California State Assemblyman Jared Huffman will announce tomorrow that he’s nabbed two major endorsements in his run for U.S. Congress, the Journal has learned. Namely he has acquired the backing of fellow Democratic Assemblyman Wes Chesbro, who represents us here in the First Assembly District, and U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson.
Thompson’s 13 years representing the North Coast will end after 2012 thanks to the new congressional district boundaries that were created in the redistricting process earlier this year.
Huffman, like fellow candidates Susan Adams, Normon Solomon and Stacy Lawson, hails from Marin County, which will be conjoined with Humboldt, Mendocino, Trinity and Del Norte counties, along with large parts of Sonoma County, in the new 2nd Congressional District.
Humboldt County’s liberal elite appear to be lining up behind Huffman. Yesterday the candidate announced local co-chairs for his campaign. The list includes such familiar names as former Assemblymember Patty Berg, former local Thompson rep Elizabeth Murguia and former County Supervisor Bonnie Neely.
Huffman will make a three-day swing through Humboldt and Mendocino counties starting tomorrow. The trip will include a meet-n-greet (open to the public) at Lost Coast Brewery Friday evening from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.
Want to learn more about the guy? Here’s his campaign website, and here’s his Assemblyman site.
This article appears in Drugs in Disguise.
For those who don’t know, our regional Democratic machine doesn’t believe in primaries. These aren’t so much endorsements as announcements that Huffman has gotten the party nod to proceed up the career escalator that previously carried Chesbro, Thompson, Berg etc to their present interchangeable positions.
He’s a former NRDC lawyer. Professional enviros
get a lot of things right, and a lot of things wrong, because they are first and foremost professional. Welcome to the escalator, Jared!
ps, I’m a lifelong Democrat and grassroots enviro. I do think a little democracy would be good even for Democrats.
I remember back when Patty Berg’s term was in the State Senate getting excited about the idea of choose who our next Senator would be and thinking about all of the local politicians and community leaders who might throw their hats into the ring, and then about a week later I was informed that “they” has already “selected” our next Senator and it would be a woman named Pat Wiggins. At the time I know I felt disappointed but I also remember thinking that, “well these folks probably made a good choice” for us.
Well never mind how that turned out, the fact is I should have been indignant about being “told” who MY representative was going to be!!! Never again, damn it. I’ve spent my life being proud to be an American, living in a democracy. I’ve voted in every election since the year I turned 18, even the ones that are just for school board seats and I want to have a say in this, what is arguably the biggest electoral opportunity we’ve had in Humboldt in over 12 years. I want to meet each of the candidates and shake there hand and have them answer MY questions (after all, we’re not that big of a county) and frankly I resent this idea that someone is going to anoint someone to this office. Mike, Wes, Patty, et al, maybe if you’d waited until March or April I’d feel differently, but to have made these endorsements seven months before the election is frankly insulting, and out of principal I’ll be voting for anyone BUT your “chosen one”.
It’s a typical political insider move and a huge reason voters are sick and tired of Sacaramento and Washington insiders.
When was the last time we had a real “choice” who to vote for? Wes Chesbro and Patty Berg are the only locals and we know all about their incestuous relationship switching seats.
Pat Wiggins,Noreen Evans, even Mike Thompson were all jammed down our throats. Enough is enough!
Interesting chatter over on Lost Coast
http://lostcoastoutpost.com/2011/nov/17/congressional-candidate-jared-huffman-khum-tomorro/
Jared will be on KHUM at 10:30 am Friday
Just what our government needs: another lawyer!
Humboldt County gets it right. Huffman is a professional politician, term limited out, and on to his next step up the ladder. And if this one does not work, look out 2016. He already has 35,000 in that campaign to run for State Senator. And, it is heavy on Corporate PAC monies.Time to throwe ther Thompson crowd,including Huffman, out.
Jarred is the only one in the race with any real experience. He has a proven track record that the people of Humboldt County can count on. I welcome him to the race and I think he’ll do a great job in congress. He has my vote.
Mike Thompson endorsed him. That cannot be a good sign.
And if the comment that “Jarred is the only one in the race with any real experience,” is the sort of bullshit that we can expect from Jarred’s campaign, that’s an even worse sign.
So, it turns out that “Humbooldt [sic] Young Dem,” above, is someone in Mike Thompson’s office.
Our tax dollars at work.
While it can’t be confirmed that the comment emanated from Mike Thompson’s office, the IP address from whence it came is registered in the District of Columbia and used by the U.S. House of Representatives.
I wonder how many other congressional representatives have endorsed Mr. Huffman? This is clearly unethical, but I also wonder if it’s legal.
1. Pretty sure the smart bunch working on Assemblymember Huffman’s campaign would be able to spell his name correctly.