AIPAC is pouring an eye-popping $4.4 million into an obscure California special election, spending heavily to defeat a Democratic state senator who won the primary by 26 points for a congressional seat that will be occupied for only a few months.

The extraordinary spending against state Sen. Aisha Wahab has transformed the Aug. 18 contest to replace disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell into one of the largest political investments by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its affiliated groups anywhere in the country.