CHANNEL: Politics

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, says it is "inappropriate and even unsettling" for presidential candidates to use shared religiosity to appeal to voters.

An e-mail and other falsehoods circulating on the Internet are preying on Jewish fears to pit voters against Barack Obama. The Grand Rabbi Y.A. Korf, publisher of the Jewish Advocate, urges Jews to "carefully examine the legitimate record of Senator Obama."

The Irish have united with other immigrants who have come to America in search of opportunity. We can improve our state by promoting citizenship and engaging in the political process, writes the director of the Irish Immigration Center, in the Boston Irish Reporter.

Bilingual Chinese- and Vietnamese-transliterated voting ballots in Boston may disappear if Secretary of State William Galvin has his way.  Galvin knows he can "count on a growing anti-immigrant political climate...to misrepresent the facts and poke fun at Chinese names," says the director of a Chinese organization, in a commentary for the Bay State Banner.

Adil Najam, professor of international relations at Boston University, and M. Saud Anwar, founder and past president of the Pakistani American Association of Connecticut, spoke about the future of Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and her two terms as prime minister with relatively unremarkable accomplishments.

Why aren't any Jews running for U.S. president? A Jew would be unlikely to win broad national support, says the Jewish Advocate.

Former Boston city councilor Felix Arroyo opens up to NEWz on city politics and his electoral defeat (anti-immigrant factor), his experience as a new immigrant (little discrimination), his Boston activist roots (1970s busing) and Latino political power (wake up!).

Danbury police participation with ICE would do great harm, says Celia Bacelar, publisher of a Portuguese- and English-language newspaper in Conn. And can police really tell by looking if you're from Ireland, Brazil or the Bronx? (In Portuguese and English)

Ve Y Vota (It's Time, Go Vote), a new nationwide campaign, seeks to mobilize immigrants to vote. Juan Vega, of Centro Latino de Chelsea, talks about the campaign and the progress and challenges of Latino enfranchisement.

Politicians, policy makers and the public in general have misformed perceptions about immigrants, says Vega, a former city councilor in Chesea, Mass.

One way to change mispercpetions is by getting people to vote, as Ve Y Vota intends to do.

Rabbi and Worcester native Dennis Shulman, blind since the age of 13, is running for U.S. Representative, for New Jersey's 5th district, says the Jewish Advocate.