Bernie is Right: Campaign Finance Reform is Still an Issue

How Republicans and the Israel lobby unseated anti-genocide voices.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders sounded like his typical self on the second night of the Democratic National Convention — with one slight but significant twist. Playing the hits that propelled him through two Presidential campaigns, Sanders called for getting big money out of politics, including primary elections.

While some assumed Sanders was speaking to the big-money Democratic donors that opposed him in 2016 and 2020, the reference was directed at the Israel lobby groups that successfully ousted Representatives Jamal Bowman and Cori Bush earlier this year. As two of the most progressive members of the House of Representatives, Bush and Bowman were vocal critics of Israel’s genocide of Gaza, making them the primary targets of Israel’s subsidiary, United Democracy Project.

Once a leading issue, campaign finance reform has faded from the political forefront in recent years. However, as he has on other matters, the Vermont Senator is again leading the conversation by calling out a dire problem overlooked by his contemporaries. Not only does unrestrained political spending enable capitalists to corrupt the few democratic levers left in America, but it also opens a back door for Republicans and the Israel lobby to ambush critics of Israel, circumventing the democratic wishes of the American people.

Progressive Losses

In June, Congressman Jamal Bowman lost the primary for New York’s 16th congressional district to challenger George Latimer. With over $23 million spent on the race, it was the most expensive House primary campaign in American history.¹ Bowman’s campaign spent just over $5.3 million, while Latimer used just over $5.6 million.² At first glance, these comparable figures make the race appear like a fair fight. However, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, commonly known as AIPAC, aided Latimer with a staggering $14.5 million.³ Combined with Latimer’s campaign spending, AIPAC’s contributions meant Jamal Bowman was outspent by over four-to-one.

Spending on the NY 16th Congressional race, one week before election day. United Democracy Project is a subsidiary of AIPAC. (Source)

An identical dynamic played out in Missouri’s 1st congressional district. Challenger Wesley Bell received $8.4 million⁴ from AIPAC in his race against incumbent Congresswoman Cori Bush. Bell raised $4.7 million on his own, giving him over five times as much funding as Bush, who raised $2.5 million from educators, the Medicare-For-All PAC, and the American Postal Workers Union.⁵

While criticism of Israel was not the only factor that led to their defeats (Bowman’s district had been redrawn to include Harrison and Rye, two of New York’s wealthiest suburbs), it was the issue that brought Bowman and Bush under AIPAC’s crosshairs. Bush pulled no punches during her concession speech, telling AIPAC she was coming to “tear down their kingdom” and cheering on Sanders’ call for removing money from Democratic primaries. 

While outsized spending against progressives is nothing new, the makeup of this AIPAC spending is uniquely pernicious and exposes a severe problem for electorally-minded leftists.

Who Funds AIPAC?

While AIPAC and its defenders claim it is no different from any other special-interest group, AIPAC has two characteristics that make it unique in the American political arena.

First, AIPAC is the largest source of Republican money spent in Democratic primaries.⁶ Of everyone who has donated to AIPAC since 2020, nearly half (46%) have previously given to Republican candidates or committees. Comparatively, only 2% of those who donate to Democrats through ActBlue, the party’s most prominent donation platform, have given to Republicans previously. This shows that it’s not Republican-to-Democrat converts giving money to AIPAC to spend in Democratic primaries, but staunch Republicans who seek to unseat and silence Israel’s critics. Rather than giving their money to the Republican candidate in the general election, they’d rather fund a Republican-adjacent Democrat primary challenger. This has proven to be an effective strategy, as primary elections tend to slip under the public’s radar.

Unlike general elections, which draw about two-thirds of eligible voters,⁷ only about 20% of Americans vote in primaries.⁸ This lack of attention makes it much easier for AIPAC’s Republican donors to push their candidate across the finish line with an overwhelming amount of advertising. Additionally, false narratives, such as the disingenuous claim Bowman opposed the Inflation Reduction Act,⁹ are more likely to be accepted by audiences, as there is less media attention to debunk them. (Below is one of Latimer’s TV ads, which falsely claimed Bowman opposed Biden’s infrastructure bill.)

The second unique component of AIPAC is right there in its name. Unlike other political finance groups, AIPAC explicitly advocates for the interests of a foreign nation. The Israeli government denies providing any funding for AIPAC, but thanks to America’s loose financial laws, it doesn’t have to. Donors are free to donate to the PAC at will, creating a situation where foreign money can be laundered into AIPAC through private donors. It’s something of an open secret that Israeli cash makes its way into AIPAC’s coffers and, therefore, into American elections. Naturally, this has raised a call for AIPAC to be registered as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. This law, colloquially known as FARA, requires anyone working on behalf of a foreign government to register with the U.S. Justice Department.

According to recent reporting from The Guardian,¹⁰ Israel is well aware of the threat FARA poses to its political activities in America. In a leaked 2018 memo from the Israeli Justice Ministry, Israeli officials proposed creating a new non-profit to circumvent FARA regulations, fearing donors would no longer want to be associated if existing organizations (AIPAC) were labeled as foreign entities. The memo was written in response to the discovery Trump Administration officials were found to be working for foreign governments, which Israel feared might set off a bigger push to correctly label all foreign actors. However, the Israeli government eventually decided creating a new public relations organization would draw too much attention and shelved the project.

While AIPAC and its American allies continue to deny any coordination from Israel, this memo shows the Israeli government is well-aware it is influencing American elections, an activity it is trying to protect.

מזכר לדינה זילבר בנושא חלצ ו Fara

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Though Citizens United has made it nearly impossible to regulate any financial contribution, Bernie Sanders’ DNC speech shows another path forward. The issue of campaign finance has faded in the Trump years because the idea of shadowy billionaires buying elections was made moot by a bombastic billionaire explicitly buying his own election. (The same can be said about Michael Bloomberg’s short-lived Democratic campaign.) While Republicans and centrist Democrats will block any attempt to overturn Citizens United via a Constitutional Amendment, as the most damage to the pro-Palestine cause is being enacted in the Democratic Primaries, that is where our focus should lie. 

Since Sanders announced he would not be taking any PAC money in his 2016 campaign, shunning big money has become the litmus test for progressive candidates. Several who ran in 2020 pledged not to accept donations from Super PACs.¹¹ Given the damage AIPAC and its affiliates have done to the anti-genocide movement through primary funding, the electoral left would be wise to spread Sanders’ message and make Super PACs a black mark on any candidate who seeks a Democratic nomination.

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1. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/25/jamaal-bowman-loses-george-latimer-00164997

2. https://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary?cycle=2024&id=NY16

3. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/nyregion/aipac-bowman-latimer.html

4. https://abc7amarillo.com/news/nation-world/cori-bush-backs-bernie-sanderss-call-to-get-big-money-out-of-politics-speak-on-it-bernie-sanders-democratic-national-convention-elections-voting-aipac-fundraise-campaign-funds

5. https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/cori-bush/summary?cid=N00039373

6. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/09/aipac-republican-donors-democratic-primaries-00162404

7. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/07/12/voter-turnout-2018-2022/

8. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/press-release/voters-dont-participate-primaries/

9. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/08/the-disingenuous-attack-that-progressives-voted-against-the-infrastructure-bill-jamaal-bowman-cori-bush-wesley-bell-aipac-george-latimer/

10. https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/17/israel-foreign-agent-law-leaked-documents

11. https://www.npr.org/2019/02/01/690618851/democratic-presidential-candidates-say-no-to-corporate-pac-money