Ted Cruz’s climate change statements delight Democrats

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) with his wife, Heidi Nelson Cruz, and daughters, Caroline and Catherine, at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., March 23, 2015. Cruz on Monday formally announced his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, promising a campaign that would be about â€œre-igniting the promise of America.â€ (Travis Dove/The New York Times) less Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) with his wife, Heidi Nelson Cruz, and daughters, Caroline and Catherine, at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., March 23, 2015. Cruz on Monday formally announced his candidacy for the ... more Photo: Travis Dove, New York Times Photo: Travis Dove, New York Times Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close Ted Cruz’s climate change statements delight Democrats 1 / 25 Back to Gallery

The war of words over climate change is getting blisteringly hot between Gov. Jerry Brown and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, with the Republican presidential candidate blithely dismissing the Democratic governor as one of those “global warming alarmists” who relies on ridicule and insult.

A Brown campaign strategist shot back Monday that the “factually irrational” Cruz is apparently now determined to “stand out from a pack of troglodytes in the GOP race for the White House.”

The public slap-down — and the dis of Brown — came as Cruz formally announced his run for the White House at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., becoming the first Republican to jump into the 2016 race.

Cruz was responding to Brown’s statements on “Meet the Press” Sunday, when he launched into a verbal assault on Cruz when asked about the senator’s recent observation that in New Hampshire, there was “snow and ice everywhere,” more evidence that “there’s been zero warming.”

“That man betokens such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of the existing scientific data,” Brown told host Chuck Todd. “It’s shocking, and I think that man has rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office.”

Cruz countered, telling Sirius XM radio’s “Breitbart News Sunday” that “global warming alarmists” like Brown “ridicule and insult anyone who actually looks at the real data,” and engage in “ad hominem attacks.” Cruz insisted global warming isn’t happening, even though “ apocalyptic computer models said we should see substantial warming.”

Democrats reacted gleefully to the comments by Cruz, the Tea Party and conservative favorite who many believe would be the weakest candidate in the GOP field.

“Cruz is trying to own the far-right flank of the crowded GOP primary, so he’s making a strategically rational decision to be factually irrational,” said Dan Newman, a strategist and spokesman for Brown’s recent re-election campaign in 2014, when he won a historic fourth term. “He’s spouting what would politely be called 'guano’ crazy rhetoric in a calculated effort to stand out from the pack of troglodytes.”

Cruz spokesman Phil Novack told the Tampa Bay Times that the senator recently voted to affirm that climate change is real, though the statement didn’t mention whether human activity is a factor.

Democratic strategist Garry South says Cruz’s statements point up a potential problem ahead for the GOP field on the issue of climate change.

“The Republicans are talking to themselves, and that’s always a danger for a political party. They have this echo chamber of Fox News and the right-wing radio hosts, (Rush) Limbaugh, (Sean) Hannity and Glenn Beck — and it’s basically a self-reinforcement society,” he said.

With polls showing most Americans, even Republicans, are concerned about climate change, “in a presidential election, particularly in a general election where you have a much larger and more representative turnout, it would be very difficult to elect a president who scoffed at the whole notion of climate change,” South said.

Carla Marinucci is The San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer. E-mail: cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com Twitter @cmarinucci