CLCV is excited to announce our first endorsement for the 2012 elections: Jared Huffman for Congressional District 2!
Back in June of this year, long-time Congresswoman Lynne Woolsey announced her plans to retire in 2012. Congresswoman Woolsey has been a stalwart environmental champion and our partners at the League of Conservation Voters gave her an almost twenty year lifetime score of 96%. Losing such a strong and consistent representative at a time when the House of Representatives is controlled by a radical majority that denies the existence of global warming, openly attacks the Environmental Protection Agency, and has been deemed as the most anti-environmental House of Representatives in history only meant that the environment needed an advocate in Congress that would be just as strong if not stronger than Congresswoman Woolsey to replace her. That advocate is none other than Assemblymember Jared Huffman.
Jared Huffman is a three-term Assemblymember from Marin County with a perfect lifetime score from CLCV. As a former lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, he is an important and effective environmental leader in the Assembly, crafting legislation on a broad range of environmental issues from solar energy, to open space, to water conservation, to wildlife protection. He was also one of the few rational voices that opposed the 2009 Stadium Bill that gave unnecessary and unprecedented exemptions to the California Environmental Quality Act for the sake of a multimillion dollar NFL stadium project that has still yet to produce any jobs. More than a good vote, Huffman is considered a “wonk” on a broad range of environmental issues. His environmental law background gives him expertise that other legislators can benefit from.
Back in 2006, in his first race for the Assembly nomination, Huffman benefitted from an early endorsement and substantial financial and campaign support from CLCV. In a year where term limits had forced out some of the biggest environmental champions in the Legislature, we drew a sigh of relief when he won his seat –even then we knew just how strong of a legislator Huffman would be. He has fulfilled our expectations to the letter, and we have every reason to believe that he will eventually go on to do the same in Washington and become an environmental champion that Congress desperately needs.
