Orthodox Jews are the long suffering swing voters of the Jewish world, preferring to vote on issues rather than parties. Thus, the majority of Orthodox Jews voted for Gore-Lieberman in 2000 but switched decidedly to Bush-Cheney in ’04.

This time around, heavily Orthodox areas in New York and New Jersey also made news. In Nassau County, where Democratic County Executive Tom Suozzi hangs on to a few hundred vote lead, the local county legislature flipped from Democratic to Republican control, all because in the heavily Orthodox Five Towns area, Howard Kopel of Lawrence unseated the five-term Democratic incumbent, Jeffrey Toback by more than 1,100 votes (h/t the Jewish Star on the numbers).

In the City itself, in what was a surprisingly much closer race than everyone predicted, heavily Orthodox areas like the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Forest Hills and Rego Park in Queens and Borough Park and Williamsburg went overwhelmingly for Mayor Bloomberg, helping put him back for a third term – 20,642 to 8,307 (UWS), 15,309 to 5,173 (Forest Hills/Rego Park) & by an eye-popping 13,587 to 3,907 in Borough Park (h/t Hamodia for the numbers).

In New Jersey, challenger, and now Governor-elect, Chris Christie won every district in Lakewood save one (h/t Lakewood Scoop). As well, while hometown pride may have given the Democratic ticket the edge in Teaneck (8,784 for Corzine-Weinberg; 3,197 to Christie-Guadagno), as it is from where the Lt. Governor nominee, Senator Loretta Weinberg hails, the heavily Orthodox areas of town gave Christie most of his votes there – some 2/3 of his township tally – totaling 2,210 votes for the winner.

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