The Illinois primaries are just one week away, and affiliates and donors of AIPAC have poured more than $13 million to try and elect their preferred candidates in four wide-open congressional primaries in the Chicago area, according to an analysis of federal campaign disclosures.
But in a riveting panel with Mehdi, three pro-Palestinian candidates pull back the curtain on AIPAC’s use of shell PACs to “hide their money,” as support for one of the most influential lobbying groups in the country wanes among Democratic voters.
The panel includes tech entrepreneur Junaid Ahmed, who is running in the 8th district; journalist and former Zeteo contributor Kat Abughazaleh, who is running in the 9th district; and state Senator Robert Peters, who is running in the 2nd district.
“There’s an entire movement that’s growing that says you have to reject AIPAC,” Peters says, with Abughazaleh noting that the group is “grasping at straws and they’re panicking.”
“Right now, this race is pretty much unlimited money versus people power,” Ahmed adds.
Also during this can’t-miss interview:
Mehdi asks Peters about meeting with an AIPAC official shortly after launching his campaign and writing a draft position paper (“I actually very much regret it.”)
Abughazaleh responds to the recent controversy surrounding an email from her former national security adviser that referred to her as “firmly an interventionist”
Ahmed discusses the hypocrisy of AIPAC’s preferred candidates denouncing the US-Israeli war in Iran while refusing to rule out supporting unconditional military aid to Israel
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