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PRESS
RELEASE
For Immediate Release ~ August 20, 1998
Contact: Lucy Keshishian
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AADLC CONDEMNS ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACKS ON JEWISH CANDIDATE BY BROWNBACK SUPPORTERS
Joins NJDC in Protesting Anti-Semitic "Push Polling" in '96 Senate Race
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Falls Church, VA: The Armenian American Democratic Leadership Council (AADLC) announced this week that it is joining with the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) in protesting reports of anti-Semitic tactics by backers of Sam Brownback's (R-KS) 1996 Senate campaign.
"We share the concerns raised by NJDC and join with them in working against anti-Semitism and anti-ethnic tactics in political campaigns," said AADLC Executive Director Alex Sardar. "We look forward to cooperating with NJDC to address this matter and to strengthen the enduring bonds of friendship between Armenian and Jewish Americans. We have always had much in common - historically and even more so today. As survivors of genocide, we are both now confronting the deniers who try to rewrite the history of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide for their own purposes. As diasporans, we share a fundamental commitment to our ancient homelands, even as we advance the cause of tolerance and pluralism here in America."
According to a recently released NJDC report, two Kansas Republicans have stepped forward to further substantiate claims "that supporters of U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) employed anti-Semitic tactics during his 1996 campaign against Democrat Jill Docking, who is Jewish." Their statements are recounted in the NJDC report:
"The caller, I think it was a male voice, reminded me to vote for Brownback on election day," said Nicki Soici, from Wichita, who at the time was a registered Republican. "Then he said 'We think it's important for people to know that Docking is a Jew.'" Ms. Soici told the caller that Jesus was Jewish. When she informed the caller that Docking was a friend of hers, "the caller hung up."
Steve Baru, a former candidate for an elected GOP precinct office from the Kansas City area, said that he received a nearly identical call a day or two before the election. "We just want to remind you to vote for Brownback, and to remind you that Jill Docking is Jewish,' the caller said." When Mr. Baru told the caller he was Jewish, the caller abruptly hung up. Mr. Baru's caller identification system could not identify the origin of the call. Mr. Baru immediately called Brownback headquarters to protest the call.
Additional points raised in the NJDC report included the following:
* The day before the election, the Kansas City Star alluded to the anti-Semitic calls, which were by that time already well known to both the Brownback and Docking campaigns, when it reported that the Docking campaign said "someone was calling voters asking them if they knew [Docking was Jewish] and that 'there were enough [Jews] in Congress already.'"
* According to interviews with dozens of Kansans, NJDC found that these were not isolated incidents. Fran Hoggath, a Republican who volunteered as a telephone receptionist on the Docking campaign, spoke with people who received similar calls. "[I took] five or six calls. All referred to questions being asked 'did you know Jill Docking is Jewish, we're taking a survey,'" Ms. Hoggath said. Ms. Hoggath, who said these calls came in during the final days of the campaign, was unsure about the party affiliation of the callers who were "surveyed."
* The NJDC spoke to a leader of a local chapter of a major Jewish organization in the Kansas City area, who asked not to be identified, who recalled hearing from two separate people about this type of call.
* NJDC spoke with Rabbi Karol, spiritual leader of the Topeka, Kansas, Temple Beth Shalom congregation, who said he heard about anti-Semitic calls "two weeks before the election."
* NJDC reported that interviews with former Docking campaign aides revealed that anti-Semitic "push polls," in which voters were asked whether their vote would change if they knew Docking was Jewish, had been used in the more rural areas of Kansas in the month prior to the vote. Docking aides said they received dozens of complaints from voters, mostly Republicans, who were subjected to anti-Semitic tactics. Former Docking finance director Todd Sandness said that the Docking campaign "kept getting calls from rural areas complaining about a poll [asking] does it make a difference to you if Jill Docking is Jewish."
The controversy surrounding anti-Semitic tactics in the Brownback-Docking race received considerable media scrutiny outside of Kansas, including a July 11 article in the Boston Globe, "Anti-Semitism Cited in Campaign." Jewish American newspapers have also covered the issue closely, with stories in the Baltimore Jewish Times, Washington Jewish Week, New York Jewish Week, and the Forward. On June 26, the Brownback for Senate Committee issued a press release denying charges of anti-Semitism and accusing NJDC of running a "partisan smear campaign."
Brownback is the author of the Silk Road Bill (S.1344), a measure backed by the oil industry which would provide direct aid to the corrupt and undemocratic Azerbaijani government, despite its refusal to lifts its illegal blockades of Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh.
NJDC's findings are documented in a report, entitled, "Anti-Semitism in Kansas Race." The report can be obtained by calling the NJDC at (202) 216-9060, visiting www.njdc.org on the world wide web, or e-mailing: njdconline@aol.com.
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