Political Points–Boxer in the Shadows

Welcome to Political Points, where JTA gets you your politics fix by 10:30 a.m., from now until Election Day.

**The oft-spoken rule of pro-Israel funding is to back the friendly incumbent. This year, the three at risk incumbent U.S. senators getting the most pro-Israel attention are all Democrats — a product of a perilous season for the party.

They are: Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.)

There are other beloved Dems who are in worse shape — the name that comes immediately to mind is Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.). But Feingold is trailing Ron Johnson, his challenger, so stubbornly that he is entering good money after bad territory. And pro-Israel money is also flowing to Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), running for the open Illinois seat, not out of any animus to his opponent, Alex Giannoulias, who has strong local Jewish ties, but because Kirk has been a House leader in promoting pro-Israel legislation.

That all said, in the case of Boxer, you’ve got to wonder if the old Republican Jewish adage that the Dems take Jewish support for granted doesn’t apply here. Especially at a time that polling shows a shift toward Republicans among Jewish voters (albeit, within the context of a solid majority for the Democrats), why has Boxer blown off two major Jewish events in her state, per the L.A. Jewish Journal?

The Journal reports that Boxer blew off a recent forum for candidates hosted by 30 Years After, an increasingly influential group of young Iranian-American Jews, and will not attend an Oct. 24 candidates forum at L.A.’s venerable Stephen S. Wise Temple. Her opponent, Carly Fiorina, the ex-Hewlett Packard CEO, attended and will attend both events.

Same goes for Jerry Brown, re-running for governor; he’s been a no show, in contrast with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who is running on the GOP ticket. (Brown’s campaign tells the LAJJ that Brown was not formally invited to the Wise gubernatorial event on Oct. 10, and by the time the campaign found out about it, it was being cosponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition — making it essentially a partisan event.)

But Brown isn’t the one who has the close relations with the pro-Israel community; and Boxer, to boot, is Jewish. What’s with the no-shows? 

The other question raised by the LAJJ, especially applying to the RJC co-sponsored Whitman event — what’s a shul doing dabbling in what look like partisan waters?

Here’s the video of Whitman at the 30 Years After event, talking with Dan Senor about Israel’s role in "transforming" eBay:

**When the J Street-misled-us-about George Soros scandal broke, a lot of folks wondered what this would mean for its friends on the Hill — where trust is the one true coin. One of J Street’s biggest recent gets is Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), a down the line AIPAC-beloved pro-Israel Jewish Democrat.

Looks like the storm might be abating: the New York Jewish Week reports that J Street director Jeremy Ben Ami and Ackerman got together — with Reps. Dan Maffei (D-.Y.) and Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) — last night for a J Street political action committee fundraiser in New York.

**Meanwhile outgoing Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) wonders why J Street PAC wants to give its money only to candidates who support its two-state agenda. Maybe that’s why he’s outgoing.

**Gov. Brian Schweitzer, the Montana governor, is a centrist considered a viable post-Obama Dem likely for the White House. He’s in Israel this week, and not just in Israel — he’s touring Ariel, the West Bank’s biggest Jewish settlement, Arutz Sheva reports.

**Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher may be trailing former Trade Representative Rob Portman in the polls ahead of the election for Ohio’s open U.S. Senate seat, but the veteran Jewish Democrat has the Gleeks on board. Matthew Morrison, who plays Mr. Schuester, the befuddled but charming teacher on the hit show Glee, campaigned for Fisher at Ohio State, via the campus paper, UWeekly.

**Uri picks up the "quote of the day," in which Rabbi Yehuda Levin describes his shock upon discovering that NY GOP gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino had backtracked from the anti-gay remarks Levin had prepared for him. Levin is so shocked, he can’t remember whether he nearly choked on pastrami or salami. Uri misses, however, the wonderfully dry New York Times segue following the quote: "Mr. Paladino, of course, had not become gay…" More on the rift here.

**In Kirk v. Giannoulias, the Illinois GOP uses MoveOn.org’s endorsement of Giannoulias to rip out of context a weird 2006 tempest in a teacup over unsolicited anti-Semitic comments on MoveOn’s website — and neglects to mention the comments were removed as soon as they appeared. It also quotes the ADL’s Abe Foxman damning the comments, but omits his follow up hecsher of how MoveOn dealt with it.

**The National Jewish Democratic Council climbs into the alleged backseat with South Carolina gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Haley and an alleged lover, and we all wonder why.

**A Chicago friend corrects yesterday’s Political Points, and discovers my electoral map reading difficulties: "The North Shore is all suburban, not in the city," he writes.  "The 9th district has some of it, then goes south,  into the city, not north." He also points out that  in the 10th district, Mark Kirk’s predecessor, John Porter, was also a Republican. The district is more swing than solid Dem; it voted Dem presidential candidates in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

Another informant, Steve Sheffey, corrects himself: the Chicago candidates forum was Monday, not Sunday night.