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7/24

1998

42

Detroit Jewish News

248.559 *1969

(Appointment Only)

MATTHEW DORF
Special to The Jewish News

IV

e think it's important for
people to know that Jill
Docking is Jewish. Please
vote for Sam
Brownback." That is the phone call a
handful of Kansas voters say they
received in the days before Brownback
won his 1996 race for the Senate.
In a world of no-holds-barred cam-
paigns, many political activists fear
that the anti-Jewish outreach, although
so far rare, could be a harbinger of
campaigns to come.
With Election Day less than four
months away, 1998 is shaping up to be
a bruising battle as Republican candi-
dates seek to retain the slimmest
majority in the House of
Representatives.
A gain of 11 seats would put a
Democrat back in the speaker's chair.
With 34 seats in the Senate up for
election, Democrats admit they have
virtually no chance of regaining con-
trol and instead talk of fighting to pre-
vent the GOP from winning a fili-
buster-proof 60-seat margin or maybe
picking up a few seats to position
themselves for a 2000 run at the
majority.
Many high-profile Jewish candi-
dates, including Sen. Barbara Boxer
(D-Calif.) and Rep. Jon Fox (R-Pa.),
who won his last election by fewer
than 100 votes, are running for their
political lives in races where Jewish
issues such as the standoff with Swiss
banks over Holocaust assets are already
playing a role.
At the same time Republicans, who
historically have struggled to attract
Jewish support, have launched an
unprecedented drive to.help their
party's candidates reach out to Jewish
voters.-
Against this backdrop, the Kansas
race, though two years old, has
emerged as a hot topic on the Jewish
campaign scene in light of new details
about the incident publicized by a
Jewish Democratic group.
In all tight races minority commu-
nities take on increased significance
and any attack on a candidate's race or
religion can swing voters.
This has raised the timeless question
of what is in bounds and out of
bounds when candidates or their sup-
porters reach out to Jewish — as well
as non-Jewish — voters.

Matthew Dorf writes for the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency.

"People should be elected because ocf\
the positions they take," said Jess
Hordes, the Washington representative
of the Anti-Defamation League.
"I do not think a candidate's
Jewishness ought to come into play."
As campaigns seem to turn nastier
and more personal with each election
cycle, activists of all political stripes say
that the Kansas race stands out as an <
example of out-of-bounds election
schemes.
In the Brownback incident, no evi-
dence has emerged to tie the senator or
his campaign to the calls. And the sen-
ator and his staff called local Jewish
institutions at the time to condemn
the effort to besmirch his Jewish oppo-
nent.
But other questions arise: Should '-±\
Brownback, who is up for re-election
this year, have publicly condemned
and investigated the calls in the wan-
ing days of the campaign when
Docking herself decided to keep quiet
to avoid splashing her Jewishness
across the front pages of rural newspa-
pers?
Whether orchestrated by
Brownback supporters, as the Nation
Jewish Democratic Council has
charged, or Docking supporters hop-
ing to reap an anti-Brownback back-
lash, as some Republicans charge, the
calls reflect, political analysts believe, a
re-emergence of anti-Jewish campaign
tactics that have not been seen in 20
years.
And the controversy shows no sign
of waning.
Brownback is up for re-election
again this fall because in 1996, he won
only a two-year term to serve out Bob
Dole's tenure after Dole resigned from
the Senate to challenge President
Clinton for the presidency
Already, Brownback's expected
opponent, Paul Feleciano, who is not
Jewish, has revived the Docking inci-
dent to charge that the senator or his
campaign used an anti-Semitic tactic.
Despite the lack of evidence tying
Brownback to the 1996 incident, the
National Jewish Democratic Council
believes it is fair game to use the inci-
dent against him.
Ira Forman, executive director of
NJDC, when asked if using the inci-
dent against Brownback was out of
bounds, said, "No. Not by campaign
standards today." NJDC last month
published a report on the Kansas inci-
dent that stopped short of tying
Brownback to the calls.
To the National Jewish Coalition, a
Republican group that is quick to

