Pubdate: Sat, 19 Jul 2003
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2003 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Dion Nissenbaum

DEMOCRAT ACTIVISTS PUSH SURPRISE AS POTENTIAL TERMINATOR STOPPER

SACRAMENTO - In a state trying to come to terms with the extraordinary 
prospect of ousting its governor and replacing him with the Terminator, Bay 
Area activists are stirring things up even more by trying to recruit 
reformed conservative Arianna Huffington to enter the race as the 
progressive alternative.

The possibility of the SUV-hating Arianna squaring off against the 
Hummer-loving Arnold for the right to replace Gov. Gray Davis is creating a 
buzz from San Francisco to Santa Monica. One eager supporter has already 
dubbed the potential matchup "The Hybrid vs. the Hummer.''

In any other election, the notion of progressive Californians rallying 
behind Huffington might seem strange. She's a onetime anti-feminist 
Republican, New-Age devotee who divorced her husband after the former 
California congressman outed himself as gay in Esquire magazine.

Yet Arianna advocates say the movement to draft the syndicated columnist 
seems to be gathering steam.

Leading the charge is Bay Area activist Van Jones, director of the Ella 
Baker Center for Human Rights in San Francisco. Jones and the fledgling 
campaign are preparing to unveil their Web site -- www.RunAriannaRun.com -- 
to generate enthusiasm.

"She's anti-drug war, tough on corporate crime, anti-war, anti-Bush, 
pro-environment, pro-electoral reform -- and smart as hell,'' Jones wrote 
in an e-mail sent out last week to dozens of activists. "If anybody could 
pull this off, it would be Arianna.''

So far, Huffington has done nothing to knock down the idea. Jones said 
Friday that Huffington was "flattered, but non-committal'' when he recently 
raised the idea with her, and vowed to talk to him more about it when she 
returns from an overseas vacation in two weeks.

Huffington couldn't be reached, and her office assistant declined to comment.

Support From Green's Camejo

But that isn't stopping the movement -- which is already drawing surprise 
support from Green Party candidate Peter Camejo, who said he might bow out 
of the race and support Huffington if she embraces a progressive agenda.

"I'd be perfectly willing to withdraw and consider supporting someone 
else,'' Camejo said Friday. "I think it could be rather interesting if she 
got into the race.''

The Draft Arianna movement arose out of simmering concerns among 
left-leaning Californians that the Democratic Party's strategy of 
supporting Davis by keeping other Democrats off the ballot is a ``suicide 
mission.''

The prospect of having no one to support as an alternative if Davis is 
ousted has many liberals nervous. In a recall election, voters would be 
asked two questions: whether Davis should be recalled, and who should be 
his replacement. If enough Californians vote to oust Davis, the alternative 
candidate with the most votes would quickly take over.

"I think the recall is despicable,'' said Hollywood film producer Robert 
Greenwald, a liberal activist pushing Arianna's candidacy. "But . . . given 
Gray Davis's position on everything from corporate money to prison guards 
to social justice -- there's no possible way I could find myself in a 
position of supporting him.''

Alternative To Davis

Although some liberals are sympathetic to Camejo's campaign, many say he 
has neither the cash nor the cachet to win. Arianna has both.

With Republican actor Arnold Schwarzenegger signaling he may join the 
battle to oust Davis, liberals began trolling for an alternative. Greenwald 
and Jones had the same epiphany: Arianna.

The 53-year-old daughter of a Greek newspaper publisher has undergone a 
political transformation in recent years. Once a darling of the right, 
she's now a darling of the left.

She began her career as a conservative who questioned the feminist movement 
and castigated liberal ideas.

SUV Bashing

After Sept. 11, 2001, Huffington abandoned her Lincoln Navigator for an 
energy-efficient hybrid Toyota and took gas-guzzling Americans to task. 
Earlier this year, she helped produce television commercials spoofing 
federal government ads that linked casual drug use to international 
terrorism. Huffington's ads suggested that SUV-driving Americans were 
helping to fund terrorists by gobbling up oil from the Middle East.

Huffington began her life in America as an ambitious New York socialite. 
She married Michael Huffington a few years before he launched his brief 
political career by spending $5 million in 1992 to represent Santa Barbara 
in Congress. Two years later, he lost a costly battle to unseat U.S. Sen. 
Dianne Feinstein.

During the race, Arianna was portrayed as the power behind the throne who 
was manipulating her less-astute husband for her own political gain. She 
was forced to admit her ties to a California New Age guru, and that they 
had hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny.

After Huffington admitted he was gay, Arianna divorced him and began a 
career as a political pundit.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens