Denham calls opponent ‘Bay Area Harder’ — but he spends time and money at the coast, too

On the campaign trail, Republican Rep. Jeff Denham’s opposition to the Bay Area and liberal policies is obvious. But for an office retreat earlier this year, he took his staff to his political roots in Monterey, and brought in a venerable Democrat to enlighten them.

The trip in late March cost nearly $12,000 for lodging and restaurants, not including travel. Money from Denham’s campaign covered the expense.

Sharing stories of his White House days with two Democratic administrations was Leon Panetta, President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff and President Barack Obama’s CIA director and defense secretary.

Panetta shared “lessons on leadership, bipartisanship and how we can apply those lessons to achieve our goals,” said Bret Manley, Denham’s chief of staff. Panetta also spoke about “how best to break through the noise in this age of hyper-partisanship,” Manley said.

In interviews and debates, Denham has claimed an ability to work effectively with Democrats and Republicans alike. But when it comes time to vote, Denham has sided with the GOP 97.8 percent of the time, according to statistics analyst site FiveThirtyEight — a point that his Democratic challenger, Josh Harder, repeatedly raises.

Just as consistent are Denham’s attempts to paint Harder as more in tune with liberals than with the conservative-leaning Valley. For months, Denham has repeatedly labeled him as “Bay Area Harder.”

In a recent debate, Denham figuratively mentioned the Bay Area no less than 13 times, blaming the region for causing climate change in the Valley and for threatening the Valley’s water rights, and trying to link Harder with Gov. Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Denham said an “extreme liberal position ... might sell in the Bay Area, but I don’t think it sells here in the Valley.”

His spending patterns suggest that Denham also continues to appreciate the coastal region, where he began his political career and still operates a business.

In 2017, his political action committee — a source different from his campaign fund — spent $14,000 in that area on things associated with raising campaign money, including several hotel stays in Monterey and San Francisco. The total includes $480 for a fundraising event at a Pebble Beach golf course, and $657 for fundraiser prizes at a Santa Rosa cigar shop.

Denham’s same leadership PAC spent a total of $241 in his own district that year, for a 5.11 jacket purchased in Modesto. The 10th District covers Stanislaus County and south San Joaquin County, including Ripon, Escalon, Manteca and Tracy.

Why Monterey, for the March retreat, rather than somewhere in Denham’s district? Manley replied, “We aren’t allowed to visit the Bay Area?”

In a subsequent email, Manley said Monterey was chosen to make things convenient for Panetta, who lives in nearby Carmel Valley. Attending were 15 or 16 of Denham’s staff and former staff, Manley said.

The Washington Speakers Bureau markets Panetta to potential clients as “one of the nation’s most respected bipartisan leaders” who is “lauded for his integrity, honesty and character.” He was a keynote speaker twice in Turlock at California State University, Stanislaus, in 1998 and 2010.

Panetta said he participated in Denham’s retreat partly as a favor to his son, Jimmy Panetta, a Democratic House member who has been friendly with Denham. Both participated in the 2017 Congressional Football game, for example.

Many of his speeches these days emphasize both parties trying harder to work effectively together, said Leon Panetta, who represented the Central Coast for 16 years in Congress before his work with the White House.

“I’ve never seen Washington as bad as it is today,” Panetta said. “We’ve got to get back to governing. We can’t have this partisan trench warfare on every issue.”

Does Panetta get many speaking requests from Republicans? “You know, if they ask, I’m happy to do it,” he said.

Using campaign money for staff retreats, by the way, is a legitimate expense, said Daniel Weinter, senior counsel for the Brennan Center For Justice at New York University School of Law.

It’s true that Harder has leaned heavily on San Francisco and the Silicon Valley for donations.

Harder raised some $860,000 from the Bay Area, about 30 times more than the $27,000 from around Modesto, a McClatchy report said in August. Harder since has noted that local donations of less than $200 are not reflected in those numbers, and said his donors give an average of $25.

Having earned degrees at Stanford and Harvard, Harder, 32, worked as a venture capitalist with Boston Consulting Group. He then lived in New York City while working two years for Bessemer Venture Partners, and spent another seven months in San Francisco while at the same firm. Harder returned last year to run for Congress from his home base in Turlock, where he was born and raised, and teaches business at Modesto Junior College.

Harder hits back at Denham by noting that a majority of Denham’s campaign money comes from political action committees, many of which are backed by wealthy corporations. The bickering, FiveThirtyEight mused in a recent report, is “setting up a strange competition of which is more shadowy: liberal elites or big political money?”

Denham, 51, lived and worked about 10 years in Monterey County, where he ran unsuccessfully for Salinas City Council in 1998 and for California Assembly in 2000. He was elected to the state Senate in 2002 representing a district that included parts of Monterey and San Benito counties and stretched to include fingers of Stanislaus, Merced and Madera counties.

In 2004, Denham moved from Monterey County to the valley. He was elected to Congress in 2010 and moved his family to the Washington, D.C., area the next year, although he continues to own a Turlock home and leases out a small almond orchard in Atwater.

Denham may be borrowing strategy from Obama, who cast Mitt Romney as a greedy venture capitalist in 2012. A Republican television ad calls Harder “a shady San Francisco venture capitalist,” and a Denham ad refers to him as an “outsourcing profiteer.”

“Jeff Denham would like to make `venture capitalist’ a dirty word,” said Recode, a technology news website, in a recent article.

“We call him `Bay Area Harder’ because he aligns himself with the Bay Area and their issues,” Denham said in a Sept. 22 debate hosted by the Turlock Journal.

Harder noted that the 10th District is almost evenly split among Republican and Democratic voters, yet Denham makes little effort to represent anyone outside of his own party.

“I don’t know anybody I agree with 98 percent of the time — you can ask my wife,” Harder said.

Garth Stapley: 209-578-2390

This story was originally published September 28, 2018 at 10:15 AM.