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AAI in the News

GOP Won't Concede Arab American Vote

By Gregg Krupa
The Detroit News
Posted on Thursday October 14, 2004

Some community leaders say Bush is gaining momentum

It is a common presumption that Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., will garner most Arab-Americans’ votes on Nov. 2.

Not so fast, say President Bush’s Arab-American supporters.

“At the end of the day, everyone is going to go into the voting booth by himself or herself,” said Dr. Yahya Basha of Royal Oak, who attended what was billed as a Bush-Cheney campaign briefing Wednesday at the Westin Hotel. “People in the polling say they are voting for Kerry, but sometimes they come back disappointed when they think of him. So, I actually think it is changing back.

“And the Bush campaign is starting to do a little bit better in the community.”

Votes of Arab-Americans may still play a significant role in the election. Michigan is just one of several so-called battleground states with large Arab-American populations. With the race perceived as nip-and-tuck, and with Arab support seen as swinging to Kerry from Bush, who received significant support from Arab-Americans in the historically close election in 2000, suddenly Arab voters are receiving more attention from both campaigns.

Abraham and Rep. Daniel Issa, R-Calif., attended the Bush-Cheney event at the Westin Hotel Wednesday with Jafar Karim, the national coalitions director for the campaign.

Two weeks ago, a visit by a prominent Arab-American judge from New Hampshire, William Shaheen, helped swing the local endorsement of the Arab American Political Action Committee to Kerry. Shaheen visited after some grousing that the campaign ignored the Arab vote for most of the year.

A poll by Zogby International for the Arab American Institute in Washington in September showed that Kerry’s 30-point lead among Arab-American voters in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida had faded to a 17.5 point lead. The poll included 502 Arab-Americans who said they are likely to vote, and it had a margin of error of 4.5 percent.

Bush’s Arab-American supporters assert the race is much closer, and that the Zogby poll suggests significant momentum for the president.

In 2000, Bush received 45.5 percent of Arab-Americans’ votes. Vice-President Al Gore received 38 percent and Ralph Nader, who is of Arab descent, received 13.5 percent.

Bush receives a negative appraisal from many Arab Americans for his conduct of the war on terrorism, that has left them feeling targeted, profiled and isolated.

Many people of Arab descent who are not from Iraq also objected to the war in Iraq from the start. And even many Iraqis, who praised Bush for deposing Saddam Hussein, now object to the American occupation, especially with so much violence still affecting Iraqis.

Some Arab-Americans also feel that on a crucial issue, Palestine, Bush’s peace plan is in shambles.

“(Wednesday’s rally) is an event that is showing that there is a large majority of Arab Americans that do support the president,” said John Akouri, a city councilman from Farmington Hills who chairs the Bush-Cheney campaign in Oakland County.

“Endorsements come from across this country for various candidates,” Akouri said, downplaying the AAPAC endorsement of Kerry. “If America is divided, why can’t Arab America be divided.”

But most political prognosticators believe the Kerry will win significant support from the Arab community in key battleground states, and there was fresh news Wednesday of support for the positions of the Democratic team in the war against terror.

Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, issued a stinging critique of homeland security during his campaign appearance in Detroit on Saturday.