AIPAC is secretly funneling money into a congressional race, sources say. Here are the details.

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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.

314 Action, it turns out, is not backing Dexter simply because she’s a doctor. What I revealed in an article yesterday is that Jayapal is being targeted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, which is secretly funneling money into the race by washing it through 314 Action, according to two Democratic members of Congress familiar with the arrangement. Clearly, AIPAC believes its support for the war in Gaza is too toxic in Portland, so it is smuggling its influence in through an innocuous PAC. AIPAC and 314 Action didn’t respond to requests for comment.

If you work for 314 Action and want to talk, find me on Signal at (202) 368-0859.

On Friday, a brand new PAC, ridiculously called “Voters For Responsive Government,” launched two new attack ads at Jayapal, putting close to a million dollars behind them. One of the ads literally accuses her of starving and abusing cats and dogs. Seriously.

You can read the full story here, and if you know anybody in Portland, forward them this email. And while you’re at it, tell them to buy my book on the Squad, called, creatively, “The Squad,” which goes deep on the war between the progressive members of Congress and AIPAC.

On today’s Deconstructed podcast, I interviewed two operatives at the group Justice Democrats: co-founder and executive director Alexandra Rojas and Usamah Andrabi, who was embedded with Rep. Summer Lee’s campaign. They talked about why Lee was able to cruise to re-election in Pittsburgh despite AIPAC pledging to take her out and also talked about the upcoming challenges to Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. You can listen on any podcast platform.

My colleague Akela Lacy covered Bowman’s race this week, reporting that AIPAC is likely to launch an ad campaign of nearly unprecedented proportions, planning to drop some $20 million on Bowman’s head.  

And Jeremy Scahill has a new story out about Nahla Al-Arian; she visited Columbia’s encampment and was smeared by the media with false allegations of having links to terrorism. Eric Adams then cited her presence as the reason he ordered the raid. Insane.