Romney, Maybe. Gingrich, No Thanks
In Florida, GOP Jews Ready To Stick With Mainstream Pick
By Josh Nathan-Kazis
Published January 27, 2012, issue of February 03, 2012.
Delray Beach, Fla. — Here in Florida, in a year when the entire presidential race could hinge on a few electoral votes, Republicans hope that peeling away Jewish support for President Obama could help swing the election. But interviews with Jews in South Florida suggest that the GOP will have a much tougher time with that key demographic if Newt Gingrich takes the party nomination.
In a conversation at the Huntington Pointe condo development favored by elderly Jews in Delray Beach, three of nine Jewish retirees said they would vote against Obama if Mitt Romney were the nominee. Only one said she would vote for Gingrich over Obama.
“Romney is the capitalist and the businessman we need now to get this economy in order,” said Jack Davidson, 80, a Republican who voted for John McCain in 2008, as he sat in the card room at the community’s clubhouse. And while Davidson allowed that Gingrich is “brilliant,” he said he wouldn’t vote for him. “He’s nasty, in my mind. I don’t like nasty guys.”
Davidson doesn’t vote in Florida. But his views were shared by other moderate Republicans and disaffected Democrats interviewed by the Forward before and after Gingrich’s dramatic win in the January 21 South Carolina primary.
http://www.forward.com/articles/150321/
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