LOS ANGELES, 2 October 2003 — Long-shot independent candidate Arianna Huffington dropped her bid for governor of California on Tuesday and said she would campaign against the recall of Gov. Gray Davis, while a new poll showed front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger is surging toward victory.
Huffington, a conservative-turned-liberal gadfly whose campaign had failed to gain much traction against Schwarzenegger or Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, told CNN talk-show host Larry King during an interview that she would not yet endorse a candidate in the Oct. 7 vote.
“I’m pulling out and I’m going to concentrate every ounce of my time and energy to defeat the recall,” Huffington said. “I’ve realized that’s the only way now to defeat Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
Her decision to pull out comes as a poll by the Los Angeles Times released late on Tuesday shows a solid majority of likely voters now favor removing Davis from office in next week’s recall and that actor-turned-politician Schwarzenegger will succeed him.
By 56 percent to 42 percent, likely voters support ousting Davis next Tuesday, Oct. 7, as support has slipped among key voters in his political base — Democrats, women, moderates and liberals — since the last Times poll in early September found 50 percent for the recall and 47 percent against it.
The poll found that Schwarzenegger is favored by 40 percent of likely voters, followed by Bustamante with 32 percent and Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock with 15 percent, the Times reported on its website (www.latimes.com).
The shift in support to Schwarzenegger was dramatic. He has made double-digit gains since the last Times poll among Republicans, independents, whites, senior citizens, women and other key-voting blocs. The earlier poll had Bustamante in the lead with 30 percent, followed by Schwarzenegger at 25 percent and McClintock at 18 percent.
Schwarzenegger, campaigning in northern California, called Huffington’s announcement “interesting” and said she had “brought a lot of color and excitement to the whole process.”
The feisty, finger-wagging columnist had strongly supported the recall and been sharply critical of the embattled governor, but said she now believes the “Terminator” star represents a greater threat to California.
“I believe there is a clear and present danger... that Republican forces are using Arnold Schwarzenegger to get control of the state,” she said. “He is a charming man, he’s a nice man but really he has no idea how to run the state and he is going to be run by the very forces that basically have destroyed so much of California.”
But despite persistent prodding by King, Huffington also refused to endorse Bustamante, who shares much of her ideology but has stumbled in recent days. The flame-haired former Republican had during the campaign attacked Bustamante over his acceptance of millions of dollars in campaign funds from Indian gaming interests, calling the tactic “legalized bribery.”
Meanwhile, Davis spent the day campaigning in Los Angeles and, in a conciliatory gesture to business, signed landmark reforms to the state’s 90-year-old workers compensation system that all of the candidates have described as broken.
