Huffman gives housemate Beto a fighting chance in Senate bid
Like housemates everywhere, Democratic Congressmen Jared Huffman of San Rafael and Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, Texas have their differences.
When they set aside politics and pick up their guitars, O’Rourke, who played in a punk rock band in college, hits the strings hard. Huffman, eight years older, finds it “crazy noise to my ears.”
He introduced O’Rourke to James Taylor’s music but believes his colleague considers the stuff baby boomers enjoy as “sappy and uninteresting.”
The two men, first elected to the House of Representatives in 2012, are, however, in perfect political harmony.
Huffman, who has a lock on re-election in his Democrat-dominated North Coast district, is lending campaign and financial support to other Democrats, including O’Rourke, whose high-risk challenge to Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is one of the hottest races of 2018.
Huffman’s help can only go so far: With the election looming, he won’t get anywhere near the Lone Star State. The last thing O’Rourke needs, he said, is “a liberal Californian parachuting in to tell people how to vote.”
But as his campaign was catching fire in the spring, O’Rourke swung through the North Bay, including a breakfast stop with supporters at a hip Santa Rosa restaurant.
O’Rourke, 46, who campaigns on his Latino nickname Beto - pronounced Bet-Oh - is now a national figure, a charismatic Democratic star from the conservative heartland with presidential potential, some say, and an earnest, boyish face reminiscent of Bobby Kennedy.
The son of an El Paso County judge, O’Rourke was raised in the city on the Rio Grande at the far west corner of Texas. The nationwide buzz, plus the megamillions in campaign cash he has amassed, have elevated him to a Kennedy-like plateau, even though he continues to trail Cruz in the polls by mid- to high single digits.
“He’s exciting people everywhere he goes,” Huffman said. “Smart as can be” with a strong grasp of public policy, he added. “People come away dazzled.”
O’Rourke’s office did not respond to an interview request for this story.
The Capitol Hill roommates haven’t been complete strangers on the campaign trail.
Huffman arranged two North Bay fundraising events for O’Rourke before he was a household name.
The lanky Texan, who campaigns in slacks and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up, was the star attraction at a private breakfast at the Spinster Sisters on May 29, attended by 55 guests.
Liza Hinman, chef and co-owner of the Santa Rosa restaurant, said she was happy to host the event for a politician she admires.
“I think he was very engaging,” she said. “His message is positive, all-encompassing. Something I want to live my life by.”
Hinman and Huffman said they didn’t know much money the event raised.
Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey was on hand for the fundraiser, which was scheduled without any public notice.
“He resonates with people. He seems very genuine,” Coursey, a Democrat, said of Rourke. “I think he is a contender.”
Another springtime fundraiser organized by Huffman in Marin County reaped $30,000 for his housemate’s campaign.
O’Rourke, who hails from a family of Irish ancestry and speaks fluent Spanish, earned a degree in English literature at Columbia in 1995, returned home three years later and started a small technology business. He served two terms on the El Paso City Council before defeating an eight-term Democratic incumbent, Silvestre Reyes, for the House seat in a Democratic, Latino-majority congressional district in 2012.
His re-election to a fourth term in the House was a sure thing until he announced his campaign against Cruz in March 2017.
Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight gives O’Rourke a 21 percent chance of winning.
But around the liberal North Coast, the Texan’s challenge to a Republican Party stalwart has visible support.
Along Highway 128 coming out of Anderson Valley, Huffman saw a row of “Beto” signs, and people from Humboldt County to Bolinas are wearing Beto t-shirts and buttons at political events, he said.
The pundit class also is impressed.
“The salon talk in Washington, D.C. is all about Beto because of all the money he’s raised,” David McCuan, a Sonoma State University political scientist, said recently after visiting the nation’s capital.
O’Rourke stunned the political universe by announcing last week he had raised more than $38 million in three months (July through September), a record amount for a Senate candidate in a single quarter. The money came from more than 800,000 donors, about half of them in Texas, he said, having pledged not to take money from political action committees.
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