Washington, D.C. (February 11, 2013) -- The latest research by a Democratic party data analyst in South Florida underscores the effectiveness of the Republican Jewish Coalition's unprecedented outreach to the Jewish community in 2012.
The Republican Jewish Coalition conducted the largest-ever grassroots campaign in the Jewish community in top swing states, including Florida. Hundreds of RJC volunteers conducted phone banks, door-to-door literature drops, and sign-waving sessions on busy corners in key areas of the state. The RJC ran "My Buyer's Remorse" ads on broadcast and cable television and print ads in Jewish newspapers. We sent out mailers to hundreds of thousands of Florida voters and put up "Obama, Oy Vey!" billboards along major routes in South Florida. The RJC also produced a 9-minute mini-documentary on President Obama and Israel entitled Perilous Times, which was viewed over one million times.
George Bennett at the Palm Beach Post reports:
President Barack Obama easily carried Democrat-tilted Palm Beach County in November, but he got 11,555 fewer votes than in 2008. About half of that drop-off can be attributed to Democrats in 45 "very Jewish" precincts who appear to have crossed party lines and voted for Mitt Romney, a numbers-cruncher for the county Democratic Party says.
Richard Ingman, a retired chief financial officer who serves as the local party's director of data and statistics, included that estimate in a report on the 2012 elections at last Thursday's Democratic Executive Committee meeting.
It was mostly good news for Dems, but Ingman said Obama slipped in some precincts where Democrats have roughly a 3-1 registration advantage. In most of those precincts, Obama got about 75 percent of the vote. But in 45 precincts that have large senior and Jewish populations, Ingman said, Obama got around 65 percent.
"We had a problem. According to my calculations - and you have to use a lot of assumptions - 5,500 Democrats, good Democrats, in those precincts went to their polls and voted for Romney," Ingman said.
"What's their names?" shouted Mid-County Democratic Club President Allen Mergaman, who is Jewish.
"We have an issue there that we need to be aware of and deal with," Ingman continued. "But remember, in those same precincts, there were 22,000 other Democrats who have the same demographics, who share the same love of Israel, who have all the same issues, who heard all the same lies, who heard the chitter-chatter of their neighbors and still stayed loyal to President Obama."
National exit polls showed Obama getting 69 percent of the Jewish vote in 2008, down from estimates of 74 percent or 78 percent in 2008. Republicans aimed appeals at Jewish voters that cast Obama as a weak ally of Israel.