{"id":237,"date":"2026-06-16T23:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=237"},"modified":"2026-06-16T23:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:11:20","slug":"mysterious-pro-reynoso-super-pac-is-funded-by-teachers-union-not-aipac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=237","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious pro-Reynoso super PAC is funded by teachers union, not AIPAC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It\u2019s not Israel. It\u2019s the teachers union.<\/p>\n

Contrary to congressional candidate Claire Valdez\u2019s speculation, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is not behind Real Fight NYC, a recently formed super PAC that has now spent $650,000 on ads boosting Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso\u2019s congressional run. Instead, the group is backed by unions that have endorsed Reynoso \u2013 with the American Federation of Teachers providing a significant donation.<\/p>\n

Read more Who\u2019s who in Zohran Mamdani\u2019s administration?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a part of Real Fight NYC,\u201d AFT President Randi Weingarten confirmed to City & State on Tuesday. News of the AFT\u2019s involvement in Real Fight NYC was first reported by Drop Site\u2019s Ryan Grim.<\/p>\n

Weingarten, a liberal Zionist, repeatedly emphasized that she and AFT would never collaborate with AIPAC under any circumstances. \u201cThere would be no way anyone on my team anywhere would do anything with AIPAC. We do not support AIPAC. We do not play with AIPAC.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Weingarten said that the AFT opposes dark money and believes that super PACs should disclose their donors and the Supreme Court\u2019s Citizens United decision should be overturned. But in the meantime, she said, they\u2019re funding a dark money super PAC because the support for reform \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean we will take a paperclip to a knife fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trouble started last week, when City & State\u2019s Heard Around Town newsletter broke the news that a newly formed super PAC called Real Fight NYC planned to spend up to a million dollars on a pair of ads boosting Reynoso. One of the ads highlights Reynoso\u2019s role in passing a City Council bill that removed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from Rikers Island. The other ad touts his proposal to tax wealth over $50 million. Both also include light criticism of Valdez\u2019s relative inexperience.<\/p>\n

Since the super PAC was only registered with the Federal Elections Commission earlier this month, it does not need to disclose its donors until after the June 23 primary. Valdez, Reynoso\u2019s DSA-backed opponent, denounced Real Fight NYC as dark money and called on it to disclose its donors. On Monday, she \u201cjust asked questions\u201d about whether AIPAC might even be behind the mysterious super PAC \u2013 an idea that Valdez campaign consultant Morris Katz, a top political adviser to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, later amplified.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the craziest theory. AIPAC has been known to use shell super PACs to disguise its support for candidates in other races, only taking credit for that spending after the fact. But in this case, Valdez had no proof \u2013 and she was wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for AIPAC\u2019s main super PAC told Politico on Monday that the pro-Israel group has no connection to Real Fight NYC. But many Valdez supporters didn\u2019t believe him.<\/p>\n

Read more Editor\u2019s note: Woke 1 was crazyyyy<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the AFT was left scrambling as false rumors spread that the super PAC they helped fund was secretly controlled by AIPAC. \u201cWe were frankly shocked when there were these rumors,\u201d Weingarten said. \u201cBecause of that, we wanted to step up and say: \u2018No, it was us.\u2019 But we are not the entire vehicle. This was a vehicle that was already established.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether she thought it was irresponsible of Valdez\u2019s campaign to suggest with no evidence that AIPAC was behind the pro-Reynoso ads, she demurred. \u201cI think they should have asked people first,\u201d she said. \u201cClaire is a good person. She knows that the UFT and NYSUT are supporting Reynoso, who is also a good person,\u201d she added, referring to the state and city teachers unions, which have both endorsed Reynoso. \u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s been clarified now. It\u2019s a hard-fought campaign. Campaigns say what campaigns say, and I hope they realize that we will not deal with AIPAC.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Reynoso\u2019s campaign seized on the issue. \u201cWhere was Claire? Lying,\u201d campaign manager Annabel Lasally wrote in a press release, playing on Valdez\u2019s popular campaign slogan \u201cClaire was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Valdez campaign didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Weingarten said she isn\u2019t involved in the AFT\u2019s independent expenditure side \u2013 she authorizes the overall amount that\u2019s paid to IEs and then often promotes the resulting ads once they\u2019re public, but otherwise doesn\u2019t have any say in how the money is used. But she said the AFT generally tries to disclose its super PAC spending. For instance, an ad supporting Rep. Adriano Espaillat is funded by the super PAC \u201cAFT Solidarity\u201d \u2013 which makes it pretty clear who\u2019s paying for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Weingarten said the union\u2019s support for Real Fight NYC grew out of work it was already doing with a different independent expenditure committee called Progressive Unity Fund, which was raising money to fund fieldwork for Espaillat. When Real Fight NYC was created to make ad buys promoting Reynoso, AFT agreed to help fund it rather than spinning up their own separate IE.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The AFT donated close to $200,000 to Real Fight NYC, according to two people familiar with the situation. A spokesperson for Real Fight NYC declined to disclose any of its other donors.<\/p>\n

But Weingarten said her team followed up with the super PAC this week to confirm that one group in particular is definitely not funding Real Fight NYC.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Now, everyone talks about housing\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not an AIPAC dime involved in that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real Fight NYC has the American Federation of Teachers as one of its donors \u2013 and Randi Weingarten does \u201cnot play with AIPAC.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20],"tags":[9,21],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-congressional-midterm-elections","category-new-york-city","tag-2026-congressional-midterm-elections","tag-new-york-city"],"yoast_head":"\nMysterious pro-Reynoso super PAC is funded by teachers union, not AIPAC - Business Relocation Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=237\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mysterious pro-Reynoso super PAC is funded by teachers union, not AIPAC - 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