Jewish Coalition for Reagan Sparks Republican Party Change

Clearly pleased with the results of the Jewish Republicans’ efforts in the last presidential election campaign, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is forming an umbrella organization for “special groups” and has named the party’s West Coast Jewish campaign chief as its head.

Richard Richards of Ogden, Utah, the RNC’s new chairman, said that “we have great potential with many of our ethnic communities– Blacks, Hispanics, Jewish and Heritage Councils– to really show an improvement in recruiting more Republicans. We have decided to unite these various liaison committees into one broad-based operation.”

The RNC’s move is in line with the Reagan White House policy that has discarded the system of liaison officials who met with leaders of special groups and advised the President about their concerns. Edwin Meese, President Reagan’s counsellor, disclosed shortly after he took office that there would be no separate “conduits” for special groups as in the Carter White House but that their views would be received.

NEW ARRANGEMENTS OUTLINED

Echoing Meese’s views, Richards said that in its new program the RNC will continue to have Blacks and Hispanics and “ethnics” on its 260-member staff. “There will be no longer a Black division, but there will be Blacks there,” the told political reporters last week. Party contacts with groups such as the NAACP, he said, will be conducted by its political division instead of any special liasion office. “We’ll have Blacks talking to whites and whites talking to Blacks,” Richards stated.

This arrangement was seen in some quarters as creating difficulties since direct contacts would no longer be available for the “special groups” with RNC officials of their own race, faith or background with personal sympathy and knowledge about their concerns. Richards said the party has allocated $500,000 on activities next year directed at the Blacks, Hispanics, ethnic and Jewish voters.

Dr. Alfred Balitzer, on leave of absence as a professor of political science at the Claremont Colleges in California since 1971, is heading the party’s new outreach program, the party’s statement said. During last year’s national campaign, Balitzer was western states director of the Coalition for Reagan-Bush of which the honorary co-chairmen were Theodore Cummings of Los Angeles and Max Fisher of Detroit. The RNC’s statement on the problem identifies the coalition as “a Jewish organization.”

Balitzer also worked with the California Black Advisory Council and the California Hispanic Organization. “For the past decade he has advised Republicans on the role of ethnic communities in American politics,” the RNC said.

While statistics on voting patterns among Jews last Nov. 4 vary, the Jewish vote for President Reagan and Vice President George Bush was for above the proportions to number of Jews registered as Republican while the normally heavy Jewish vote for Democratic candidates was the lowest since the New Deal era began. In New York State, at least, the Jewish vote enabled the Reagan-Bush ticket to win.

Richards said former RNC chairman Bill Brock was unsuccessful in trying to get Blacks and Hispanics to vote the Republican ticket but he indicated the Jewish effort was successful by the appointment of Balitzer and the retention of David Weinstein, director of the party’s outreach program that sought Jewish support for the Republication candidates, on his staff. Weinstein formerly served the United Jewish Appeal and the United Jewish Federation in Stamford, Conn.

The Outreach Program has been an integral part of the RNC since 1979 and thus “institutionalized.” Units for Blacks, Hispanics and other ethnic groups such as the Poles, Hungarians, Ukrainians and Italians were separate units attached to the main committee.