Four Senate Democratic candidates rake in climate-change cash

Running for office as the favorites of the climate-change movement has its advantages, starting with cash.

The same four Senate Democratic candidates being bankrolled by San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate Action PAC were the beneficiaries of Wednesday’s 24-hour GreenStorm fundraising drive, coordinated by the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund.

The one-day GreenStorm campaign blitz raised more than $250,000 for Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, along with Senate hopefuls Bruce Braley of Iowa and Rep. Gary Peters of Michigan.

“From supporting incentives for wind and solar energy development to leading bipartisan efforts to expand energy efficiency, these pro-environment Senate candidates know that we must take action on climate change,” said a Wednesday post on the League of Conservation Voters Facebook page.

Mr. Steyer announced earlier this year that he would spend $100 million — including $50 million of his own money — to promote climate change as a campaign issue, then selected seven candidates to support, including the four Democrats. The other three candidates are Democrats running for governor.

The GreenStorm fundraiser was also supported by ProgressivesUnited PAC, the Voices for Progress PAC, the National Resources Defense Fund PAC, and the Population Connection Action Fund.

A post on the league website said that climate change “devastates our communities with extreme weather,” although the past year’s hurricane and wildfire seasons have been below average even with record amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

By just after 9 p.m. Eastern, the one-day fundraising effort had surpassed its $250,000 goal, according to the LCV Facebook page.