It looks like a sweet start to the Jewish New Year for President Obama. According to a new poll by Democratic PPP, the recent panic over Obama’s standing with Jewish voters is little cause for concern in Florida, which has one of the largest Jewish populations in the nation.
Obama leads Rick Perry with Jewish voters 82-2 in a general election matchup and Romney 78-11, huge margins in line with Democrats’ traditional edge with one of their core demographics. PPP notes that it’s a relatively small sample size, but all indications are still positive: Obama’s approval rating among Jewish voters is 76/20 and 61/31 on his handling of Israel.
Obama’s standing with Jewish voters has been a source of concern in recent weeks after Democrats lost a special election in NY-9, one of the most Jewish districts in the country, to a Republican, Bob Turner, who made his hawkish stance on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations his top campaign issue. The district is disproportionately ultra-Orthodox and New York is not up for grabs in 2012, but some commentators speculated that it was a warning sign for Florida, where Jewish voters could help make the difference in a close election.
Obama recently delivered a forceful defense of Israel’s relationship with America at the UN as part of an effort to dissuade Palestinian efforts to secure recognition as a state. The episode earned him high praise from some of his biggest critics on Israel, most notably former New York City mayor Ed Koch, whose endorsement of Turner was considered crucial to the GOP’s victory there.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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