Until AIPAC ( America Israel Public Affairs Committee ) came into our district and dropped millions into the race with a deeply dishonest smear campaign .
I was getting a large four-color hit-piece flyer about every three days in my mailbox ; local radio and TV were saturated with the ads that essentially portrayed her as either evil or incompetent or both . And , right up until the election , nobody knew that AIPAC was funding the campaign ; they ’ d set up a front group and carefully timed its incorporation so it didn ’ t have to disclose its funder until after the election was over .
As Jaypal noted the day after it was announced that she ’ d lost the election :
“ This race showed so clearly why we need to have real campaign finance reform . Outside super PACs came in and spent an unprecedented $ 6 million , even timing their contributions so that they wouldn ’ t have to show who was trying to buy this election until well after the votes were cast .”
AIPAC also reportedly spent more than $ 14 million to take down New York ’ s Jamal Bowman and , just this week , knocked out Missouri Congresswoman and Squad member Cori Bush with $ 8 million . As the pro-Israel PAC notes on their home page , big money dropped into a race in the last weeks works : “ 98 % of AIPAC-backed candidates won their general election races in 2022 .”
But AIPAC is a piker compared to what ’ s going to be coming down the road as the tech , banking , insurance , and fossil fuel billionaires and their companies weigh into the presidential race this fall .
A previous campaign by the fossil fuel industry is instructive , particularly since that industry sees Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as enemies ; Harris signed off on the most significant climate legislation in world history , and Walz has required the utilities in Minnesota to be 100 % carbon-free by 2040 , a mere 16 years from now . In 2018 , Washington Governor Jay Inslee got Initiative 1631 on the ballot ; it was a modest carbon tax with a rebate attached so drivers wouldn ’ t be penalized . It was widely popular when it was rolled out , and everybody in the region was excited that Washington State was about to blaze a new climate-friendly path , an example for every state in the union .
That was , until the fossil fuel industry weighed in , just weeks before the election , dropping $ 17 million into what many called a hugely dishonest ( and frightening : they claimed the tax would destroy the state ’ s economy ) advertising campaign that blanketed the state . The ballot measure , previously seen as inevitable , was destroyed at the polls .
This is the brave new world Clarence Thomas ’ tiebreaking vote brought America when the Supreme Court , in their 2010 Citizens United decision , legalized both political bribery and massive intervention in elections by corporations and billionaires .
Prior to Thomas ’ vote on that decision , Harlan Crow — who helped finance the original Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry in 2004 — and other billionaires had lavished millions on him and his family .
Crow gave a half million dollars to the group Thomas ’ wife , Ginni , started ; he bought Thomas ’ mother ’ s home and others in the neighborhood so she could live rent-free for the rest of her life ; he put Thomas ’ nephew through an expensive prep school . Another billionaire bought Thomas a quarter-million-dollar luxury RV .
It was a remarkably successful investment for Crow , his family , and his billionaire buddies . Just his own family ’ s political contributions went from an average of a few hundred thousand dollars a year during the decade preceding 2010 to multiple millions every year after Thomas ’ vote . Americans for Tax Fairness calculated it at an 862 % increase just for the Crow family .
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