Primary Election Date: 06/05/2012
General Election Date: 11/06/2012

Who Am I?

Jared Huffman is a proven progressive leader who gets real results.

Since his election to the California Assembly in November 2006 (he was the first professional environmentalist ever elected to the California legislature), Huffman has earned respect for tackling complex public policy challenges, working tirelessly, and getting results – often by reaching across the aisle to forge consensus on seemingly intractable issues.

His top legislative priorities include protecting the environment and creating new jobs through policies that grow our economy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and combat climate change.

Jared has overcome the gridlock in Sacramento to become one of the state’s most prolific lawmakers, passing more than 60 pieces of successful legislation in his first five years as a legislator, from bipartisan water reforms and protections for the Delta, to promoting renewable energy, to protecting our children from toxic chemicals.

He champions solutions to some of the state’s toughest challenges such as improving our broken health care system. Jared is joint author of one of the most important health care reform bills in years, AB 52, which requires health insurance companies to get approval from California’s Insurance Commissioner before raising their rates in order to protect consumers and small businesses from skyrocketing health insurance premiums. And he is leading the fight to save our state parks from closure.

Prior to the Assembly, Jared served for six years as a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) where he helped forge a settlement to restore flows and salmon to 153 miles of the San Joaquin River. Prior to joining NRDC, Jared was a successful public interest attorney, whose victories include several major gender and race discrimination cases.

For over 20 years, Jared has been committed to community and public service in the North Bay, including twelve years on the board of Marin County’s largest special district, the Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD).

Jared graduated cum laude from Boston College Law School after attending the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he graduated magna cum laude and was a three-time NCAA All-American volleyball player. He was a member of the World Champion USA Volleyball team in 1987.

He chairs the Committee on Water, Parks & Wildlife and previously chaired the Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials Committee. He serves on the Pacific Fisheries Legislative Task Force, Wildlife Conservation Board, Central Valley Flood Protection Board, and National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.

Jared lives with his wife Susan and their two children, Abby (age 11) and Nathan (age 8). In his free time Jared enjoys all types of fishing, as well as tennis and home winemaking.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat says, “Huffman is among the relative handful of legislators who routinely place results ahead of partisanship.” (June 1, 2010)

The Marin Independent Journal says, “Marin is lucky to have someone of Huffman's proven legislative capabilities.”
(May 31, 2010)

Why Am I Running?

I'm running for Congress because I believe I have the best combination of qualifications to represent the 2nd Congressional District: solid progressive values, experience as a legislator, and a proven record of getting things done on issues that matter to this district.

My campaign is working to build a broad coalition of core Democratic constituencies -- the environmental community, organized labor, small businesses, education leaders, consumer advocates, social justice advocates, and the sustainable agriculture community, among others -- united not only by our common values, but also by our common desire for more effective, functional, accountable and results-oriented leadership in Congress. We are also winning support from independent voters who are tired of the hollow rhetoric and constant political theater in Congress and are open to supporting a progressive Democrat who will work to bring a better tone to Congress, restore civility to our public discourse, and focus on solutions to the serious challenges facing our country and our planet. Finally, I have been pleasantly surprised to find significant support from Republicans whose values include fiscal responsibility, economic growth, peace, energy independence, and environmental protection, and who are alienated by the extreme right wing ideology that has come to dominate the politics of their party in recent years.

By building this broad and diverse coalition of support, I hope to emerge with a strong lead over other Democrats in the June, 2012 primary, so that I can run-off against the Republican in the November General Election. This is important because of California's new "top two" primary system. The 2nd Congressional District is more than just a safe Democratic district; it's a uniquely important national resource for the Democratic Party because of its large base of donors and volunteers who are called on each election year to help Democrats win close races. By finishing strong in June, I can avoid a divisive Democrat v. Democrat runoff in November that would dramatically undermine the ability of 2nd District Democrats to provide resources and volunteers that will be critically needed in key swing districts in other parts of California and throughout the country.

Once in office, I will work to advance solutions on all of the priority issues from the campaign -- including job creation and economic recovery, sensible deficit reduction, better federal policies and increased funding for education, healthcare reform, energy independence, and environmental protection. With my unique background and expertise on environmental issues, I especially hope to add value in the years ahead on energy and environmental policies.

Hold Me Accountable!

1. Job Creation and Economic Growth: I support innovative policies to spur job growth among middle class families and small businesses -- where it is needed most. This includes smart investments in education, clean technology and infrastructure to grow the economy, especially the clean energy economy and green manufacturing jobs. In a place like the 2nd Congressional District, sustainable natural resource management policies are especially critical to the viability and success of resource-based industries like commercial fishing, forestry and agriculture. As a state legislator, I've championed innovative win-win solutions for the environment and business. And I've consistently earned the highest ranking from California Small Business Association and California Small Business Roundtable for my work with small business on a variety of issues.

2. Sensible Debt Reduction: Our national debt crisis must be confronted immediately; but we must do so in a sensible and balanced way that doesn’t harm seniors or put our fragile economic recovery at risk. Solutions include targeted cuts in spending, including substantial reductions in military spending; increasing revenues by allowing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire and eliminating special tax breaks and loopholes such as those for oil companies; and key investments in education, clean technology and infrastructure to grow the economy. I believe it was necessary to raise the debt ceiling this year to ensure our fiscal stability and continued economic recovery, and that such critical decisions should not be politicized. Members of Congress should never seek to leverage their budget or policy priorities by threatening to shut down government or cause a default on American financial obligations.

3. Education: There is no higher priority for me than ensuring that every American has the opportunity to receive a quality public education. I believe greater investments in the continuum from pre-K to higher education, including the development of a highly skilled workforce for a clean energy economy, are critical to our global economic competitiveness. I also support immigration policies that recognize the need to keep the brightest international students working in the United States after getting their degrees from our colleges and universities. Similarly, I regard the DREAM Act as a commonsense investment in keeping our country safer and making our economy stronger by offering legal status to bright young undocumented immigrants who are willing to serve in our military or pursue higher education.

4. Healthcare Reform: Making quality healthcare more affordable and accessible for individuals, families and employers is one of the most important policy challenges facing our state and nation. I will defend and work to expand the Affordable Care Act, which will improve our healthcare system and bring relief to middle class Americans by providing protections against skyrocketing insurance premiums, reducing unfair business practices, protecting millions of people against the loss of their homes because of a catastrophic illness, helping small businesses provide coverage to their employees, and improving our overall quality of life, fiscal stability, and global economic competitiveness. While fighting Republican efforts to repeal the legislation, I will also work to improve and expand it, including creating a public option.

5. Energy and Environment: Our future economy and our national security depend on creating new clean energy jobs in California and throughout the country, and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. I oppose offshore drilling in California, the environmentally destructive Canadian tar sands pipeline, and oil exploration in sensitive areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I support higher fuel efficiency standards, low-carbon fuel standards, renewable energy portfolio standards, and other clean energy policies that spur innovation and job creation while significantly reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. On nuclear, I support California’s moratorium on nuclear plants and I've gone further by calling on President Obama to match Germany’s ambitious plan to decommission all nuclear power plants within a decade and replace them with a combination of increased renewable generation and energy efficiency. As a former Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), I bring unique environmental experience and expertise to his work as a legislator – and I've produced impressive results across a broad range of environmental issues, which is why I've won all of the environmental group endorsements in this race.

6. Foreign Policy, Peace, and National Security: I believe in a strong national defense focused on actual threats to our security, and that neither our security nor our standing in the world is advanced when our military is engaged unnecessarily. While honoring the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, I support significant changes in our military and foreign policy. This includes downsizing and re-focusing our military on modern security needs instead of the costly global forward-positioning left over from the Cold War. On Iraq, I opposed the war from the beginning and supports the President’s efforts to expeditiously bring our troops home from that country. I also believe it is past time to end the war in Afghanistan and favors a much more expedited troop withdrawal than what the President is pursuing.

My DFA values:

While I am the perceived frontrunner in this race, I'm far from an establishment figure. Just five years ago, I was an environmental attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), fighting against the Bush administration's rampant attempts to rollback environmental and public health protections. Running for the State Assembly, I was an outsider and an underdog. Thanks to a lot of hard work and amazing grassroots support, I was elected by the people in a refreshing push back against the powerful political interests who were supporting my opponents in 2006. That was a defining and indelible experience for me. For the past five years, I've kept faith with the values, principles and people that inspired me to run and caused me to win. My record of running, winning, and then actually delivering results on progressive Democratic issues tells you far more than any campaign rhetoric what kind of member of Congress I will be.

My Campaign is People-Powered!

My campaign has more grassroots, home grown support than any of my opponents. To date, even though I am the perceived frontrunner in the race, the campaign has been run mostly by myself and volunteers out of my living room. While my two leading opponents have relied heavily on fundraising, events, and solicitations outside the 2nd Congressional District, I've done far less of that, focusing instead on building a wide base of support from within the district I seek to represent. This distinction holds true in every measure of the campaign: the contacts in my database, the vast majority of my more than 1,300 individual donors, the hundreds of volunteers who have signed up with us, almost all of my campaign events, and the hundreds of endorsements I've received from elected officials and community leaders inside the 2nd District. While my campaign is now starting to receive some support from national groups (labor, environmental, consumer, credit unions, and a few businesses), it represents only a small fraction of my total fundraising -- far less than the people-powered fundraising from within the district, which continues to be my primary focus.