The midterms' primary season grinds along, and we cats have a few thoughts about the Illinois contests that took place last week. Our particular focus is the Congressional race in IL-09 — not our personal when-we-were-kittens stomping grounds, but close enough for government work, as they say.
IL-09 was one of those races that highlighted the unfortunate role of money from AIPAC — something that we've noticed is a worrying source of discord in our party. The race was to succeed able Congresswoman Jan Schakowski, who is retiring after nearly 30 years. Evanston mayor Daniel Biss came in first with 29.6 percent of the vote. Bernie Broette Kat Abughazaleh was second with 25.9 percent. AIPAC-funded candidate Laura Fine trailed embarrassingly in third place with 20 percent.
This makes us happy, because Biss's win shows us that Jewish Democratic candidates do not need to toe Benjamin Netanyahu's line to be successful. Biss, whose mother is Israeli and who has said that the current Israeli government's behavior is "appalling," has made it clear that AIPAC should not dictate America's foreign policy — and that the lobbying group's tactics against him were deceptive and undemocratic. "AIPAC found out the hard way that my district is not for sale," he said.
You know, at this point, we should just treat AIPAC today as a Republican organization. They are completely Netanyahu-Trump-aligned, and we should salute Jan Schakowski for bucking them — although we're pretty sure that she received a bunch of AIPAC money in her earlier campaigns. (Those were the good old days.) She has had a distinguished career in Congress as a loyal Pelosi lieutenant, has always encouraged and supported women to run for office, and in this race picked the most highly qualified candidate to succeed her.
The other point is that AIPAC —which once had an unassailable reputation in Washington —is now toxic. More evidence that everything Trump touches dies. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.
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