What will it take for Democratic leadership to cry foul?
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**JULY 14, 2022**

AIPAC Has Taken Over the Democratic Primary Process

BY ALEXANDER SAMMON

What will it take for Democratic leadership to cry foul?

Primary season is ending with a bang this year in the Democratic Party,
thanks to AIPAC, the single most consequential political action
committee involved. The hawkish political group, through its super PAC
United Democracy Project, is dumping trainloads of money to influence
the outcome of two particularly high-profile races: boosting Haley
Stevens over incumbent Andy Levin in Michigan's incumbent-on-incumbent
11th Congressional District, and Glenn Ivey over Donna Edwards in
Maryland's open Fourth District.

On the surface, those campaigns break down along familiar ideological
lines; Stevens and Ivey are the more conservative candidates, Levin and
Edwards are progressives. But the Maryland race is especially notable
for both the Democratic forces AIPAC is now opposing and for the
stunning quantity of cash it has dedicated to the cause: Already, UDP
has spent some $6 million
boosting
Ivey and opposing Edwards, by far the most money the super PAC has
poured into any individual race in the cycle. And it's not merely to
knock off a Squad-type progressive: Edwards, who has already served a
decade representing the same Fourth District as a Democrat, is a close
ally of Democratic leadership and endorsee of everyone from Speaker
Nancy Pelosi to Hillary Clinton.

That race, which will be decided on Tuesday, marks the continued advance
of AIPAC into the Democratic electoral process, an unprecedented
development that has, in just a few months, remade the reality of
Democratic politics. In a number of races earlier this year, United
Democracy Project put up millions of dollars to back more-conservative
candidates, which proved remarkably successful. The $2 million-plus
that UDP
poured into North Carolina's First District resulted in an easy
victory for anti-choice candidate Don Davis; $2.1 million pushed
conservative Valerie Foushee over the finish line in NC-04; $2 million
almost certainly made the difference in Texas's 28th, where
conservative Henry Cuellar squeaked past Jessica Cisneros by fewer than
300 votes; $2.7 million on behalf of Steve Irwin nearly closed a
25-point polling gap
in
Pennsylvania's 12th District, as he lost by the narrowest of margins
to progressive Summer Lee. UDP-produced ads have been repeatedly

criticized in multiple races for relying on misleading messaging, but
the group has otherwise been met with little resistance or condemnation
from leading Democrats.

With proof of big money's power, particularly in low-turnout
primaries, AIPAC has upped the ante. In Maryland's Fourth, their $6
million outlay is by far the most they've spent by more than double,
with Election Day still approaching. Already that money has shown up in
polling
.
Edwards sported a 13-point lead over Ivey as recently as May; by July,
Ivey was up by five points-an 18-point swing in less than two months.

But Edwards is not some progressive activist or outsider like Lee or up
against an incumbent like Cisneros. On the contrary, Edwards is a
mainstream Democrat and a close friend of House Democratic leadership, a
group guided by and known for the enormous importance it puts on
personal relationships. To that end, Pelosi recorded a video

disavowing some of the misleading claims of the ads UDP has run
attacking Edwards's record.

However, Pelosi notably didn't condemn AIPAC's virtual takeover of
the Democratic primary process, or condemn party candidates for
accepting money from a group heavily funded by Republican donors, one
that has simultaneously used its influence to endorse over 100
Republican candidates who refused to certify the 2020 election results.
Similarly mum has been fellow Marylander Steny Hoyer, who is
second-in-command in the House as majority leader, and has even endorsed
Edwards in the past. Indeed, Hoyer, known to be a close ally of AIPAC,
endorsed

Edwards over the exact same Glenn Ivey in a tight House race a decade
ago. But this time he's remained silent as the group has poured
millions of dollars into attacking Edwards. His office did not respond
to a request for comment.

"Until leaders in the Democratic Party stand up and say this is
unacceptable to take this money or any money like this, or until
election laws are changed, the opportunity is there for a group like
AIPAC to do this," said Logan Bayroff, vice president of communications
at J Street, the pro-Israel nonprofit group that advocates for
diplomacy-based solutions. "We don't know where it ends. I wouldn't
be surprised to find other Republican-aligned groups deciding to play in
Democratic primaries going forward."

AIPAC's role in Democratic elections has changed drastically in just a
handful of months. For many years, the group claimed to be a bipartisan
entity, and didn't officially endorse candidates. Until this election
cycle, the group didn't even have a super PAC; now, it's on pace to
spend nearly $20 million in the 2022 Democratic primary cycle alone,
making it by far the most influential individual political group in
Democratic electoral politics.

The group's ability to influence the outcome of those Democratic races
has drawn close attention from Republican mega-donors. In May, GOP
billionaires Paul Singer and Bernie Marcus donated $1 million each

to AIPAC's super PAC. Marcus famously gave $7 million to President
Trump's campaign in 2016.
Crucially, AIPAC's United Democracy Project super PAC has not been
similarly active in Republican primaries, even in races where Republican
candidates have been widely criticized for antisemitic comments.
Representatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who infamously claimed that
Jewish space lasers

were behind California's 2018 wildfires, has not faced any UDP-backed
primary. "Have you seen them spend a dime in a Republican primary?"
asked Bayroff. "What would a million dollars have done helping MTG's
primary challenger?"

AIPAC has, however, endorsed numerous Republicans in their general
elections. Among that slate of endorsees are Elise Stefanik, Barry
Loudermilk, and Scott Perry, who famously compared Democrats to Nazis
.

The emergence of AIPAC as a Democratic kingmaker has led groups like J
Street to become more active in electioneering as well. Prior to this
election cycle, that group also did not have an independent-expenditure
operation or a super PAC. Now, in an attempt to blunt the influence of
AIPAC's multimillion-dollar blitz, the group has committed to
six-figure ad buys for a handful of Democratic politicians in UDP's
crosshairs. On Tuesday, the group announced a $700,000 ad buy on behalf
of Michigan's Andy Levin, which criticized his opponent Haley Stevens
for her acceptance of AIPAC money. The group has also committed $660,000
to supporting Edwards.

Of course, those numbers pale in comparison to the money being put up by
UDP, but it remains consequential. Progressive candidates who can patch
together support from a number of groups, as Summer Lee did in
Pennsylvania, have a chance of pulling out a victory even while getting
massively outspent. But progressive groups are also being pulled in a
number of different directions at the moment, and with donations flowing
to urgently needed programs like abortion funds, it can be difficult to
marshal enough resources to do battle with the near-infinite funding of
deep-pocketed Republican billionaires.

For House Democratic leadership, the prospect of more "moderates" (if
not crypto-Republicans) might be welcomed. They have long quarreled with
progressives, and leapt at opportunities to blame the left flank for the
party's woes. Those impulses, compounded by Democrats' inability to
pass campaign finance reform as part of their doomed democracy reform
package, have created a huge opportunity for Republicans to commandeer
the party's own democratic process, one that they are seizing more and
more with each passing primary.

But it's ultimately toxic for the party leadership to tacitly welcome
a group currently endorsing a Republican who compared Democrats to
Nazis. If Pelosi and company do nothing to combat right-wing entryism in
their own party primary process, even as Republican funders target
mainstream Democrats with close personal ties to the party's elite,
AIPAC will only be emboldened further. If Pelosi doesn't speak up
soon, she might be targeted herself.

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