NOVEMBER 1, 2024 (prospect.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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COURTESY DAVID KIM FOR CONGRESS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democrat David Kim is making a third run in California\u2019s 34th District, and has the support of several anti-war and progressive organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a collaboration with Drop Site News<\/a>, an independent news site about politics and war.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In July of 2023, just five days after he launched his third consecutive campaign for Congress in California\u2019s 34th Congressional District, David Kim got a request he wasn\u2019t prepared for. AIPAC\u2014the American Israel Public Affairs Committee\u2014wanted to meet. The organization had sent the message through a trusted emissary, a high-profile businessman in the local Korean community who was an acquaintance of Kim\u2019s and a sometime political ally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kim told his friend that the meeting wasn\u2019t necessary. He understood AIPAC\u2019s position on the question of Israel, Palestine, and Washington, and it was at odds with his own view. Thanks, but no thanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kim and AIPAC, of course, would meet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More from Ryan Grim<\/a><\/strong><\/em> | <\/strong>David Dayen<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n AIPAC and its allied super PAC have spent some $100 million this year<\/a> to install a Congress friendly to Israel amid its brutality in Gaza and Lebanon. But it\u2019s always done so with a conceit that fealty to Israel takes precedence over party politics. AIPAC endorsed 233 Republicans and 152 Democrats over the course of the 2024 election cycle, and maintains the pretense of being a bipartisan organization. But most of its spending this cycle came in primaries targeting progressive Democrats who were insufficiently supportive of Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to the general election, AIPAC has only gotten financially involved directly in a single race, and it\u2019s David Kim\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The attempt to beat back one last progressive is happening in a district in Los Angeles spanning downtown, Koreatown, and Boyle Heights, where Kim, a children\u2019s court public attorney, is mounting yet another challenge to incumbent Rep. Jimmy Gomez. Both are Democrats, an artifact of the \u201ctop two\u201d primary system in California, where the two leading vote-getters in the March primary advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gomez prevailed 53-47<\/a> over Kim in 2020 and by an even closer margin in 2022, winning by about 3,000 votes<\/a>. Kim has generally run to Gomez\u2019s left in the previous two races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AIPAC and its allied super PAC have spent some $100 million this year to install a Congress friendly to Israel amid its brutality in Gaza and Lebanon.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n It is here that AIPAC has made its last stand. United Democracy Project, the super PAC for the organization, started spending on ads and mailers earlier this month, both supporting Gomez and opposing Kim. The total ad buy could approach $1 million<\/a>, according to Politico. Kim believes the AIPAC spending is on track to hit $3 million by Election Day, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAIPAC\u2019s so-called bipartisanship is just a facade to obscure that they are a right-wing lobby funded by right-wing billionaires,\u201d said Usamah Andrabi, communications director at Justice Democrats. \u201cNothing is a greater threat to AIPAC\u2019s power than Democratic voters having elected leaders that actually reflect the will of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In keeping with past examples, the anti-Kim United Democracy Project ad<\/a> has nothing to do with Israel-Palestine policy, and instead attacks Kim for changing his political party affiliation (though he has run as a Democrat the past two elections against Gomez), for having \u201crefused to back President Biden, and repeatedly disrespected Nancy Pelosi.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A \u201cred box\u201d on Gomez\u2019s campaign website<\/a> highlights the party-switching issue; supportive PACs often use red-box information from candidates to inform their advertising. Kim has responded to this charge<\/a> by saying that he registered as a Republican 20 years ago because he was the son of conservative Christian parents. \u201cI\u2019m a progressive, fighting for the people, and I\u2019m proud of how accepting my community has grown,\u201d Kim says in the post<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, the race also reveals another example of an alliance between pro-Israel and pro-crypto forces. Continuing a trend that has been seen in races throughout the country, the same day that United Democracy Project began its ad buy, Protect Progress, which is affiliated with the leading pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake, dropped half a million dollars<\/a> into the race supporting Gomez. The ad buy makes Gomez the eighth-largest House recipient<\/a> of Protect Progress expenditures in the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gomez voted for the FIT21 bill<\/a> that crypto moguls see as a litmus test for their issues. That bill, which passed the House with 71 Democratic votes, would have taken regulatory control over crypto from the Securities and Exchange Commission and given it to the smaller, more business-friendly Commodity Futures Trading Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kim said that he understands why AIPAC is targeting him and supporting Gomez, but he is still surprised to stand alone among all of the congressional races in the country. \u201cI\u2019ve been very vocal, unwavering in our stance calling for a permanent cease-fire [and] arms embargo,\u201d he said. By contrast, he characterized Gomez as \u201csomebody who\u2019s been kind of a puppet since October 7.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kim said that Gomez talks a progressive game in his progressive district\u2014where Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020 by a count of 81-17<\/a>\u2014but doesn\u2019t follow through. \u201cThe incumbent acts as a faux progressive. He says the magic words of cease-fire but has not once added his name to any of the House cease-fire resolutions,\u201d Kim said, criticizing him for voting to defund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and for attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s address. \u201cHe went in and clapped for Netanyahu and then came out and sent a tweet saying Netanyahu should resign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gomez did call for Netanyahu\u2019s resignation<\/a> in July of this year. Last November, he urged a \u201ccessation of hostilities<\/a>\u201d in Gaza. AIPAC notes in its endorsement<\/a> of Gomez that he has taken two trips to Israel with sister organizations of the PAC, trips that hundreds of members of Congress<\/a> have taken in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kim has favored<\/a> an embargo on military aid to Israel until a cease-fire in Gaza is reached, and prosecutions of illegal West Bank settlers at an international criminal court, among other foreign-policy positions. He has the support<\/a> of several anti-war and progressive organizations, including IfNotNow Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both AIPAC and Gomez\u2019s House campaign did not respond to a request for comment.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryan Grim is the co-founder of Drop Site News, and the author of\u00a0\u2018We\u2019ve Got People: From Jesse Jackson to AOC, the End of Big Money and the Rise of a Movement.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n David Dayen is the Prospect\u2019s executive editor. His work has appeared in The Intercept, The New Republic, HuffPost, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and more. His most recent book is \u2018Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In California\u2019s 34th District, anti-war advocate David Kim has come close to unseating Rep. Jimmy Gomez twice. Now AIPAC is attacking Kim, and a crypto PAC is joining in. BY RYAN GRIM, DAVID DAYEN NOVEMBER 1, 2024 (prospect.org) COURTESY DAVID KIM FOR CONGRESS Democrat David Kim is making a third run in… Continue reading \n
RYAN GRIM<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
DAVID DAYEN<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n