{"id":35825,"date":"2024-08-29T12:18:11","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T19:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=35825"},"modified":"2024-08-29T12:18:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T19:18:12","slug":"very-bad-sign-for-democracy-aipac-has-spent-over-100-million-on-2024-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/08\/29\/very-bad-sign-for-democracy-aipac-has-spent-over-100-million-on-2024-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Very Bad Sign for Democracy’: AIPAC Has Spent Over $100 Million on 2024 Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Protest<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pro-Palestinian Jewish American demonstrators rally outside the Manhattan headquarters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on February 22, 2024 in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

AIPAC’s billionaire-funded super PAC has helped defeat two of the most vocal opponents of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aug 28, 2024 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American Israel<\/a> Public Affairs Committee, a powerful lobbying group widely known as AIPAC<\/a>, has officially spent more than $100 million in the 2024 election cycle so far, pouring staggering sums into Democratic primary races in an effort to unseat progressive opponents of Israel’s war on the Gaza<\/a> Strip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citing new Federal Election Commission filings, Sludge<\/em>reported<\/a> Tuesday that AIPAC’s political action committee had spent $44.8 million as of the end of last month, mostly on donations to political campaigns and party organizations. The United Democracy Project (UDP), AIPAC’s super PAC, has spent $55.4 million so far, bringing AIPAC’s total spending this cycle to just over $100 million\u2014surpassing its reported spending target<\/a> for 2024 races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AIPAC money has already made a significant impact, helping a pair of pro-Israel Democrats defeat progressive Reps. Jamaal Bowman<\/a> (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush<\/a> (D-Mo.)\u2014two of Congress’ most vocal critics of Israel’s assault on Gaza\u2014in recent primary contests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Supporting Palestinian rights is becoming so popular among American voters that pro-genocide groups have to spend over $100 million to hold on.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sludge<\/em> noted that UDP’s financial support for Bowman’s primary opponent, George Latimer, “set a record<\/a> for spending by an outside group on a House election.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A very bad sign for democracy that MAGA billionaires are spending this much money to shape our politics,” the youth-led Sunrise Movement<\/a>wrote<\/a> in response to the new spending figures, referring to the Republican megadonors<\/a> who have fueled spending by AIPAC-aligned groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politico<\/em>reported<\/a> in June that AIPAC has been “the biggest source of Republican money flowing into competitive Democratic primaries this year.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/YonahLieberman\/status\/1828573304204206105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1828573304204206105%7Ctwgr%5Ed64aac683f37278d44c72a6192fb8a0984a8d73e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Faipac-100-million<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sludge<\/em> pointed out Tuesday that billionaire Jan Koum, the former WhatsApp CEO who helped bankroll Nikki Haley’s failed presidential bid, is the top donor to AIPAC’s super PAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Other UDP donors in recent months have included the following: David Messer, CEO of Freepoint Commodities, who gave another $250,000 on July 1; Martin Geller, CEO of financial firm Geller & Company, who gave an additional $268,000 on June 25; and Frank Blair, equity portfolio manager at Capital Group, who gave an additional $200,000 in May,” Sludge<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While lamenting the outsized influence that UDP and other billionaire-funded groups are able to wield in the U.S. political system, some observers have argued that AIPAC’s aggressive spending is a sign of desperation in the face of growing public opposition to Israel’s mass atrocities in Gaza. A majority of Democratic voters view Israel’s war on Gaza as genocide, according to one recent survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Supporting Palestinian rights is becoming so popular among American voters that pro-genocide groups have to spend over $100 million to hold on,”\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Beth Miller, policy director at Jewish Voice for Peace.<\/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

JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Pro-Palestinian Jewish American demonstrators rally outside the Manhattan headquarters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on February 22, 2024 in New York City. \u00a0(Photo: Selcuk Acar\/Anadolu via Getty Images) AIPAC’s billionaire-funded super PAC has helped defeat two of the most vocal opponents of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip…. 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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35825"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35826,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35825\/revisions\/35826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}