Wednesday, Jul 9, 2008
Democrats insist Arianna Huffington can't be the next governor. She says she can beat Schwarzenegger -- and Gray Davis, too. If she gets close, watch things get ugly.
Aug 16, 2003 | Ralph Nader stopped by the recall race this week, and somebody hit him with a pie. If that's a sign of how Democrats view spoiler candidates -- many still blame Nader for making the 2000 presidential election close enough for George W. Bush to steal -- then don't be surprised to see Gray Davis greasing a pan on Oct. 8. California's governor is sinking fast, and soon he'll be looking for someone to blame.
Apple or cherry, Arianna?
Conservative turned progressive Arianna Huffington hit the hustings this week in her race to replace Gray Davis, striving to establish liberal credibility with campaign stops in South Central Los Angeles, Oakland and a rough-and-tumble San Francisco neighborhood where Tony Bennett might have lost his wallet but never would have left his heart. Along the way, the Salon columnist (she's taking a leave to campaign) attempted to make the recall a referendum on national politics, "connecting the dots" between Arnold Schwarzenegger and George W. Bush, between the economic troubles facing California and the economic policies coming out of Washington.
"Arnold Schwarzenegger is a Bush Republican," Huffington told a small group of supporters at a rally on a San Francisco street corner Wednesday. "It's laughable for Bush Republicans in this campaign to be attacking Gray Davis for fiscal irresponsibility while turning a blind eye to the orgy of fiscal responsibility going on in Washington."
In the first official week of the campaign, Huffington has established herself as the most visible -- if not the most viable -- candidate who is not Arnold Schwarzenegger. Building on the success of "Pigs at the Trough," her bestselling attack on corporate greed and the government policies that feed it, Huffington has quickly pulled together a campaign team and drawn support from a broad range of progressives, ranging from tree-sitter Julia Butterfly Hill to "Seinfeld" writer and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star Larry David. Talking to CNN last week and blasting the recall, HBO "Real Time" host Bill Maher predicted "my girl Arianna" could be California's next governor. Her Web site has brought in more than $100,000 in campaign contributions, and her public appearances have offered a glimmer of hope that the recall drive may ultimately be less of a circus and more of a debate about the problems facing California and the nation -- and the role that the two major political parties have played in creating them.
But Huffington's early success may come at a price. While Democrats are happy to have her out there on the attack against Schwarzenegger, they are beginning to suggest that the risks of her candidacy will outweigh any possible reward. Hufffington criticizes the recall as a "right-wing power grab," but some Democrats believe her entry into the race increases the chances that Davis will be ousted and that a Republican -- Schwarzenegger, probably -- will be elected to take his place. With the latest Field poll showing Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante holding a slight lead over Schwarzenegger, Democrats are likely to get even more worried about Huffington's candidacy.
"The fundamental effect of her candidacy will be to increase the vote for the recall," says Phil Trounstine, a former Davis communications director who now runs the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University. "She and [Green Party candidate] Peter Camejo could play Ralph Nader to Al Gore." Trounstine's unsolicited advice for Huffington: "If she believes in a progressive agenda, if she believes in real politics, then she ought to be opposing the recall."
The funny thing is, a lot of Democrats -- including those at the very top of the state party -- think that Huffington is opposed to the recall. California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres and spokesman Bob Mulholland both told Salon this week that Huffington opposed the campaign to topple Davis. "She's against the recall," Mulholland said. "She's said it 22 times. She has been consistently against the recall."
And Huffington is against the recall, but only sort of. "I'm asking voters to vote their consciences," Huffington told Salon Thursday. "If they want to send a message to Republicans about the way they're using the recall provision to unseat Gray Davis, even though he had been democratically elected nine months ago, then vote no on the recall. But if they want to use this opportunity to bring some fundamental change to the way that California is governed, then vote yes on the recall."
For Huffington, the choice is apparently an easy one: "I'm personally voting yes on the recall," she said. "Even though I'm against the power grab, the opportunity in the middle of the chaos is too important to me."
To hear Huffington and her supporters tell it, the recall provides a once-in-a-lifetime chance for victory by someone outside the major parties. When voters go to the polls on Oct. 7, they will face two questions: Should Davis be recalled, and, if so, who should replace him? Because there were no primaries leading up to the recall, neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have coalesced behind a single candidate. While Schwarzenegger holds a commanding lead over Republicans in the field, he faces competition on the right from state Sen. Tom McClintock and businessman Bill Simon, who lost to Davis in November. And while Bustamante is the only prominent Democrat on the ballot, he faces challenges on the left from Huffington and Camejo and suffers from the split-personality aspect of the two-part Democratic strategy. The name of Bustamante's Web site is enough to convey the problem. It's www.noonrecallyesonbustamante.com.
With the vote -- and the parties -- split every which way, a candidate with broad appeal and a clear message could cut through the clutter and take the race. "There's a historic opportunity here to have a governor who will be responsive to the people, a governor who can really set a bold, aggressive, progressive agenda," says Huffington spokesman Parker Blackman.
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