Democrats are seeking distance from AIPAC

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First Daniel Biss wants to win his primary for an open US House seat in the north Chicago suburbs on Tuesday. Then he has the makings of a plan: Tell as many other Democratic candidates as he can that they could beat AIPAC too.

The grandson of Holocaust survivors who moved to Israel, who grew up with dual citizenship and briefly studied there while an undergraduate, who has a cousin who was called up to the reserves after the October 7, 2023, attacks, Biss is running on a wide array of progressive stances. But the Evanston mayor said he believes the American Israel Political Affairs Committee, other PACs it is funding and connected donors together are dumping millions into his race because of the specific threat he presents.

“It’s obvious that I care about the well-being of the Jewish people and the problem of antisemitism,” Biss told CNN. “They can’t dismiss my positions that are for justice, for dignity and self-determination for the Palestinian people as somehow illegitimate or being pushed forward by someone who doesn’t know.”

“This,” Biss argued, “is a very important race for that reason.”

Several people familiar with AIPAC’s decision-making disputed that, arguing that Biss wouldn’t be the threat to them he imagines. But Biss is making such a big issue of AIPAC that he is running an ad about how much connected money has gone to support one of his opponents — Laura Fine — the favored AIPAC candidate who has publicly distanced herself from the group. Through at least three shell PACs including the United Democracy Project, AIPAC is set to top $20 million just in the Chicago-area House races ahead of Tuesday’s primaries.