Posted on Tue, Sep. 30, 2003
Huffington mulls exit from recall race
INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE WILL DISCUSS HER CAMPAIGN TONIGHT ON CNN TALK SHOW
By Churck Carroll
Mercury News
(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Arianna Huffington gestures during a rally at a medical center in San Francisco's Hunters Point Area.
With the race to the Oct. 7 recall election pounding around the final turn, independent Arianna Huffington today considered pulling out, and Gov. Gray Davis prepared to sign workers compensation legislation that his Republican would-be successors have attacked as inadequate to keep businesses in California.
The worker's compensation issue has been key in the election campaign because costs have risen by about $20 billion in the past eight years.
Davis estimated the package would cut costs to businesses by $5 billion to $6 billion. But Republican front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger has said the changes would do little to stop businesses from leaving California. He has not been specific on what he would do differently.
Meanwhile a senior aide to Huffington said she was scheduled appear on CNN's ``Larry King Live'' tonight to discuss the future of her campaign.
``She's been talking to all her supporters, campaign staff and donors,'' Van Jones, Huffington's chief grass-roots organizer said. ``So we're figuring out the best way for her to position herself so she can maximize opposition to the Schwarzenegger coup.''
Recent polls showed her as the choice of about 2 percent of likely voters.
In addition to signing the workers compensation bill today, Davis announced that he is appointing a black man and a woman to Bay Area judgeships and accepted more than 700 acres of land along the Yuba River to be added to an existing state park.
On Wednesday, the governor plans to campaign in Los Angeles with the newest Democratic presidential contender, retired Gen. Wesley Clark -- yet one more appearance with a string of popular national Democrats. A national group of Democratic supporters is scheduled to announce Wednesday the formation of a group that will raise funds to help pay for poll monitors to guard against a Florida-style failure to properly count votes in California next week.
State Sen. Tom McClintock, a rock-ribbed conservative from Thousand Oaks, pressed on today, one day after the Republican Party board of directors, officially endorsed Schwarzenegger.
McClintock dismissed the move as back-room politics, and ignored those who say he's a spoiler in the race whose presence could split the GOP and hand a victory to Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante if Davis is recalled. He pointed to a recent poll that showed him as the candidate with highest positive rating.
``If everybody who believes I am the best candidate actually voted for me, we win,'' he said Monday.
Pro-recall groups aired their first TV commercials today, attacking Cruz Bustamante, the leading Democrat to replace the governor if he is recalled, as ``just another shade of Gray.''
Bustamante has no public appearances scheduled for today. |
