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Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008
At a meeting of Hollywood and progressive supporters in her West L.A. home, Arianna Huffington gets ready to run for governor. Her goal: Take Sacramento and shake Washington.
Jul 29, 2003 | It's not official yet, but she's off and running. That was the message at Arianna Huffington's home in posh Brentwood, Calif., on Sunday afternoon, where several dozen political activists and advisors gathered to hear the author and Salon columnist make her case for jumping into the race to recall California Gov. Gray Davis. The only thing that would keep Huffington out of what is shaping up as an electoral free-for-all would be the sudden entry of a major Democratic rival to Davis -- and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the only likely such 800-pound gorilla, is still rejecting entreaties to rescue the party from the rapidly melting Davis.
"If Feinstein runs, I won't," Huffington told the Sunday gathering. "This campaign is to win, not to be a spoiler and hand the state over to the Republicans."
This is the burning question for California progressives as they contemplate a Huffington run: Will it wind up as a horrible replay of November 2000, with the populist columnist cast in the Ralph Nader role, handing a crucial victory to the GOP? Bill Zimmerman, the veteran California campaign strategist who has agreed to manage Huffington's race, says no. Zimmerman points out that under the rules of the Oct. 7 recall election, voters can cast their ballot against the recall initiative and still vote for an alternative to Davis on the same ballot in case the recall wins. If Davis, whose approval rating languishes around 20 percent, continues to fade in the polls -- and a new internal poll by the California teachers union reportedly shows him sinking fast, with a recall winning by a 57-43 margin -- it would be "irresponsible not to have a progressive alternative on the ballot," Huffington said on Sunday.
With her high media profile and access to money, Huffington's backers say she's the only progressive candidate who could mount a challenge to big-spending Republicans. If Arnold Schwarzenegger decides to take a starring role in the race -- and on Monday he denied reports that he was out, although his camp apparently told one national newspaper he was "leaning strongly against" running -- he would likely crush any lightweight rivals in his path. Huffington, who would run as an independent, might be the only candidate who could stand between him and the governor's mansion, her supporters argue.
Standing in her living room, next to a piano with framed photos of her two daughters and celebrity friends like Bill Maher, who has made her a regular on his TV shows, Huffington hit all the progressive chords at the Sunday meeting. She vowed to "nationalize" the campaign, turning it into a referendum not just on Davis' governorship but on the Bush presidency and the corporate looting of the state and nation.
"If, as [Republican challenger] Bill Simon says, Gray Davis is fiscally irresponsible, then George Bush is fiscally insane," she told the group. One of Davis' chief mistakes, Huffington argues, was his failure to explain to California voters why the Bush White House -- and its old friends at Enron and the energy industry -- are largely responsible for the state's budget woes. Huffington, whose recent bestseller "Pigs at the Trough" savages the reign of greed, corruption and environmental plunder under Bush, said she can't wait to take on the president's buddy Schwarzenegger. "It will be 'the hybrid vs. the Hummer,'" said the near-candidate, who launched a media campaign last year against gas-guzzling SUVs.
"I want to build a progressive coalition that transcends this campaign," Huffington said, "not just to make sure we beat Bush in California next year, but to provide a template for how other states can beat him too. We've all seen a lot of waves break on the beach and not amount to anything. But a campaign that energizes people creates the possibility of a tidal wave."
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