A political tsunami in Ohio

COLOMBUS, OH - A few days before the 2004 election, George W. Bush came to Columbus, Ohio, seeking votes. Bush did not come alone. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger came along for the ride. In the audience were two of a rare breed - Jewish Republicans.

Todd Appelbaum and Larry Levine awaited Bush wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the caption "John Kerry for president - of France." Earlier this week, in a downtown restaurant packed with Halloween celebrants, the pair fondly remembered the event. The timing was perfect as Kerry had made national headlines yet again. Former presidential contender and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry unintentionally handed the Republican party ammunition, just when it seemed to have run out.

"Did you hear what he said?" asks Appelbaum. "In Israel, no one would dare say anything like that."

Kerry says it was a botched joke about President Bush, but people who heard him speaking to college students earlier this week quote him as saying, "you know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Kerry apologized, after saying he meant that Bush had gotten the U.S. stuck in Iraq, but many took it as a slur against the soldiers serving there.

Bush bristled, saying that the suggestion that "the men and women of our military are somehow uneducated is insulting and it is shameful."

Not even Kerry can ruin it

Two years ago, Kerry lost Ohio and, as a result, the presidency - but now his party is in very good standing in several races across the region. Even Kerry apparently cannot ruin it. Twelve of the eighteen Ohio seats in the House of Representatives are now held by Republicans, but Democrats look poised to take two, three, maybe even five of them away in what is becoming known as the political tsunami.

Ohio's Jewish community - including the 20,000 in Columbus - will vote almost straight Democratic down the line. A visit from Virginia's Eric Cantor - the only Jewish Republican in the House - is not about to change that. He was here last week but met mostly with the believers - the few who already intended to vote Republican. Today, Minnesota's Jewish Republican senator - Norm Coleman - is slated to pay a visit, but he will not be able to change the trend either.

In the 12th and 15th districts, most of Columbus and its suburbs, Republican representatives are fighting for another term. Deborah Pryce trails her opponent Mary Jo Kilroy, in the 12th, Pat Tiberi is a hair's breadth ahead of the contender for his seat: Bob Shamansky, Jewish and a Democrat.

Appelbaum's cell phone stores the names and addresses of thousands of voters, mostly Jews. A political wheeler-dealer, with enough get-up-and-go for twenty party activists, he supports both Pryce and Tiberi.

A matter of priorities

He also supports Senator Mike DeWine, and he understands his candidates are in danger of extinction.

Appelbaum says he has a better relationship with many Evangelical Christian voters - he's regularly in touch with a few such groups and their leaders who are enthusiastic supporters of Israel - than with Jewish voters. He understands why most of his community votes Democrat, but thinks their priorities are skewed.

"They look first at social issues," he explains, "and don't understand that terror and the war on it are the order of the day."

Appelbaum, and even more so Levine, agree with the Democrats on many social issues, but don't believe they will be firm enough on terror. "I'm a Republican like Rudy Giuliani," Levine declares. "Tough in defense and foreign policy, but more moderate on issues like abortion, stem cell research and gay rights."

Rudy Giuliani is the well-known Republican chosen to try to save the dying campaign of the party's gubernatorial candidate, Kenneth Blackwell. The ad tells us that "America's mayor" - the man who was mayor of New York City on September 11, 2001 - wants Ohio to elect the man who was mayor of Cincinnati. But polls show Blackwell lags 20 percent behind. Ohio, according to almost every passerby, waiter or grocery clerk, has decided to dump pervasive corruption. And right now, the corrupt ones are those that have been in power: Republicans.