AIPAC claims not to be involved in political spending, but no fewer that 51 pro-Israel PACs are operated by AIPAC officials or people who hold seats on AIPAC's two policy boards. The FEC has ruled that there is insufficient evidence that AIPAC controls the network of pro-Israel political action committees. Nevertheless, the widespread belief on Capitol Hill that AIPAC controls significant amounts of political funding remains. Pro Israel groups contributed $57 million to candidates and parties while Arab-American and Muslim PACs contributed slightly less than $800,000 between 1990 and 2004.
Pro-Israel groups helped Joe Lieberman defeat insurgent candidate Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary of 2006. Lieberman, who alienated many non-Jewish Democratic voters in Connecticut for his lock step support of Israel and the Iraq War, received a total of more than $145,000 from two-dozen different pro-Israel groups. None of these groups helped Lamont. Senator Hillary Clinton supported Palestinian statehood in 1998 and publicly embraced the wife of PLO leader, Yasser Arafat. She received strong criticism from the Israel lobby for her actions. Since launching her own political career, she has become a strong supporter of Israel including supporting the brutal and highly destructive second war against Lebanon in which civilian infrastructure was deliberately targeted. Pro-Israel PACs contributed more than $30,000 to her senatorial reelection campaign of 2006. As a New York senator running for the Democratic Presidential nomination, most pundits believe she will receive the bulk of the Jewish community's substantial campaign donations.
What happened to Senator Charles Percy (R-IL) when he refused to sign an AIPAC sponsored petition to President Ford protesting a reevaluation of US policy towards Israel has not been forgotten in poltical circles. Percy was generally supportive of Israel, but an out of state supporter of AIPAC spent $1.1 million on anti-Percy adversting in Illinois. His opponents in both primary and general elections of 1984 received substantial contributions from pro-Israel PACs. Percy narrowly lost reelection. The bottom line according to the authors of The Israel Lobby is that AIPAC has an unchallenged hold on Congress, and crossing the organization is to risk your political career. Former long time Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC) said upon leaving office, "You can't have an Israeli policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here."