The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Tom Steyer is seriously looking to run for Senator Barbara Boxer's senate seat in the 2016 primary for senate:
Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer is aggressively exploring a run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Barbara Boxer and is expected to make a decision within days, according to multiple sources close to Steyer.
The former hedge fund titan has been huddling with advisors, polling California voters, buying website addresses and meeting with political and labor leaders as he weighs a bid, the sources said.
Steyer is reported to be worth 1.6 billion dollars so he clearly has the ability to self fund his race for senate. And if he makes the decision to get in early, he may impact the race early by keeping others from getting into the race, who could not raise the dollars needed to be able to compete with Steyer in a primary.
But even with Steyer's wealth, he is no shoo-in for the nomination. California voters have a long history of rejecting, wealthy, self funded candidates, in both primaries and general elections - just ask folks like former EBAY executive Meg Whitman, former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina, who I particularly dislike to this day, Al Checchi, the former airline executive, as well as Michael Huffington and Bill Simon.
Gary South, a Democratic operative who ran Gray Davis' campaigns against Al Checchi and Bill Simon, had this to say about self funding, wealthy candidates:
South said wealthy but inexperienced candidates tended to have three critical flaws — free-spending but unfocused campaigns, large and undisciplined staffs and a lack of respect for people with professional experience in politics.
"They think that because they're worth a billion dollars, they're basically better than everybody else in the political system," South said. "Their disdain for people in the process is just obvious, and it makes them make a lot of mistakes."
Perhaps some of South's remarks are self serving, but you get the point.
Steyer gets a lot of points from me for funding races promoting Democratic candidates against GOP candidates who were in denial about climate change. He won senate races in Michigan and New Hampshire; governor in Pennsylvania and some state legislatures. But in other states where his group spent money, they lost - they lost Senate contests in Colorado and Iowa, and governor's races in Florida and Maine. But again he stepped up to the plate.
Also:
In California, Steyer successfully spent millions fighting a 2010 ballot measure that would have rolled back the state's landmark climate change law. In 2012, he backed a voter-approved proposition to close a loophole that allowed multistate companies to pay out-of-state taxes.
Now the bad news:
Steyer left Farallon Capital Management, the hedge fund he ran, in 2012, saying he wanted to focus his work on alternative energy. As he became increasingly engaged in politics, his business record has come under growing scrutiny.
News reports detailed his longtime investments in coal and other fossil fuels, for example, and the slow pace at which he shed those investments.
Farallon Capital Management pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into companies running coal mines and coal-fired power plants overseas, the New York Times reported. The fund was profiting from mining companies that produced more coal each year than the entire amount of coal consumed annually by Britain.
Clearly, if Steyer runs for Boxer's seat, his business record will come under close scrutiny and many Democratic voters will view him as a fraud - a Wall Street elitist who made billions on fossil fuel investments and now wants to portray himself as a PROMOTER of climate change, by spending his money to elect fellow Dems who can fight to address climate change, all in an attempt to curry favor with Democratic primary voters in California in order to run for high office.
Steyer's is working with veteran Democratic pollster Paul Maslin, Jim Margolis, who was President Obama's media strategist, and Chris Lehane, a longtime adviser to President Clinton, in ramping up a potential run, in addition to purchasing "Steyer for Senate" websites. The L. A. Times is reporting that Steyer's planned to meet with his advisor's at his home this weekend.
Meanwhile, other potential candidates, such as Democratic Reps. John Garamendi, Loretta Sanchez and Jackie Speier, are increasingly vocal about exploring a bid. On Saturday, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa broke his silence, issuing a statement confirming that he may run
There is no way I would vote for Sanchez, Garamendi or Villaraigosa in a Democratic primary for this senate seat. Each doesn't come close to filling the shoes of Barbara Boxer on a number of levels.
So, we'll see where all of this goes - it should be a lot of fun watching this play out.
But one warning. If in fact a lot of well known Dems with solid electoral support run in this primary, it could be possible for two Republicans to get elected from the primary into the general election with the California primary law passed by voters and still on the books. Please note the results of the primary for Comptroller last year and you'll see why.
http://www.latimes.com/...