A new digital advertisement hit social media airwaves Monday, targeting progressive content creator and Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, paid for by an opaque super PAC organized in January.
The PAC, Chicago Progressive Partnership, had not disclosed spending to the Federal Election Commission before the ad buy and is widely speculated to be supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the largest pro-Israel PAC in the United States.
A report disclosing the commercial’s cost — more than $165,000 — shows CPP used the same media placement and production companies as other AIPAC-affiliated organizations, including one that has supported State Sen. Laura Fine (D-Glenview). One such company, Tom King Communications, has only ever appeared on federal campaign disclosures linked to AIPAC.
“I think they’re realizing that they might get another NJ-11 here,” Abughazaleh said in a video posted to YouTube Monday night, referring to the New Jersey special election where AIPAC-linked attacks on a moderate frontrunner might have inadvertently contributed to the victory of a more progressive candidate.
Much of the advertisement appears to be generated by artificial intelligence, with Abughazaleh’s surname seemingly misspelled on a fictional campaign button. It also misstates the name of her campaign committee.
In her response, Abughazaleh also mocked the commercial for quoting an article she wrote in a now-defunct high school newspaper endorsing now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio for president during the 2016 Republican primaries.
“Like many things 16-year-olds say, that’s idiotic,” Abughazaleh said.
Her conservative upbringing and eventual switch to progressivism was the subject of a series of comic-style campaign mailers Abughazaleh distributed in February.
The attack advertisement was set to air only to users aged 18 to 34, a demographic that Abughazaleh’s campaign has repeatedly targeted — and rather successfully, according to a February poll sponsored by the Evanston RoundTable that indicates a plurality of young voters support her campaign.
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Bluesky: @ryaninevanston.bsky.social
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