June 2nd Democratic primary opponents U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8) and Mussab Ali are picking up right where they left off after last week’s debate, this time brawling over plans and allegiances as it pertains to artificial intelligence (AI).
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Rob Menendez just told Silicon Valley billionaires that he is their guy in Congress. While working families are showing up to meetings to fight data centers that will spike their electric bills, their congressman is courting cash from the very people who want to see those data centers built,” Ali said in a statement.
“It’s unacceptable that Rob Menendez is in cahoots with companies like Palantir that want to steal our data and build data centers in our backyards. Menendez claims to be a fighter against Trump yet takes donations from Trump’s single largest donor.”
Ali’s remarks stem from an Axios report on Friday that the pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future endorsed Menendez, as well as U.S. Reps. Val Hoyle (OR-4) and Richie Torres (NY-15).
The PAC was founded by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz Founder Marc Andreesen, Open AI President Greg Brockman, and Palantir Co-founder Joe Lonsdale.
Ali’s technology and AI platform calls for mandatory transparency requirements for frontier AI models, a nonpartisan federal agency to enforce a national floor for AI safety standards, data center accountability requirements that protect local water reservoirs and prevent electricity cost hikes for residents, and a productivity tax on AI companies to direct revenue to workers displaced by automation.
Throughout the campaign, the challenger has gone after the incumbent regularly from taking donations from corporate interests and super PACs, though PACs are technically not allowed to coordinate with individual candidates or campaigns.
Back in February, Menendez called on the New Jersey State Investment Council to divest the $130 million in Palantir funding, citing their ongoing $30 million agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as HCV first reported.
“Just like his broken pledge to refuse money from real estate developers, Mussab is again saying one thing and doing another,” the congressman hit back.
“While I was leading legislation in Congress to hold powerful corporations accountable for their AI data centers increasing energy costs for families, Mussab was in Silicon Valley to fundraise with tech executives he claims he opposes. Mussab lies about my record because he doesn’t want voters to know the truth about his.”
Based on campaign filings with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), Menendez is suggesting that Ali solicited Silicon Valley donors in March, pointing to $7,000 from Hippocratic AI CEO Saad Godil and a $1,000 donation from Nvidia engineer Syed Qadri.
Ali responded by stating he’s stuck to his word by not accepting any corporate PAC money in this race.
“Unlike Rob, I’ve never broken my word. I pledge no corporate PAC money and I kept that promise. Will Rob make the same promise?” he questioned.
“Look at the reports. All of my money comes from people. Rob’s comes from corporations and their PACs. You can’t hold data centers accountable when you take money from the people building them.”
Ali has a point. Menendez is the corporate Democrats that most of the country does not trust because they are not trust worthy.
I recently read an essay by Frank, Bruni of the NYTimes in which he stated that Trumps approval ratings were down in the mid 30s. He also noted the Democratic Party’s approval ratings, on a national basis, were roughly 2 points higher — not so good. We need to get rid of Trump and we need to cultivate a different kind of Democatic Party based on good governance and ethical behavior.