By Ryan Grim, Akela Lacy
February 15, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" -
The American Israel
Public Affairs Committee is helping to fund a Super
PAC launching attack ads against Sen. Bernie Sanders
in Nevada on Saturday, according to two sources with
knowledge of the arrangement. The ads are being run
by a group called Democratic Majority for Israel,
founded by longtime AIPAC strategist
Mark Mellman.
The Nevada attack
ads, which will air in media markets in Reno and Las
Vegas, follow a similar spending blitz by DMFI ahead
of the Iowa caucuses. Like the ads that aired in
Iowa, the Nevada
ads
will attack Sanders on the idea that he’s not
electable, Mediaite
reported.
DMFI spent
$800,000 on the Iowa ads, while the spending on the
Nevada ads remains private. AIPAC is helping
bankroll the anti-Sanders project by allowing
donations to DMFI to count as contributions to AIPAC,
the sources said. As is typical with most big-money
giving programs, the more a donor gives to AIPAC,
the higher tier they can claim — $100,000 level, $1
million level, and so on — and the more benefits
accrue to them. A $100,000 donor gets more access to
members of Congress at private functions, for
instance, than someone who merely pays AIPAC’s
conference fee. A $1 million donor gets still more,
which means that it is important to donors to have
their contributions tallied. There is also status
within social networks attached to one’s tier of
giving. The arrangement allows donors to give
directly to DMFI, which is required to file
disclosures naming its donors, without AIPAC’s
fingerprints.
