With Chance-Based Congressional Run, Harley Rouda Focuses on PAC to Elect Moderate Democrats – Orange County Register

After the political redistribution shuffle the incumbents Late last month and changing county maps across California, former US House of Representatives member Harley Rouda officially ended her 2022 congressional campaign. Now, the Laguna Beach resident says he is focusing his efforts on a political action committee that aims to elect moderate Democrats from the top to the bottom of the ballot.

Rouda’s Join Together PAC has raised nearly $11,000 since he announced the effort on January 6, his team told Register on Tuesday, January 11.

So far, the only candidate Rouda says he would definitely support his PAC is Katrina Foley, one of two Democrats currently in Orange County. Management. But Rouda said he is also looking at possible moderate Democrats in local Orange County races, California races and House races across the country. He says he hopes to target money — even relatively small amounts — where it can make a real difference.

Campaign experts say Rouda’s centrist platform – which calls for candidates he sees as “true patriots” to bring “common values ​​back to Washington” – presents a challenge awake.

Marcia Godwin, a professor of public management at La Verne University, said that even if most Americans tell poll respondents they favor less polarization and more bipartisan solutions, the Political fundraising to “attract grassroots voters” would be more effective than similar efforts to attract middlemen. who closely follows local elections.

While politicians representing the edges of their party, such as former Representative Devin Nunes on the right or current Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the left, tend to raise the most money. , Godwin notes that Rouda’s reimagined PAC is the opposite. of that. Take a few words, Godwin added, and the PAC’s stated goals “could be a Republican message.”

But Rouda, a former Republican, suggests that the main roadblock is why he launched his PAC.

“The extremes of both sides are the ones that get the most media attention and contribute the most,” he said.

“One of the top priorities of this PAC is to help educate and inform moderates that if they want moderates to be elected to office, they must be more involved in the political process than they are in the political process. before,” added Rouda.

“As the saying goes, if you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu. And if we don’t have a seat at the table, moderates are left with having to decide between one extreme or the other.”

That central message helped Rouda reach Congress in 2018, when he uncoated Incumbent GOP Dana Rohrbacher and toppled the coastal 48 District even as registration remains heavily skewed to the right. But in 2020, even though the county has become more purple, Rouda lost chair to Representative Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach.

On the day Rouda gave in to the election to Steel, he announced he intended to challenge her again in 2022. But in December 2021, when California’s Citizenship Redistricting Commission announced the The new political district of the state, Steel has turned around run in a new neighboring district centered around Little Saigon. And Rouda has been drawn into a district with Representative Katie Porter, D-Irvine, who has achieved national fame and raised more money than any other Democrat in the House.

While the district’s new lines make sense, said Rouda, going against an incumbent from his own party “is never the plan.” And while some argue that Rouda might be suitable to challenge GOP Representative Janet Nguyen for Coastal State Senate seat, he said on Tuesday that he decided not to participate in anything in this cycle.

“I have been campaigning for more than five years now, adding that the process has been challenging for me and my family,” says Rouda. “Spending a year after a campaign to re-evaluate next steps can feel like the better decision than moving on to another race and another campaign.” Rouda said he is also starting to return to his family’s real estate businesses, which he left off during his time in office.

That’s not to say he hasn’t thought about 2024. Rouda cited rumors that Porter might consider running for the US Senate that year, amid speculation that 88-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein may resign. If that happens, Rouda said he would “definitely” consider running for the new CA-47 House seat in 2024.

In the meantime, Rouda has officially transformed the Join Together leadership PAC — which he launched when he took office in January 2019 — into a traditional PAC that can support federal candidates and non-federalism and causes.

During 2019 and 2020, Rouda’s leadership PAC raised $20,000 from the International Coalition of Bricklayers and Allies, the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers, and two wealthy party donors. California Democrat: Silicon Valley doctor and activist, Karla Jurvetson and Anne Earhart, granddaughter of Jean, Corona del Mar Paul Getty.

PAC management spent almost half of its cash on operating expenses. Rouda also gave $1,000 to help re-elect Democrat Joyce Beatty, who is from his home state of Ohio. And Rouda’s PAC has given $3,000 to help Illinois Representative Dan Lipinski pay off campaign debt after the eight-term incumbent lost the 2020 primaries, who was disqualified in several circles because he was one of the last Democrats in Congress to oppose abortion and same-sex marriage.

Rouda disagrees with Lipinski on those issues, advocating the right to legal abortion and same-sex marriage. Asked about the PAC’s support for Lipinski, Rouda’s adviser Alyssa Napuri said the two had worked together on the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, so Rouda wanted to help Lipinski remove the bill. owe that campaign.

When Rouda converted Join Together to a traditional PAC, on January 3, he said the PAC’s past activities were not an indication of what it would do in the future.

During its campaigns, Rouda says it has built up nearly 200,000 email addresses and around 100,000 social media contacts. He is currently using those contacts to request funding for the Join Together PAC. And on Tuesday, he launched an online survey, asking his supporters to tell him the three issues they care most about in 2022.

Such efforts are a common way for politicians to continue to build war chests and keep the public eye on even when they don’t, said Fred Smoller, a professor of political science at Chapman University. active campaigns, says Fred Smoller, professor of political science at Chapman University.

Smoller said he’ll tell Rouda he’s committed to using PACs to raise funds and spend money on candidates that align with his values. But Smoller said time – and future financial disclosures – will tell the story.

https://www.ocregister.com/2022/01/12/with-congressional-run-on-back-burner-harley-rouda-focuses-on-pac-to-elect-moderate-democrats/ With Chance-Based Congressional Run, Harley Rouda Focuses on PAC to Elect Moderate Democrats – Orange County Register

Huynh Nguyen

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