A Democratic House primary in Illinois that has centered on disagreements over Israel and has been blanketed by outside spending is coming to a close with an unusual twist — an upbeat 30-second ad that candidates say is not what it seems.
Over a bouncy beat, the ad’s narrator casts a long-shot candidate, Bushra Amiwala, as an appealing option for progressive voters in the Chicago-area Ninth Congressional District, saying she is the “real deal” and is fighting for “real economic justice.”
Ms. Amiwala responded this weekend by saying she “absolutely could not be more disgusted” by the commercial.
To Ms. Amiwala, a fierce critic of Israel, the ad was an inexplicable arrival from an unwelcome source: Chicago Progressive Partnership, a super PAC that has disclosed few details about its backers but shares vendors with groups linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the hard-line pro-Israel lobbying organization.
Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive influencer who has appeared to gain some late momentum, argued that AIPAC-aligned groups were trying to split the progressive vote to halt her rise. And Mayor Daniel Biss of Evanston, a progressive who has led in the polls, said that if anyone was being targeted, it was him.
He accused AIPAC of trying to siphon off his votes.
The recriminations in the final days of a closely watched race were the latest escalation of tensions in the Democratic Party surrounding AIPAC, which has sought to elevate like-minded candidates and to stop a growing crop of contenders critical of Israel. Although the strategy of elevating underdogs to become spoilers is not new in campaigns, Ms. Amiwala’s immediate rejection of the ad underscored sensitivities in the party over AIPAC and its perceived role in the midterms.
Representatives for AIPAC and its super PAC, which are not officially involved in the race, did not respond to requests for comment. Chicago Progressive Partnership, which has shared contractors with a PAC linked to groups tied to AIPAC, campaign finance filings show, also did not respond to requests for comment.
AIPAC was seen as having misfired in its approach to a special Democratic House primary in New Jersey, where a pro-Palestinian progressive won in February. The group’s allied super PAC spent millions to block a moderate it saw as insufficiently supportive of Israel, helping to elevate a strong critic of Israel in the process.
Now, AIPAC appears to be “panicked about the fact that they could have a repeat of what happened in New Jersey,” said David Axelrod, the Democratic analyst who was chief strategist for Barack Obama’s two winning presidential campaigns.
“It’s kind of a tortured mess — a Goldberg contraption of a campaign,” Mr. Axelrod added. He said that AIPAC might have “underestimated the sophistication of the electorate.”
Analysts have suggested that AIPAC, through allied groups, is trying to squeeze Ms. Abughazaleh from both directions: by targeting her with negative ads and by propping up another progressive candidate who might appeal to the same voters.
A crowded field is jostling for position to replace Representative Jan Schakowsky of Evanston, a Democrat who is retiring after nearly three decades in Congress. The primary is on Tuesday.
The deep-blue district includes a chunk of Chicago and a number of its northern suburbs, stretching across large Jewish communities and private universities such as Loyola and Northwestern. Two of the leading candidates are Jewish, and another is Palestinian. The conflict in Gaza has been the race’s most prickly topic, and the candidates have embraced a spectrum of views.
Ms. Amiwala, 28, flatly accused the Chicago Progressive Partnership of being an AIPAC-affiliated shell PAC, and she responded to the new ad’s release by posting a video on Instagram demanding that the group stop the ad from running.
Chicago Progressive Partnership has used vendors also employed by Affordable Chicago Now, according to campaign finance filings, which has ties to groups that work closely with AIPAC. (Affordable Chicago Now has spent heavily in other Chicago-area races to support a former congresswoman in the northwest suburbs and a county commissioner running on the South Side.)
One of the shared vendors, Tom King, a political consultant, said in a brief phone call that he was involved in the advertisement propping up Ms. Amiwala. He did not comment further.
Chicago Progressive Partnership has spent at least $1 million running ads attacking Ms. Abughazaleh, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. Ms. Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old Palestinian American influencer with a large social media following, is a contender to win the race, according to some opinion polls.
Ms. Abughazaleh says that Israel’s conduct in Gaza amounts to a genocide and that U.S. military support to Israel should be cut off.
Mr. Biss, 48, is a grandson of Holocaust survivors who is strongly critical of the Israeli government but does not term its actions as a genocide. He opposes unconditional aid to Israel.
Another leading candidate, State Senator Laura Fine, 59, opposes any conditions on aid for Israel and has spoken with pride about her Jewish faith. Her campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Elect Chicago Women, another organization with ties to groups that work closely with AIPAC, has spent millions backing Ms. Fine.
Chicago Progressive Partnership has spent at least $100,000 highlighting Ms. Amiwala, according to a campaign finance filing.
Ms. Amiwala said that she was “very unsure” of the motive behind the new commercial, but that she saw it as driven by a desire to tarnish her reputation by linking her with an organization that is unpopular in the district. “It makes no sense,” she said, adding: “Even I’m having a hard time finding the logic.”
But Ms. Abughazaleh offered a blunt assessment of the dynamic in the contest.
“The only candidate that they have left that they could possibly consider to be an ally is Daniel Biss,” Ms. Abughazaleh said of AIPAC. “And this is a two-way race between him and myself.”
Mr. Biss, for his part, said that he had no doubt that AIPAC was behind the ad, but that Ms. Abughazaleh’s analysis was “absurd.”
He portrayed Ms. Fine as AIPAC’s favored candidate and described himself as an “existential threat” to the group because of his deep ties to Israel and his critical position toward the country’s government. The ad was further evidence that AIPAC was trying to clear a path for Ms. Fine, Mr. Biss said.
“They would like to paint anybody who disagrees with them as anti-Israel or even antisemitic,” Mr. Biss said. “And they can’t do that with me.”
Another progressive in the race who is strongly critical of the Israeli government, State Senator Mike Simmons, also said he believed AIPAC was waging a stealth campaign to support Ms. Fine.
“Do the math, right?” Mr. Simmons, 43, said. “You’ve got this group that comes in at the last minute, and they are trying to all of a sudden elevate progressive candidates. It’s obvious. We’re not stupid.”
Jennifer Medina contributed reporting.
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