AIPAC Is Secretly Funneling Money Into A Congressional Race, Sources Say. Here Are The Details.

AIPAC is not done trying to take down the Squad.

By Ryan Grim, The Intercept

In April, a super PAC ostensibly committed to supporting “pro-science” candidates began dropping eye-popping sums of money on a Portland congressional race. 314 Action Fund, which is not known for spending big in congressional primaries, has quickly spent $1.7 million in support of a single candidate in the Third Congressional District’s open Democratic primary, according to federal filings. That sum is equal to what the PAC spent on independent expenditures supporting or opposing candidates during the entire 2022 election cycle. And it’s just the start.

By waiting until April to launch its spending blitz, 314 Action is able to delay disclosure of its donors until May 20. The election is scheduled for May 21, but ballots have already begun arriving to voters by mail. In other words, the identity of the donor or donors won’t be documented in campaign finance reports until it’s too late.

So whose money is it, and what do they want?

314 Action describes itself as helping to elect “Democrats with a background in science to public office,” and, indeed, the candidate it’s backing, state Rep. Maxine Dexter, is a local doctor. But there’s more to the story. In early December, the news outlet Jewish Insider floated Dexter as a potentially pro-Israel candidate before she entered the race, warning that unless pro-Israel advocates consolidated behind a single opponent, former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal, the sister of Rep. Pramila Jayapal, would be likely to win the seat. “A pro-Israel leader in Portland, who asked to remain anonymous to protect his privacy, said there is growing concern among other like-minded local activists that Jayapal’s Middle East policy positions ‘will not differ that much from her sister,’” reported JI.