SAN DIEGO—Well, were the recent elections good for us Jews?
Yes and no.
Some Jewish incumbents lost their seats, others retained them, and some Jewish candidates will become freshmen members of Congress next term. Some Jews lost their committee chairmanships in the House, but one Jew—Eric Cantor of Virginia—appears poised to become the next majority leader in the House.
We’ll be saying goodbye to U.S. Senator Russ Feingold and U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen, two Wisconsin Democratic incumbents who lost their bids for reelection. Feingold was considered a maverick in the Senate, who worked closely with Republican John McCain to push through campaign finance reform. (McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, meanwhile, won reelection in Arizona.)
Other Democratic incumbents who were retired by the voters were House members John Adler of New Jersey, and two Floridians: Alan Grayson and Ron Klein. Meanwhile, Rep. Paul Hodes of New Hampshire was unsuccessful in his bid for the U.S. Senate, so he too will be departing the Congress.
Re-elected to their seats, but losing House Committee chairmanships by virtue of Republicans gaining control of the House were: Democrats Howard Berman (Foreign Affairs); Bob Filner (Veteran Affairs), and Henry Waxman (Commerce & Energy), all of California, and Rep Barney Frank (Banking) of Massachusetts.
Cantor, the only Jew on the Republican side of Congress, had been serving as Minority Whip, and now is expected to step up to the position of Majority Leader as Republican John Boehner of Ohio replaces Democrat Nancy Pelosi of California as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Richard Blumenthal, the attorney general of Connecticut, was elected to the U.S. Senate seat from which Senator Chris Dodd is retiring. In nearby Rhode Island, meanwhile, voters elected Providence Mayor David Cicilline to a House seat from which Patrick Kennedy also is giving up voluntarily.
California generally resisted the national Republican trend, returning Barbara Boxer to the U.S. Senate over the well-financed challenge from Carly Fiorina, and likewise choosing former Gov. Jerry Brown over billionaire Meg Whitman.
California and Wisconsin were the only two states that had two members of the Jewish community as U.S. Senators. Feingold’s defeat, however, leaves Herb Kohl as the lone Jewish senator from Wisconsin. That leaves Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein as the only Jewish U.S. Senate pair.
In San Diego County, Jewish incumbents had little difficulty winning reelection. District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis already had won another term with a primary election victory in June, and spent much of this election successfully speaking out against Proposition 19, the ballot initiative which would have legalized marijuana in California.
Other Jewish community members returned to office are Filner (though no longer as a committee chairman), Congresswoman Susan Davis, and state Assemblyman Marty Block. On the other hand, former state Assemblyman Howard Wayne lost a bid to return to elective office when he was defeated narrowly in a race for San Diego’s 6th District City Council seat to Laurie Zapf.
—Donald H. Harrison