With congressional run on back burner, Harley Rouda focuses on PAC to elect moderate Democrats

After political redistricting shuffled incumbents late last month and changed district maps all over California, former U.S. House member Harley Rouda officially ended his 2022 congressional campaign. Now, the Laguna Beach resident says he’s focusing his efforts on a political action committee aimed at electing moderate Democrats up and down the ballot.

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

So far, the only candidate Rouda said he’s certain to support with his PAC is Katrina Foley, one of two Democrats currently on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. But Rouda said he’s also looking at viable moderate Democrats in local races in Orange County, in California races, and in House races across the country. He said he hopes to target money — even comparatively small amounts — where it might make a real difference.

Campaign experts say Rouda’s moderate-centric platform — which calls for candidates who he deems “true patriots” to bring “common sense values back to Washington” — presents a challenge.

Even if most Americans tell pollsters that they support less polarization and more bipartisan solutions, political fundraising that “appeals to base voters” is more effective than similar efforts to woo the middle, said Marcia Godwin, a professor of public administration at University of La Verne who closely follows local elections.

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

But Rouda, a former Republican, suggested that hurdle is exactly why he’s launched his PAC.

“The extremes of both parties are the ones who get the most media attention and the most in contributions,” he said.

“One of the top priorities of this PAC is to help educate and inform moderates that if they want moderate people elected to office they have to get involved in the political process more than they have been historically,” Rouda added.

“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 centrist message helped Rouda get to Congress in 2018, when he unseated GOP incumbent Dana Rohrbacher and flipped the coastal 48th District even as registration still leaned heavily to the right. But in 2020, though the district had become more purple, Rouda lost the seat to Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach.

The day Rouda conceded the election to Steel, he announced he intended to challenge her again in 2022. But in December of 2021, when California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission unveiled the state’s new political zones, Steel pivoted to run in a new neighboring district centered around Little Saigon. And Rouda was drawn into a district with Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, who has gained a national profile and raised more money last quarter than any other Democrat in the House.

While the new district lines make sense, Rouda said, going up against an incumbent from his own party “was never the plan.” And while some have suggested that Rouda might be a good fit to challenge GOP Assemblywoman Janet Nguyen for the new coastal state Senate seat, he  said Tuesday that he’s decided not to run for anything this cycle.

“I’ve been campaigning for over five years now,” Rouda said, adding that the process is challenging for himself and for his family. “Taking a year off the campaign trail to reevaluate possible next moves felt like the right decision rather than moving to another race and another campaign.” Rouda said he’s also getting reengaged with his family real estate businesses, which he stepped away from during his time in office.

That doesn’t mean he’s not already thinking about 2024. Rouda cited rumors that Porter might consider running for U.S. Senate that year, amid speculation that 88-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein might step down. If that happens, Rouda said he would “definitely” look at running for the new CA-47 House seat in 2024.

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

In 2019 and 2020, Rouda’s leadership PAC raised $20,000 from the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, National Air Traffic Controllers Association and two wealthy California Democratic donors: Silicon Valley physician and activist Karla Jurvetson and Anne Earhart, the Corona del Mar granddaughter of Jean Paul Getty.

The leadership PAC spent roughly half of its cash on operating expenses. Rouda also gave $1,000 to help reelect Democrat Joyce Beatty, who’s from his home state of Ohio. And Rouda’s PAC gave $3,000 to help Illinois Rep. Dan Lipinski pay off campaign debt after the eight-term incumbent lost the 2020 primary, who was knocked in some 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, supporting rights to both legal abortion and same-sex marriage. When asked about the PAC’s support for Lipinski, Rouda consultant Alyssa Napuri said the two men had worked together on the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, so Rouda wanted to help Lipinski retire that campaign debt.

When Rouda converted Join Together to a traditional PAC, on Jan. 3, he said the PAC’s previous activities weren’t a sign of what it will do going forward.

During his campaigns, Rouda said they built up a pool of nearly 200,000 email addresses and roughly 100,000 contacts on social media. He’s now using those contacts to ask for funds for the Join Together PAC. And on Tuesday he launched an online survey, asking supporters to tell him what three issues they care about the most in 2022.

Such efforts are a common way for politicians to continue building war chests and to stay in the public eye even when they don’t have active campaigns, noted Fred Smoller, political science professor at Chapman University.

Smoller said he’ll take Rouda at his word that he’s committed to using the PAC to raise and spend funds on candidates who align with his values. But Smoller said time — and future financial disclosures — will tell the tale.

Source: Orange County Register