What About the Arab American Candidates?

Blare your sax -or to borrow Al Pacino's exclamatory utterance from Scent of a Woman- hoo haa. With the votes in, big Bill is staying in the White House. But the results are not even anti-climactic as the outcome is no surprise. Pre-election nationwide surveys gave Clinton a good lead, a lead that was reflected in a recent poll of Arab American voters by the Arab American Institute (AAI).

In 1992, the Clinton campaign was the first to make a serious effort to reach the Arab-American voters. It did so again for this election, according to James Zogby, AAI's president. The Clinton team, he said, actually spent campaign money on commercials targeting the Arab-American community and hired people from the community to work on the campaign. Looking at Clinton's pandering to pro-Israel Political Action Committees (PACs) during his first term, the mercurial nature ­ putting it diplomatically ­ of politics is apparent.

But be that as it may, Zogby noted that the Clinton campaign outreach should be considered a true achievement for Arab Americans. "As you recall," said Zogby, "Walter Mondale returned donations made by Arab Americans to his 1984 Presidential campaign, while Michael Dukakis refused to meet an Arab-American delegation during the 1988 Presidential race."

Meanwhile, a host of Arab American candidates ran for public office ­ ranging from Congress to County Clerk ­ in this election. See below for brief profiles of each.

We are now analyzing how they fared, and we will update you later this week with the results.