TITLE: American Israel Public Affairs Committee Expected To Target Rep. Jamaal Bowman In New Ad
https://www.blackenterprise.com/jamaal-bowman-new-target-aipac-ad/
EXCERPT: AIPAC pledged to spend close to $100 million during the 2024 political cycle to oust members of the Squad, who have been on the leading end of calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and to end the U.S. military’s support for Israel. Bowman’s challenger, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, was recruited by AIPAC and assisted him in securing a little under $1 million in funding so far.
However, after one of the group’s targets, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), won her primary last week, the group has backed away from the pledge.
The new focus is ousting Bowman and other members of the Squad. Expecting to spend at least $20 million in each race, their eyes are also set on Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and will support opponent Wesley Bell during their upcoming primary in August 2024. Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) have also been listed as potential targets, wanting to go “all-in to make up for their failures.”
“AIPAC started this cycle promising to take out every single member of the Squad, and they have already failed at that goal with Summer’s resounding victory last week,” Justice Democrats communications director Usamah Andrabi said.
TITLE: Super PACs With Alleged AIPAC Ties Intervene in Oregon Dem Primary
https://readsludge.com/2024/05/06/super-pacs-with-alleged-aipac-ties-intervene-in-oregon-dem-primary/
EXCERPT: A pair of super PACs recently began spending to support Oregon state Representative Janelle Bynum in the Democratic primary for Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District: one with ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and one that is allegedly funneling money for the group. Neither of the super PACs present themselves as being focused on Israel.
Mainstream Democrats PAC has dropped more than $750,000 on the race since May 2 on TV ads that support Bynum and oppose her opponent in the race, attorney and emergency response coordinator Jamie McLeod-Skinner. It’s the first race that Mainstream Democrats PAC has spent on this election cycle.
The super PAC, which says its goal is to “defeat extreme candidates whose stated goal is ‘to overthrow’ the Democratic Party,” is a sibling of the AIPAC-affiliated organization Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), which was established in 2019 to serve as AIPAC’s political spending arm before the group decided during the 2022 election cycle to set up its own PACs. The group pays DMFI for staff salaries, rent, and fundraising expenses, according to Federal Election Commission filings. It also pays the consulting firm of DMFI’s president, Mark Mellman, a former contractor to the AIPAC-affiliated charity that brings members of Congress on trips to Israel, the American Israel Education Foundation.
The Mainstream Democrats PAC was launched in early 2022 with a $500,000 donation from LinkedIn founder and investor Reid Hoffman, who has since donated a total of $1.6 million to the group. The largest donor to Mainstream Democrats PAC since 2022 is Deborah Simon, who has also been a donor to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) among other pro-Israel causes. In 2021, Simon’s Indiana-based foundation donated $500,000 to ADL Midwest for general operations and support, according to its tax return. Simon has given Mainstream Democrats $2 million. Democratic Majority for Israel, a “dark money” nonprofit, gave it $500,000 in May 2022.
Mainstream Democrats did not respond to a request for comment on their backing of Bynum with their first spending burst in 2024 contests.
Another group that began spending money in support of Bynum recently is 314 Action Fund, which says it aims to help elect scientists to the U.S. Congress and state legislatures. Bynum has a degree in electrical engineering and she owns several McDonald’s franchises in the Portland area.
Ryan Grim, The Intercept’s D.C. Bureau Chief, recently reported that 314 Action Fund is secretly funneling money for AIPAC. Grim attributed the allegation to two Democratic members of Congress who are familiar with the arrangement.
In comments to Sludge, 314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton called The Intercept’s report “inaccurate,” but declined to provide more information when pressed specifically on the AIPAC money funneling allegation. She also declined to provide Sludge with a list of the organization’s latest donors ahead of the next FEC deadline. Naughton told Sludge that 314 Action’s 501(c)4 nonprofit arm has not made any donations to its outside spending PAC during the 2024 election cycle.
TITLE: New political group with undisclosed donors spends big against Susheela Jayapal
https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2024/05/new-political-group-with-undisclosed-donors-spends-big-against-susheela-jayapal.html
EXCERPTS: Last week, [Portland Democrat Susheela] Jayapal and a competitor for the 3rd Congressional District took the unusual step of holding a joint press conference condemning the enormous outside spending in the race. Their shared competitor, doctor and state Rep. Maxine Dexter, has benefited from $1.7 million in independent expenditure support from the 314 Action Fund, a group that supports liberal doctors and scientists running for office and is not affiliated with Voters for Responsive Government. Jayapal and candidate Eddy Morales called on Dexter to demand that the 314 Action Fund reveal who is funding its efforts to support Dexter now, rather than wait until May 20.
The 314 Action Fund and Voters for Responsive Government are spending substantially more on the race than any individual candidate had reported raising through March 31. Jayapal had raised the most, at $611,000.
The only other outside spending that’s been reported in the race is $59,000 from the National Association of Realtors going to support [Eddy] Morales.
Jayapal said at a press conference Thursday that she has “known for some time” that groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee were planning to insert themselves in the race to oppose her. Nonprofit news organization The Intercept reported late last week that unnamed congressional insiders have said AIPAC-aligned donors are supporting 314′s efforts to back Dexter in a move to oppose Jayapal.
In a social media post this weekend, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley raised concerns about the negative advertising by Voters for Responsive Government, given that it has not yet disclosed its donors.
“I strongly condemn the dark money campaign underway to smear Susheela Jayapal in OR CD3 and any other dark money campaigns that are underway or planned,” he wrote. “They are despicable and damaging to our democracy.”