California state Senator Sydney Kamlager speaks in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021.

The daughter of an actress and activist parents, California state Sen. Sydney Kamlager has a flair for the dramatic. She danced in her seat to the music at a Los Angeles coffee shop while talking about her work bringing funding to underserved communities in LA. Her email signature includes her preferred gender pronouns: “she/her/hers/fire.” Born and raised in Chicago, LA is her adopted hometown of three decades, and a city she hopes to represent in Congress. “I had fallen in love with the city and all of its flaws, but all of its opportunities,” Kamlager, who is 49, told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch last week over green tea and a chocolate-tahini pastry.

Endorsement game: Kamlager, a Democrat, has been described by some as the heir apparent to Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA). “I was also really intimidated by the shoes that Congresswoman Karen Bass will leave, to have to fill — but then really empowered by my record,” said Kamlager. Bass, who was chair of the Congressional Black Caucus from 2019 to 2021, is running for mayor of LA. In her bid to represent California’s 37th Congressional District, Kamlager has been endorsed by a who’s who of California Democrats: Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Alex Padilla and Reps. Bass, Adam Schiff and Brad Sherman, among others. 

Deep ties: Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, who chairs the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, has worked with Kamlager since both were elected to the Assembly in the same special election in 2018. “She’s not one of these people that suddenly wants to develop a relationship with the Jewish community because she’s running for office,” Gabriel told JI. “She has a decade-long relationship with our community, and has been an ally and friend to our community going back for a pretty long time.”

Heal the planet: On foreign policy, Kamlager has learned about the issues from the diverse immigrant communities in the 37th District. She hopes to play a role in global diplomacy: “That’s part of the human condition… to coexist, but also to, you know, get into it. I’m very interested in that, because it’s volatile everywhere,” Kamlager explained. “I want to have a deeper understanding and play some role in the stabilization of this world and the healing of the planet.”

Important ally: The U.S. is “fortunate,” Kamlager explained, to be allies with “really important countries, and Israel is one of those. And it is important, I think, for our allies to have the right to exist and be able to exist. And sometimes they also need aid to support them in those endeavors. I think that’s incredibly true and has been true for a long time with Israel. And so I also believe that it’s important that we maintain that kind of military aid to Israel.” Kamlager added that she would vote in favor of funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system. 

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Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) holds his news conference on Recognizing Congressional Workers Right to Organize on Wednesday, February 9, 2022.

Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI), who has criticized AIPAC for backing Republicans who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election, has himself accepted $55,550 in donations from corporate PACs and interest groups that, according to watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), have also contributed to Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 election results, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

By the numbers: Between when he filed for reelection in January of 2021 and the end of that year, Levin, who is in a closely watched member vs. member primary race against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), took donations from corporate PACs representing Boeing, Raytheon, General Motors, Ford, General Dynamics, Aflac, Comcast, AT&T, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the American Crystal Sugar Company (a sugar production cooperative) totaling $34,500. Levin also accepted donations from interest groups representing the insurance and financial services industry, realtors, beer wholesalers, electrical contractors and credit unions totaling $21,000. Each of these PACs has also donated to Republicans who refused to certify President Joe Biden’s election.

His own words: “[I] am proud to not be funding my campaign through an organization supporting insurrectionist Republicans and anti-choice candidates on both sides of the aisle,” Levin said in a press release on Monday. He added, “It is shameful that organizations that endorse and support insurrectionist Republicans are wading into these Democratic primaries spending millions trying to drown out the voices of candidates like Summer [Lee] and Erica [Smith].”

Response: “A few donations numbering in the thousands to both candidates does not compare with $300,000 from a single group in bundled contributions given to one candidate in a Democratic primary, which is what our tweet said quite explicitly,” Levin campaign spokesperson Jenny Byer told JI. “With very few exceptions, this is more than most corporations spent on all races combined in the tracking by CREW.” 

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Police vehicles remain posted in front of the Tree of Life Synagogue on Monday, October 29, 2018, where 11 people were killed in a mass shooting on Saturday morning.

More than 160 House members came together on Tuesday to call for $360 million in funding next fiscal year for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, the largest bipartisan coalition to support this funding level to date, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Joining the fight: Reps. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), who has organized a series of letters on the issue, and Michael McCaul (R-TX) led a letter with 161 members to leaders of the House Appropriations Committee calling for “no less than” $360 million in funding for 2023, an increase over this year’s total of $250 million; in 2021, the funding for the program was $180 million. “With over one-third of our chamber committed, I hope appropriators will provide the full request in line with the president’s budget, and we won’t stop asking until we can get it,” Pascrell told JI.

Outside support: Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel of America’s vice president for government affairs, said he is “optimistic” that Congress could grant $360 million in funding this year. Cohen told JI that the letter is important both “because of the significant boost in funding and the large number of signatories” and because it “represents Congress’ continued commitment to protecting our nation from terror and its deepening understanding that the program must adequately and realistically meet the dangerous challenges confronting its citizens.”

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Rob Zimmerman

Following her decisive primary win last week, Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH) is poised to step down as the longtime chair of Cuyahoga County’s Democratic Party. Her departure next month sets up another consequential Cleveland-area race, the outcome of which could carry broader implications for the midterms. “If Cuyahoga County actually does its job in November, then Tim Ryan has a chance against J.D. Vance,” Rob Zimmerman, a former city councilman in the Cleveland suburbs, told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel, referring to the Democratic and Republican nominees in Ohio’s Senate election. “Hence, one of the main reasons I’m running.”

Low-profile, high stakes: Zimmerman, 56, is among at least three candidates jockeying for the role, and the field could grow before central committee members of the county party vote for Brown’s replacement in June. The lawyer and erstwhile lawmaker — who recently retired from a 16-year city council run in Shaker Heights — argues he is well suited for the chairmanship, not least because he is, in contrast with his opponents, no longer an elected official. 

Call to action: Brown drew criticism when she remained in the seat after launching her House campaign in the special House election last summer. But Zimmerman, who supports Brown, said his tenure as party chair would face no such scrutiny. “I don’t have those issues,” he told JI. “If I were elected, I would be solely focused on building the party.” Zimmerman said his campaign motto — which doubles as a call to action — is “win bigger and win better,” as Democrats in Ohio and across the nation stare down what is expected to be a bruising election cycle.

Ryan’s route: Zimmerman’s campaign site features a detailed list of proposals including outreach to “disenfranchised” voters where Democrats have “underperformed” and recruiting “new talent” to build a “more diverse” candidate pool. “I view the job as being the architect of what the county party should be, building out its infrastructure,” Zimmerman said, pointing to a broader goal of maximizing Democratic engagement in Ohio’s second-largest county. If Ryan has any hope of prevailing, for instance, Zimmerman believes the congressman’s success will partly run through Cleveland. “It’s going to require a big vote from Cuyahoga County,” he said.

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