***** Published on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 by the Guardian/UK Surge in Support for Nader Spells Trouble for Kerry by Julian Borger in Washington
A new poll suggested yesterday that Ralph Nader's independent presidential bid represented a serious threat to the Democratic candidate, Senator John Kerry.
The New York Times and CBS News poll revealed a tight two-man race for the White House between President George Bush and Mr Kerry. Mr Bush had a narrow lead of 46% over Mr Kerry's 43% - within the poll's margin of error.
But when Americans were asked about a three-man race including Mr Nader, the 70-year-old consumer activist attracted 7% support, mostly at the expense of the Democrat. In that contest, Mr Bush led Mr Kerry by 46% to 38%.
Mr Nader's poll ratings are higher than at this point in the 2000 election. . . .
A recent survey has found that Mr Nader, who is of Lebanese descent, has substantial support among Arab Americans in key battleground states.
Polling by the Arab American Institute in Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania - home to more than 1 million Arab Americans - found that 20% supported Mr Nader. . . .
<http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0317-01.htm> *****
***** . . . [President of the Arab American Institute James] Zogby's brother, John, who owns Zogby International, . . . conducted the poll.
The poll, taken in late February, shows Kerry with 54 percent support to 30 percent for Bush among a sample of 501 Arab Americans in Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. With independent Ralph Nader's candidacy, the numbers shift to 40 percent for Kerry, 26 percent for Nader and 25 percent for Bush. Nader is Lebanese American and has been a consistent supporter of Palestinian rights.
Michigan results mirrored the national outcome in the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Michigan has the highest percentage of Arab Americans of any state.
According to the U.S. census, there are about 116,000 Michigan residents who claim Arab ancestry.
This year, Arab-American and Muslim groups are working hard to register voters and persuade their communities to get politically involved. In January, Muslims at metro Detroit mosques held voter registration drives after special prayers on Eid, an Islamic holy day. . . .
(Ruby L. Bailey, James Kuhnhenn, and Niraj Warikoo, "Race for President: Poll Shows Bush Losing Arab-American Voters," _Detroit Free Press_, March 13, 2004, <http://www.freep.com/news/politics/vote13_20040313.htm> *****
***** ELECTION 2004 Arab-Americans will be force in presidential vote By Kelly Brewington | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted March 14, 2004
Arab-American advocates in the Orlando area are mobilizing a statewide voter-registration and education drive as George W. Bush and John Kerry prepare for a bruising campaign in this key battleground state.
If a recent national poll is any indication, Arab-Americans could come out in force against President Bush in November.
A poll of 501 Arab-American registered voters by Zogby International found that 67 percent think Bush is doing a poor job and 65 percent would vote against him.
The results, released Friday, are driven by policies such as Bush's approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute.
"When you have that degree of disapproval, that's a bit of a hole to get out of," said Zogby, who conducted the poll for the institute.
Zogby's agency surveyed voters in Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, all of which have significant Arab-American populations and are expected to be critical states in the presidential race.
In addition, the poll shows that many Arab-Americans who voted for Bush in 2000 would vote against him today.
In 2000, Bush won their votes in those four states by a 46 percent to 29 percent margin, with candidate Ralph Nader picking up 13 percent. But if the vote were held today, the poll revealed, more than 200,000 Arab-American voters in those states would switch from Republican to Democrat.
With a tight race expected, Florida's estimated 120,000 Arab-American voters hope to make a difference. But how they'll vote is up in the air.
'Awfully presumptuous'
For starters, Central Florida's Arab-American advocates say that Democrats shouldn't assume their vote is a sure thing.
In recent weeks, Democratic candidates from Orlando to Washington have been calling Taleb Salhab, one of Orlando's most outspoken Arab-American advocates, for donations.
But they don't ask if they can count on his support. Instead, he said, they want to know how big a check he'll write for their campaigns.
"I find it awfully presumptuous," said Salhab, president of Orlando's 400-member Arab American Community Center, who has told candidates he would like to sit and chat with them about issues instead.
Salhab and other activists have a message for candidates from both major parties: Assume nothing. If you want our vote, you'll need to earn it.
While Salhab thinks many Arab-Americans are dismayed by Bush's Middle East policies and see the war on terrorism as an attack on their civil rights, those sentiments alone don't translate into automatic votes for Kerry or any other Democrat, he said.
"We care about other issues too, from the local economy to health care and small businesses," Salhab said. "Bush's policies toward Arab-Americans are simply fueling the need to be involved."
So as the campaign season heats up, Salhab and other activists have begun a massive effort to mobilize the state's Arab-American voters, estimated by the Arab American Institute to number about 120,000.
Orlando's Arab American Community Center is the epicenter of the voter-education effort that will create "leadership councils" in South Florida, Tampa, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Tallahassee and Panama City.
Daytona Beach's efforts include more than just Arab-Americans, whose numbers are just in the hundreds in that city. Organizers are working with Pakistani Muslims and Middle Eastern immigrants of all religions to draw people to the polls.
"We've branched out of these social community organizations and have formed political action committees," said Ahmad Amawi, a Daytona Beach physician of Palestinian descent. . . .
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/elections/orl-locarabvote14031404mar14,1,6412294.story?coll=orl-home-headlines> ***** -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>
