{"id":47647,"date":"2026-04-11T12:39:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T19:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=47647"},"modified":"2026-04-11T12:39:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T19:39:54","slug":"dnc-half-measures-condemning-dark-money-wont-cut-it-says-sanders-as-he-demands-total-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/11\/dnc-half-measures-condemning-dark-money-wont-cut-it-says-sanders-as-he-demands-total-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"DNC Half-Measures Condemning Dark Money Won\u2019t Cut It, Says Sanders as He Demands Total Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Bernie<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at Brooklyn College, his alma mater, in New York City on September 6, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Selcuk Acar\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBillionaire-funded super PACs\u2014AIPAC, AI, crypto, and others\u2014are spending hundreds of millions to defeat any candidate who crosses them. They should be banned from Democratic primaries. Period.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apr 10, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a> on Friday called for a total ban on dark money<\/a> a day after the Democratic National Committee<\/a> voted down a resolution that would have condemned the leading US pro-Israel lobby, which has spent nine figures on US elections over the past five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DNC<\/a> Resolutions Committee rejected the resolution, which condemned \u201cthe growing influence\u201d of dark money and corporate-backed outside spending on Democratic races, specifically calling out the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. United Democracy<\/a> Project, AIPAC\u2019s dark money arm, unleashed<\/a> a $100 million blitz targeting progressives<\/a> during the 2024 election<\/a> cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When combined with other pro-Israel lobby groups, like GOP<\/a> megadonor Miriam Adelson\u2019s Preserve America PAC, that figure soars to over $200 million, according to the public interest group AIPAC<\/a> Tracker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the DNC panel opted for a broader resolution decrying the influence of dark money\u2014defined as undisclosed independent campaign contributions\u2014in the 2026 Democratic primaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe DNC just passed a resolution condemning dark money,\u201d Sanders (Vt.) said<\/a> Friday on X. \u201cThat\u2019s a start, but not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBillionaire-funded super PACs\u2014AIPAC, AI, crypto, and others\u2014are spending hundreds of millions to defeat any candidate who crosses them,\u201d the senator added. \u201cThey should be banned from Democratic primaries. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders campaigned twice for president, centering his opposition to the Supreme Court\u2019s 2010 Citizens United<\/a> v. Federal Election Commission<\/em> ruling, which effectively ushered in the modern era of secret unlimited political spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to<\/a> the Brennan Center for Justice, dark money spending in federal elections has skyrocketed from negligible amounts before 2010 to over $1.9 billion in the 2024 cycle alone, with over $4 billion in total undisclosed outside financing following the high court\u2019s contentious ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polling has repeatedly affirmed<\/a> that support for Israel\u2014which stands accused<\/a> in the International Court of Justice<\/a> of committing genocide<\/a> in Gaza<\/a> and has already been found<\/a> by the ICJ to be illegally occupying Palestine<\/a> under apartheid<\/a> rule\u2014is detrimental to Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DNC\u2019s own suppressed postmortem<\/a> of the 2024 presidential election also showed that former President Joe Biden<\/a> and Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a>\u2019 unconditional support for Israel cost Harris votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As AIPAC<\/a> has grown more toxic to US voters amid a litany of Israeli atrocities<\/a> in Gaza<\/a> and the West Bank<\/a> under the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2014who is wanted<\/a> by the International Criminal Court<\/a> for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes<\/a> in Gaza\u2014a growing number of Democrats, including some who once welcomed the group\u2019s support, are turning their backs on the lobby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAIPAC really is not an organization that I think today I would want any part of,\u201d Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said<\/a> last month after affiliated groups poured $22 million<\/a> into House races in his state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While AIPAC cash was instrumental in unseating congressional progressives including former Reps. Jamaal Bowman<\/a> (D-NY) and Cori Bush<\/a> (D-Mo.), its largesse failed to oust others, including Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Ilhan Omar<\/a> (D-Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib<\/a> (D-Mich.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders wasn\u2019t the only one to criticize the DNC\u2019s rejection of the anti-AIPAC resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe American people are clear: They want our government to invest in life and stop funding the bombs that are destroying lives in Palestine, Lebanon<\/a>, and Iran,\u201d Jewish Voice for Peace political director Beth Miller said Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\u00a0DNC\u2018s failure to pass this simple resolution condemning the outsized spending of an extremist and Republican-funded group like AIPAC in Democratic primaries shows how wildly out of touch the party is with its base,\u201d Miller added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at Brooklyn College, his alma mater, in New York City on September 6, 2025. \u00a0(Photo by Selcuk Acar\/Anadolu via Getty Images) \u201cBillionaire-funded super PACs\u2014AIPAC, AI, crypto, and others\u2014are spending hundreds of millions to defeat any candidate who crosses them. They should be banned from Democratic… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47647"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47648,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47647\/revisions\/47648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}