New PAC Launches to Boost Pro-Israel Democrats in New York
THE REPUBLICAN TREASURER and Democratic executive director of a pro-Israel political advocacy group have launched a state-level political action committee to spend directly in New York’s elections, according to Board of Elections records obtained by New York Focus.
The committee, called Solidarity pac, is boosting Democratic primary opponents to candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families Party. It resembles a New York state-level version of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which backs pro-Israel candidates in federal elections.
PSCs run by pro-Israel groups like aipac and Democratic Majority for Israel have been a pivotal force in national Democratic politics for years, funneling millions into us congressional elections — and defeating incumbent and insurgent candidates alike. But the new Solidarity pac appears to be the first committee to explicitly back New York state-level candidates who, according to its website, “value the American alliance with Israel.”
The website invites visitors to make donations to be split among candidates the pac endorses, and the candidates’ webpages note whether their opponents are endorsed by the dsa or wfp. It backs the Hudson Valley incumbent Assemblymember Didi Barrett, one of the chamber’s more conservative Democrats, who is facing a formidable challenge from Claire Cousin, a wfp-endorsed nonprofit director. Another candidate’s page states that his challenger is a “Jamaal Bowman organizer.”
https://nysfocus.com/2024/03/26/israel-pac-new-york-election-democrats
