Next week’s elections in New York have typically been talked about as contests between candidates, often Democratic party centrists and socialist insurgents. But given the large sums of money flooding these races, it’s more accurate to see them as contests of people-powered campaigns versus a collection of corporate interests and pro-Israel oligarchs.

This year has seen pro-Israel groups once more repeat the strategy they have carried out in previous state-level and municipal elections in New York, of having pro-Israel donors give individually to a slate of candidates who are either soft on Israel or at least stand to keep its left-wing critics out of power. Many of the centrist candidates fighting it out against socialist critics of Israel have overlapping donors who also happen to be affiliated with two closely related entities: the New York Solidarity Network (NYSN), which styles itself as a kind of state-level version of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the similarly named Solidarity PAC. The two organizations share a frequently revolving door of personnel.

According to NYSN’s most recent 990 form, filed for 2024, at least three members of its board of directors have donated money to largely the same candidates competing against challengers backed by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA).