America just lost its chance to see larger-than-life Democrat Tom Steyer in the Senate.
The billionaire climate activist from California, who made himself a household name in Florida during the 2014 gubernatorial campaign, said Thursday he changed his mind about running for the seat Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. is giving up when she retires in 2016.
"I believe my work right now should not be in our nation's capital but here at home in California, and in states around the country where we can make a difference," Steyer wrote Thursday in The Huffington Post. Later in the day the story was reported in The Hill newspaper.
Steyer, 57, skyrocketed to the front of the Florida political scene more than a year and a half ago, when he began using his checkbook to make climate change a key issue in critical races, particularly the governor's race.
The Democratic mega-donor and founder of hedge fund Farallon Capital Management LLC -- who is also the founder of the super political action committee NextGen Climate -- floated a failed $8.6 million campaign to bounce Gov. Rick Scott out of office and install Charlie Crist in his place.
He added another $800,000 in TV ads on the Tampa media market to make an eleventh hour Electon Day splash.
Steyer told the Florida press his largess was only to save Florida from being swallowed up by rising tides. Scott, meanwhile, was ignoring the issue. Steyer opened 21 offices, dispatched more than 500 staffers and volunteers and deployed what he called "a rolling ark."
In his statement Thursday noncandidate Steyer was still campaigning. He stressed the need to have more "leadership in government and outside of government that is committed to environmental justice, economic justice, and education justice."
In the end, though, Steyer perhaps concluded that the best place for him lay outside Congress, that checkbook power is the rock that crushes scissors-Senate power.
According to Laura Barron-Lopez's story in The Hill, Steyer decided not to run shortly after hearing President Obama's State of the Union address, which made him realize his work at NextGen "was making a difference" and that he "needed to double down" on a strategy focused on "accelerating" the "politics of climate at the national level."
He did, however, leave his options open to chase the California governorship in 2018.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423.
