Democratic Rep. Mike McMahon Fires Staffer for "Jewish Money" List

By: Stephanie Condon
Topics: Campaign 2010

Democratic Rep. Mike McMahon of New York

(Credit: Facebook)

A Democratic representative from New York has fired his campaign spokesperson after she gave a newspaper a list of what she called "Jewish money" going to his Republican opponent.

In an effort to show that Republican challenger Mike Grimm has received most of his financial support from donors outside of New York's 13th district, Democratic Rep. Mike McMahon's re-election campaign gave the New York Observer a list of more than 80 Jewish donors to Grimm.

The list was entitled "Grimm Jewish Money Q2."

At least half a dozen of the donors on the list live on Staten Island, which is part of the 13th district.

"Where is Grimm's money coming from," Jennifer Nelson, McMahon's campaign spokesperson, asked the Observer. "There is a lot of Jewish money, a lot of money from people in Florida and Manhattan, retirees."

Nelson told the Observer she did not know how the campaign's finance team compiled the list, but she said that finance director Debra Solomon is Jewish and "knows a lot of people in that community."

Politico reports that McMahon has fired Nelson and apologized for her comments.

"These comments were entirely inappropriate and there is no place for this kind of behavior. I was outraged by these unfortunate remarks which were unauthorized and are in no way indicative of my beliefs or of my campaign," McMahon said. "I am proud to represent an incredibly diverse community and to enjoy an incredibly diverse base of support. Any comments that could serve to divide our community along religious or ethnic lines have no place in our community or my campaign. I sincerely apologize for her comments, and as she has since been terminated from our campaign, there will be no such incidents in the future."

Grimm said the list was an outrage.

"The fact that a U.S. Congressman would separate out any group by religion or even by ethnicity is nothing short of outrageous," he told the Observer. "This goes beyond politics."

The 13th district went to John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, and both McCain and his 2008 running mate Sarah Palin have endorsed Grimm, the blog RedState points out.

CBSNews.com Special Report: Campaign 2010

Stephanie Condon
Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
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by phillyfanaticoldtimer July 31, 2010 1:47 PM EDT

Ah the racist Dems. Now it is anti-Jewishness. Yipe. Since the GOP always supports Israel, it is always a mystery why so many Jewish voters support the anti-Israel Dems like Obama and this guy. Perhaps these voters will have buyer's remorse in Nov. too. After all, every Dem rep supports San Fran Nan and the tax and spending Dems and that alone should wake all voters up from their snoozes.

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by dogsbestfriend July 31, 2010 3:00 PM EDT: Yeah right. Like we don't know which group is behind the stirring up of all the racism since the primaries, all because of 'worries' about Israel.


by dogsbestfriend July 31, 2010 12:04 PM EDT: Jews having been counting Arab contributions for a long time.

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2004/07/cynthia-mckinneys-arab-and-islamist-donors; Reply to this comment

by slimbubba347 July 30, 2010 4:04 PM EDT

yeah. lets kill all the jews in israel and hand it over on a silver platter to the arabs.

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by Venous123 July 30, 2010 9:19 PM EDT: A tough guy. Why don't you go over there and try to help them


by dadirt July 30, 2010 2:59 PM EDT: Is it a crime to give funding to candidates that stand up for you or your cause? It is their money, and teh Dems have done nothing to give the jews any warm fuzzies. For some reason Obama got a lot of the jewish vote in his election. I doubt he will get it again either, even goin gon the view with his jewish girlfriends won't help.; Reply to this comment


by xxxronnie July 30, 2010 2:03 PM EDT: All of my Jewish friends hate Obama and blast him saying he is a Muslim who hates us and only wants our money. I don't see any reason why any Jew would support a Democrat, they would let the Arabs kill all the Jews in my estimatation. Obama is a Muslim who said he was a Christian, he also said he was a Democrat and he is really a Marxist Communist like his father. Jews should run from the Democrats as it looks like the end of times is near with Democrats in control......; Reply to this comment


by larrryshrine July 30, 2010 1:51 PM EDT: The congressman did the right thing. Compiling the list was not excusable. It shows that racism is alive and well in America.; Reply to this comment


by RobAla July 30, 2010 1:28 PM EDT: The interesting thing about this article is that it shows the Democrats no longer have a lock on the Jewish community. It is interesting to see money being donated by Jewish individuals to Republicans. Maybe they are waking up to the fact that President Obama is not really a friend to Israel (our only strong democratic friend in the middle east).; Reply to this comment

by shierp July 30, 2010 12:59 PM EDT

It seems that the important issue here is how one campaign got ahold of their opponents donor list. Since it is a federal office, will the FBI be ivestigating?

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by BeauregardHP July 30, 2010 1:47 PM EDT: I'm not defending the moronic actions of McMahon's staffers (he's my representative), but there's no need for the FBI to investigate. Campaigns are required to report their donations each quarter to the FEC (Federal Election Commission). Its all public information, you can check the donations for any candidate right here: http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/disclosure_data_search.shtml


by shierp July 30, 2010 5:57 PM EDT: How did they know which ones were Jewish?