herald. 66/AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK,2007 Election Controversies Republicans in Congress seemed unable to recoverfrom a series of po- litical scandals during the year. On January3, lobbyist Jack Abramoff en- tered a guilty plea on felony countsof conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion related to his lobbying work for NativeAmerican tribes. He also agreed to pay a $1.7-million fine tothe Internal Revenue Service. Still unproven was the accusation madein 2005 that the pro-Israel Abramoffhad di- verted money from an urban charity toIsraeli settlers. The Abramoff scandal was but one of a chain that hadbrought down such powerful fig- ures as House MajorityLeader Tom DeLay (R., Tex.), whoended his re- election bid after being indicted oncampaign-finance charges. His former colleague Randy "Duke" Cunningham(R., Calif.) was sentenced on March 3 to more than eight years inprison and fined $1.8 million for bribery, fraud, and tax evasion. Two of the most salaciousscandals of the year, each with broader electoral implications, involved ironic twists on anissue that had helped Republicans in recent years, opposition tohomosexuality. Mark Foley (R., Fla.), a six-term congressmanknown for his initiatives to protectchil- dren from exploitation, resigned onSeptember 29 after it was revealed that he had sent sexually suggestivetelephone "instant messages" to teenage boys who were serving asCongressional pages. Conservative candidates who wished the Foleyscandal would disappear from the headlines were hardly happywhen it was replaced by revelations that Ted Haggard, a giant in theevangelical Christian world, was impli cated in a sex-for-hire scandal with amale prostitute, from whom he hau allegedly purchased the drugmethamphetamine. Haggard, head of the National Association of Evangelicals(NAE), at first denied the charges, but his accuser produced voicemailrecordings. On November 3—j four days before the midtermelections——Haggard resigned his NAt post. Jewish leaders, whoremembered Haggard's veiled threat that Jew ish criticism of Mel Gibson's filmThe Passion of the Christ could je ardize evangelical support for Israel,had little sympathy. Former Florida secretary of stateKathleen Harris's unsuccessful c paign for a Senate seat from that state was nothelped by her prayer, tered on a conference call, that Godwould "bring the hearts and of our Jewish brothers and sistersinto alignment." When confi about it, Harris said the prayer wasintended to request that Jews h Republicans, not Christians, but manydoubted her sincerity, as she made similar comments in the past. U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS I 67 Conservative columnist DennisPrager, who was Jewish,set off a firestorm with a scathing piecehe wrote assailing the patriotismof Min- nesota's Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, whohad an- nounced that he would take theoath of office on a Qur'an, theIslamic holy book. Prager charged that Ellison's oath would do"more damage to the unity of America and to the value system that has formedthis country than the terrorists of 9/11." Prager'scolumn was rife witherrors, perhaps the most significant being that in fact, memberswere sworn in en masse, and could opt, as Ellison did, for private ceremonies later.Rep. Virgil Goode (R., Va.) echoedPrager and wrote a letter to hisconstituents asserting that swearing an oath on the Qur'an poseda threat to "the val- ues and beliefs traditional to the UnitedStates of America." The major Jewish organizations stronglydefended Ellison.
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