Jared Huffman’s green PAC fared well on election night

Running against a supermarket clerk from Garberville, North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman had little to worry about in his first re-election bid this year.

As expected, Huffman, a San Rafael Democrat, coasted to victory with 75 percent of the vote in his district, which stretches from Marin County to the Oregon border.

But on election night, Huffman had eyes on 28 other congressional races around the country, including 10 in California, involving green-minded Democrats his new fundraising vehicle, called CLEANPAC, had backed with nearly $60,000.

The scorecard was positive, with 15 wins and 12 losses, and one race in Arizona undecided in a dead heat. Nine of the 10 California Democrats won.

In the midst of a Republican wave that gave the GOP control of the Senate and a larger House majority, Huffman said the results for CLEANPAC candidates “exceeded my highest hopes.”

His political action committee, which raised about $135,000 in its first year, was up against Republican PACs with far greater resources, some of them aligned with the arch-conservative Koch brothers, Huffman said.

In California, the green PAC backed three “top targets of the GOP,” he said - Reps. Ami Bera of Rancho Cordova, Scott Peters of San Diego, and Julia Brownley of Westlake Village - all winners at this point. Bera is just 711 votes ahead of Republican Doug Ose, whom Huffman labeled a “climate change denier.”

CLEANPAC’s other California winners were incumbents Lois Capps of Santa Barbara, Raul Ruiz of Coachella, Mike Honda of San Jose, John Garamendi of Fairfield, Tony Cardenas of Arleta and Pete Aguilar of San Bernardino, who won an open seat. Amanda Renteria of Sanger lost to a Republican incumbent.

Democrat Gwen Graham’s successful challenge in Florida was “an especially sweet victory,” Huffman said, knocking off Republican Rep. Steve Southerland. Graham is one of “seven newcomers to watch” in the House, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

Huffman, who has called fighting climate change “the biggest imperative of our time,” founded CLEANPAC to elect allies who will back clean energy and environmental protection.

“I have to,” he said in an interview last week. “We’re losing a lot of the champions.”

That list includes California Reps. George Miller of Martinez and Henry Waxman of Los Angeles and Jim Moran of Virginia, who all decided to retire this year with more than 100 years collectively in the House.

“We’ve got to get ready for the day when we have the (House) majority,” Huffman said, acknowledging that liberal Democrat interests have little chance of success under GOP control of the chamber.

“I hope that’s not too far away,” he said. Congressional Democrats are hoping for a rebound in 2016, a presidential election year which typically bolsters the party’s prospects.

Meanwhile in the Senate, the incoming chairman of the committee on the environment, Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma, poses a formidable obstacle to Huffman’s aims.

Inhofe, who hails from an oil patch state and has served in the Senate since 1994, has called climate change a hoax “manufactured by liberals” and asserted that global temperature increases “may have a beneficial effect on how we live our lives.”

Last week, Inhofe railed against President Barack Obama’s climate pact with China, calling it a “non-binding charade.”

“As we enter a new Congress, I will do everything in my power to rein in and shed light on the EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency) unchecked regulations,” he told the Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.

Asked about Inhofe’s influence, Huffman said: “History is filled with people who have great epiphanies. Even Mr. Inhofe might one day realize the debate is over, the science is settled and it’s about time to start talking about our children and grandchildren and the future of this planet.”

Huffman said he is “not holding my breath” for such a shift by Inhofe, whose financial backers include oil and gas industries and Koch Industries.

David McCuan, a Sonoma State University political scientist, said that “history is also replete with morons, naysayers and egomaniacs. I think Sen. Inhofe swings at all three of those pitches and strikes out.”