Super PACs powered by unknown funders are roiling Democratic politics in Illinois, diving into a trio of open House primaries six weeks before voters effectively pick their new members of Congress in these deep blue-district primary elections.
Two groups, Elect Chicago Women and Affordable Chicago Now, just blinked into existence in recent days and quickly started six-figure television buys backing three candidates in key Chicago-area races over Democratic primary opponents, including progressives who have been critical of Israel.
There's no hard evidence on who is funding the groups. But some candidates in these races have pointed their fingers at AIPAC, the pro-Israel advocacy group whose aligned super PAC has spent tens of millions of dollars in Democratic congressional primaries in recent years.
Given how rarely incumbent members of Congress lose primaries — and how those seats can serve as launchpads for higher office — open-seat primaries have become important battlegrounds for different interests across both parties, with groups competing to shape the attitudes of their representatives in Washington.
The new developments also speak to how progressive frustration with AIPAC’s multiyear spending spree has boiled over — and how the other candidates, even without evidence, believe that branding the new spending as AIPAC money will cause the ads to backfire with Democratic primary voters.
It's possible the sources behind the big spending in Chicago might not be known until after the vote, an increasingly popular tactic in the super PAC era and one that has been used by groups of different parties and ideologies.
The super PACs do not need to disclose donors who gave on or after Feb. 1 until March 20 — three days after Illinois’ March 17 primaries.
Elect Chicago Women Now is backing Democratic candidates in Illinois’ 8th and 9th Congressional Districts, former Rep. Melissa Bean and state Sen. Laura Fine, with new television ads there touting the candidates’ biographies.
In the 8th District, which sprawls west of Chicago, the group has booked and spent more than $400,000 on television advertisements through the mid-March primary, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, more than any other group or candidate in the race so far.
Bean — who has been endorsed by key Democrats like Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — has been the top fundraiser in the race and the new ad touts her record. The two other top fundraising candidates in the race are small business owner Neil Khot and Junaid Ahmed, a tech consultant and nonprofit founder backed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus and other progressive lawmakers and groups.
In the 9th District, Fine has been the top spender on the airwaves so far and is getting an additional boost of about $300,000 from Elect Chicago Women Now, which has so far aired a similar positive spot touting her biography.
Along with Fine, other prominent candidates in the race include progressive commentator Kat Abughazaleh, who is backed by California Rep. Ro Khanna and the Sunrise Movement; Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, who is backed by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, the retiring occupant of the seat; and Skokie school board member Bushra Amiwala, endorsed by former Rep. Marie Newman.
Meanwhile, Affordable Chicago Now is spending at least $250,000 in the 2nd District to back former Illinois Planned Parenthood Chair Donna Miller, the only candidate in the race who has spent significantly on advertising and who is backed by former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Schakowsky and others. Her top opponents include former Rep. Jesse Jackson, who is seeking a return to Congress after pleading guilty and serving prison time for misusing campaign funds, and state Sen. Robert Peters, who is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and other prominent progressives.
Elect Chicago Women Now was created in late January, according to Federal Election Commission filings, and the group’s address is a co-working space in Chicago. Affordable Chicago Now was incorporated days later, linked to an address that rents out mailboxes for businesses. Besides the timing of Wednesday's ad launches, nothing in public directly links the two groups.
A debate over Israel policy and support from AIPAC has been front and center in the 9th District in particular so far. Biss, who is a descendant of Holocaust survivors, has blasted the “atrocities perpetrated by the [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu government” and Abughazaleh has labeled Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide.”
Fine, the only Jewish woman in the race, said at a January forum that she believes in a “two-state solution, where people in Gaza and people in Israel can live with self-determination and safety and in dignity,” according to The Daily Northwestern.
“But I think where I differ from my colleagues is I cannot believe in tying Israel’s hands right now because I’ve been to Israel, I’ve been in the bomb shelters, I’ve stood on the borders, and I’ve seen the threats coming from the other side,” Fine added.
On Wednesday, candidates in the 2nd and 9th Districts publicly accused AIPAC and its allied super PAC, United Democracy Project, of being behind the new PACs.
Neither AIPAC nor United Democracy Project returned a request for comment, and there are no direct links between the groups and the spending. One of the groups does share a media buyer with United Democracy Project, although UDP is far from the only group to use that buyer to place paid advertising.
UDP has spent heavily to influence Democratic primaries around the country in recent years, sparking backlash from some activists both on the issue of Israel and because many of the group’s key funders donate heavily to Republicans, too.
A press release from Biss’ campaign said the group is “widely suspected to be backed by the right-wing group, AIPAC,” and went on to note that many of Fine’s donors have also given to AIPAC-affiliated groups.
“A right-wing dark money super PAC is starting to blanket the airwaves in her support,” Biss campaign manager George Lundgren said in a statement. “Fine claims she will stand up to Trump, but her campaign is being propped up by Trump supporters, AIPAC donors, and right-wing super PACs.”
The Fine campaign hit back against any suggestion that the candidate won’t stand up to President Donald Trump in a statement from a campaign spokesperson, which noted “the campaign does not coordinate with outside groups” and invoked another outside group, 314 Action, that supports Biss.
“If you want to know how Laura Fine will stand up to Trump and special interests in Washington, just look at who she’s gone up against in Springfield: the insurance industry, corporate polluters, the gun lobby and the extremists who tried to stop Illinois from becoming a one hundred percent pro-choice state. That record is why she’s been named one of the most effective lawmakers in Illinois,” the Fine campaign said.
