Pro-Israel group raises $500k. for Menendez
Democrats hope to take Senate majority this election cycle
WASHINGTON (JTA) – A leading pro-Israel political action committee says it has helped raise over $500,000 for Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a pro-Israel leader in the Senate who is in an unexpectedly tight race.
NORPAC’s all-out push for Menendez this election cycle is notable because Republicans currently lead in the Senate by just 50-49 and Democrats hope to wrest it from them in November, along with the US House of Representatives. President Donald Trump is warning supporters that a Democratic win in either chamber could scuttle his agenda.
The most recent NORPAC fund-raiser for Menendez was on Monday, at $1,000 a plate.
Ben Chouake, NORPAC’s president, told JTA in a recent interview that the group’s backing for Menendez was typical of its support for incumbent lawmakers who are leaders in the pro-Israel cause. That discipline is traditional for pro-Israel fund-raising, and the polarized times have not changed the approach, he said.
“We follow the rules,” no matter the party, he said. “It simplifies everything because it’s simple and straightforward. A guy like Bob Menendez gets huge support because he was a huge champion on our issues.”
As a PAC, NORPAC may not give more than $10,000 to a candidate in an election season, but it may organize fund-raisers where donors cut individual checks and hand them straight to the campaign. The maximum individual donation is $2,700.
Menendez bucked then-president Barack Obama as one of only four Senate Democrats to oppose the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Corporate executive Bob Hugin, the Republican nominee for Senate in the state, is running an unexpectedly close race in blue New Jersey, within single digits of Menendez in the polls.
Menendez was tarred by a corruption charge, although he was acquitted earlier this year. NORPAC donors helped fund Menendez’s defense, Chouake said.
In recent years, the PAC has also held fund-raisers for Republicans in tight House races: Dan Donovan in New York’s 11th District, comprising Staten Island, and Leonard Lance in northern New Jersey’s 7th District.
NORPAC also held a fund-raiser last week for Heidi Heitkamp, the Democratic senator from North Dakota who is facing a tight race in a state where Trump won handily in 2016. That meeting netted $25,000 for her, Chouake said.
“She’s an incumbent, she qualifies, it’s close, she needs it,” he said. Chouake noted that the minority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) – who is Jewish and who also opposed the Iran deal – was present at the fund-raiser that he had asked NORPAC to hold.