By:Andrew Coen
Bush, who lost to Al Gore by a nearly three-to-one margin among Five Towners four years ago, garnered 1,397 more votes than Sen. John Kerry in last week's election. In the 2000 election, 9,511 more people cast votes for Gore than for Bush.
Many Bush supporters in the Five Towns cite what they describe as the president's strong support for Israel as a reason for his numbers locally. This is why, some suggest, Lawrence, Woodmere and Cedarhurst, which have growing Orthodox Jewish populations, voted Republican in such huge numbers. Bush carried Lawrence by 1,054 votes, with 2,227 to Kerry's 1,173. In Cedarhurst, Bush collected 1,616 votes, to 1,188 for Kerry, while Woodmere totals showed 4,027 votes for the president versus 3,164 for the Massachusetts senator.
The Five Towns numbers mirrored Jewish support of Bush nationwide, where he improved his standing among Jewish voters from 19 percent in 2000 to 25 percent in 2004, according to a New York Times survey.
Nassau County Legislator Jeff Toback (D-Oceanside) attributed Bush's big turnaround in the Five Towns to both his support for Israel and the national security concerns on voters' minds. "In 2000, many Five Towners, I think, were satisfied with Gore's position on Israel and had been satisfied with Clinton's record on Israel, and this year they were comfortable with Bush's so far, but not comfortable enough with Kerry," said Toback. "With these uncertain times, I think changing course was not a good option for many people in the Five Towns."
In 2000, Gore won in every Five Towns community, including Lawrence/North Lawrence/Meadowmere Park, 2,422 to 939; Cedarhurst, 1770 to 737; Atlantic Beach, 1,207 to 697; Woodmere/Woodsburgh, 6,090 to 1,584; and the Hewletts, 2,810 to 1,103.
The three Five Towns communities that favored Kerry last week were Atlantic Beach, Inwood and the Hewletts. Kerry's biggest support was found in the Hewletts, where the totals were 2,298 for Kerry and 1,634 for Bush. Kerry carried Inwood by 239 votes, 1,187 to 948, and Atlantic Beach by just 45 votes, 820 to 775.
Lawrence resident Jeff Katz, who hosted a July Fourth fund-raiser for Bush that collected over $10,000 for his re-election campaign, said that the president's support for Israel was the primary reason many Five Towners like him, who voted for Gore in 2000, switched to the Republican side this year. "The Jewish community in the Five Towns was responding to what is a very high-priority issue for them: Israel and the president's staunch pro-Israel policies," said Katz, who also helped organize a rally for Bush and local Republicans at Congregation Sons of Israel on Oct. 25. "It is Bush's policy on Israel and on the war on terror that, importantly, also included battling the sources of terror against Israel. This dramatically shifted the votes of Jewish voters in the Five Towns, who are vitally concerned about Israel's future, and accounted for the large difference from the 2000 election."
"It was one issue that was very important to a lot of people in the Five Towns, which is Israel," said Stan Nussbaum, a Democratic leader in the 20th Assembly District who was on Kerry's Jewish advisory staff. "Kerry has been a supporter of Israel for 20 years in the Senate, but Bush has done it from the White House, and I think that resonated with people."
Moments after pulling the lever for Bush at the Number Six School, Woodmere resident Mel Fodiman said he voted for the president because of his strong position on national security.
Dr. Aaron Freilich, a Lawrence cardiologist, said his three main reasons for voting for Bush were his leadership in the war on terrorism, his stance on tax cuts and tort reform. Freilich said that since Bush's tax cuts were signed in May of 2001, his small business has been able to hire three more full-time employees on top of the 20 it already had. "I am in favor of his tax cuts because I feel it favors businesses," said Freilich.
Kerry supporter Jack Schwarz of Lawrence was very upset over Bush's re-election, and felt that people in the area were misled into thinking he was better for the Jewish people because of what Schwarz described as Bush's toeing the line between the separation of church and state. "By Bush fusing religion and state, it weakens the strength of the Jews to live and prosper here," said Schwarz. "The local population should be ashamed of themselves for supporting a president whose ideas are foreign to Jewish teachings."
Schwarz also said that Five Towners overlooked the impact that Bush would have in shaping the Supreme Court, since it is expected that he will make at least two appointments in his second term. "He's going to turn us back two generations with his Supreme Court appointments," Schwarz said. "We are headed for the dark ages."
Woodmere resident Steve Bernstein said that Kerry's support of federal funds for stem-cell research and the future of the Supreme Court were the main reasons he voted for the senator. "The stem-cell issue is very important to me, because with further research there could be hope for a cure," said Bernstein, who was paralyzed two years ago in a bike accident. "I'm not happy with the present administration."
Woodmere's Jules Gladstone also cast his ballot for Kerry at the Number Six School. "I voted for Kerry because of domestic issues, mainly," said Gladstone after he voted.
Kerry received more votes in historically Republican Nassau County, 312,388 to 278,727. Kerry easily won New York's 31 electoral votes, with 3,945,432 votes statewide to Bush's 2,763,506.
Comments about this story? ACoen@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
