WASHINGTON, 3 August — A newly released poll has revealed that US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is behind her challenger, Denise Majette, 39 percent to 41 percent, in their nationally followed race for Congress. Less than three weeks remain until the Aug. 20 primary election.
Conducted by the nonpartisan Marketing Workshop, the poll was released Thursday by the Internet political news service that commissioned it, InsiderAdvantage.
McKinney’s custom of saying exactly what she thinks has drawn both criticism and admiration. She has repeatedly called for a balanced US Mideast policy, rejected a pro-Israel resolution, and rattled many on the Hill when she suggested President Bush might have known about the Sept. 11 attacks but did nothing so that his associates could make money in the resulting war.
Former State Judge Denise Majette, McKinney’s rival, is partially being financed by Jewish leaders critical of McKinney’s stand on Israel. Majette has announced she plans to spend $500,000 in contributions she has received in the next three weeks.
Members of the Muslim American community, meanwhile, have rallied to support McKinney. At least three-quarters of the $234,299 that McKinney has raised from individuals this year is from donors with Muslim or Arab-American surnames, many who live outside her district.
As a result, the Atlanta-based 4th District Democratic primary has become emblematic for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the outcome viewed as a tug of war between the Muslim American and pro-Israel Jewish communities.
Last May, McKinney was among the handful of 21 House members who voted against a pro-Israel resolution that passed with 352 votes.
In October, she wrote to Saudi Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal, thanking him for the $10 million he offered to New York City victims of the Sept. 11 attack. City officials rejected the $10 million because they said Alwaleed used the occasion to criticize US foreign policy and Israel.
McKinney wrote to Alwaleed: “There are a growing number of people in the United States who recognize, like you, that US policy in the Middle East needs serious examination.”
Last month, in another Democratic primary, Rep. Earl F. Hilliard, D-Alabama, lost to Artur Davis, who had strong support from Jewish donors across the country. Arab and Muslim Americans raced to help Hilliard, but their efforts were too late to help.
Hilliard, Davis, McKinney and Majette are black, but the two Democratic primaries have called attention to tensions between Muslims and Jews — and between African-Americans and Jews.
“Whenever there are any forces that appear to target members of the (Congressional Black) Caucus, all of us are concerned,” Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Maryland, first vice chairman of the CBC, recently told journalists. He said Jewish friends told him “there was an effort to help defeat Hilliard, and I have heard that also about the McKinney race.”
Hilliard, in a post-election interview with the online publication The Black Commentator, said: “The only thing I know for sure, that I saw in black and white, is $1,098,000 that (Davis) reported. . . . It came from Jews and Republicans.”
Many Arab-American and Muslim leaders see Hilliard’s loss as an attack on a congressman who tried to maintain even-handedness in the Middle East.
“We have been sucked into a game of becoming involved in races because AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobby) has ruthlessly targeted every member of Congress that is not 100 percent Israel, right or wrong,” Sarah Eltantawi, communications director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, told journalists.
Bill Banks, McKinney’s campaign manager, told the Washington Post that Muslim Americans support her re-election because “they feel she has spoken out for the (Middle East) policies of the US to be somewhat balanced.” Bob Doyle, who is coordinating Majette’s fundraising, told the Post that donations have rapidly jumped, with over $300,000 raised in the past three weeks. He said he did not know how much was from Jewish supporters.
