Huffington Quits Calif. Recall Race

Facing single-digit poll support, commentator-turned politician Arianna Huffington pulled out of the race to replace Gov. Gray Davis – and then abruptly vowed to fight to keep him in office.

Huffington, who was one of Davis’s harshest critics on the campaign trail, on Tuesday urged her supporters to vote against the effort to remove the Democratic governor as “the only way now to defeat Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

The exit of the only woman in a field that originally had six major candidates came as a second recent statewide poll showed voters were prepared to boot Davis and replace him with Schwarzenegger.

The Los Angeles Times poll showed the recall succeeding by a 56 percent to 42 percent margin. That was a shift from a Sept. 12 Times poll that showed support for the recall stalling, with 50 percent of voters supporting it and 47 percent in opposition.

Schwarzenegger had support from 40 percent of likely voters in Tuesday’s poll, Lt. Gov. Bustamante had 32 percent and Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock had 15 percent.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Rob Stutzman welcomed the latest results.

“We’re very gratified but still understand that there is a week to go in this campaign and Arnold won’t let up one bit. He’ll finish this campaign very strong,” Stutzman said.

The poll is the first released since last week’s debate – the only one featuring Schwarzenegger – that can be compared to earlier results and it shows how support has shifted. In the Sept. 12 survey, Bustamante led with 30 percent, Schwarzenegger had 25 percent and McClintock had 18 percent.

Schwarzenegger’s surge may reflect the withdrawal of former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, another moderate Republican, who drew 8 percent in the Sept. 12 poll despite bowing out while it was being conducted.

In departing the race, Huffington said she would withhold endorsing anyone for now. “I want people to vote their conscience, but make sure that whatever their vote is it does not put Schwarzenegger in the Statehouse,” she said.

The latest Times poll showed her support slipped from 3 percent on Sept. 12 to less than 0.5 percent in the latest poll of 815 likely voters taken from Sept. 25-29 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Huffington’s exit could help Bustamante – the Democrats’ best hope of thwarting Schwarzenegger should Davis lose the recall vote. Bustamante is more to the center of her left-leaning politics, but shares some of the same values.

In recent days, the recall race has focused on the matchup between Davis and Schwarzenegger. Huffington has criticized both, but took sharper aim at the former bodybuilder.

Appearing at a San Francisco news conference while Huffington made her announcement, Schwarzenegger said he was disappointed at the loss. “She brought a lot of color and a lot of excitement to the race,” he said.

Davis also praised Huffington and wished her well.

“I think Arianna Huffington has brought some wisdom and some clarity to the second question on this ballot, and I believe she’s made a contribution to the dialogue that has begun over these last 70 to 75 days,” the Democrat said.

Davis’ campaign spokesman, Peter Ragone, meanwhile, downplayed the latest poll results, saying the Oct. 7 campaign remained fluid.

“As people look closer at the choices of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Republicans and Gray Davis and the Democrats, it’s going to continue to shift, and I think it’s going to shift back away from the recall,” Ragone said.

Early in the campaign, Green Party candidate Peter Camejo had an unofficial pact with Huffington calling for one of the two candidates to drop out if the other appeared close to a victory.

Camejo said he has no intention of withdrawing and said Huffington’s withdrawal could help his candidacy and take votes away from other candidates. “Every poll shows if Arianna drops out, the Green Party would go up,” he said.

Davis, meanwhile, continued his strategy of carrying out the state’s business and campaigning with prominent out-of-state Democrats. He signed a set of bills Tuesday that he said would overhaul the costly workers’ compensation system.

On Wednesday, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a presidential candidate, was to campaign with the governor, and former President Clinton was expected to arrive Thursday. Clinton’s last wave of appearances with Davis came as support for the recall appeared to be stalling.

Schwarzenegger, who plans a four-day bus tour from San Diego to Sacramento beginning Thursday, was to outline his plan Wednesday for his first 100 days in office.