Recent efforts to try to scare voters from supporting Kina Collins for Congress are a clear sign of the threat she poses to Danny Davis’ grip on the 7th District seat after more than a quarter-century in office.
Two recent mailers quote Kina from 2020 on defunding the police, a sure tactic for alarming white suburban voters. Kina’s position on criminal justice reform can’t be reduced to a single phrase. It is in line with widespread calls for needed reform so that a call to 911 brings an appropriate response to each situation, not automatically involving force.
But police reform is not the issue here: the power behind these scare tactics is AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Its super PAC, United Democracy Project, funded the campaign literature against Collins. AIPAC, a powerful lobbying group, has long been an obstacle to peace in the Middle East by bolstering the US’s unconditional support for Israel and undermining the two-state solution that is the only way forward for Israelis and Palestinians.
Kina’s recent call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war — now finally echoed by the Biden administration — is the real reason we’re getting these hysterical flyers about defunding the police. Many 7th District voters agree with Kina: the killing on both sides must stop.
Decades of conflict have not brought peace to Palestinians or security to Israelis. It’s time for change in the Middle East. It’s time for change in the 7th District. We’ve already cast our votes for Kina in the 2024 Democratic primary and we hope you’ll do the same.
Wendy Greenhouse & Mike Trenary
Oak Park
Clarification March 14, 2024, 11:55 a.m.: This letter was updated to clarify the connection between the negative campaign literature against candidate Kina Collins and AIPAC. United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s super PAC, funded the literature.
