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Huffington Quits California Recall Race
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By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO - Independent candidate Arianna Huffington dropped out of the California recall race on Tuesday, saying it was her best hope of preventing Arnold Schwarzenegger from becoming governor.
"I'm puling out and I'm going to concentrate all my time and energy in the next week working to defeat the recall becasue I realize that's the only way to defeat Arnold Schwarzenegger," Huffington said as she made the announcement on CNN's "Larry King Live."
Huffington's exit from the race mostly clears the way for Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante — the Democrats' best hope of thwarting Schwarzenegger should Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) lose the recall vote. But Huffington declined to specifically endorse Bustamante, merely urging her supporters to "vote strategically" in an effor to stop a Republican takeover of California. She urged people to vote against the recall and then consider their options for the second half of the Oct. 7 ballot.
Van Jones, Huffington's chief grass-roots organizer, said Huffington was trying "to position herself so she can maximize opposition to the Schwarzenegger coup."
Huffington, a 53-year old columnist and TV pundit who transformed herself from Republican to fiery populist, drew a loyal following on the Internet and on the campaign trail.
But in a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll released Sunday, she had only 2 percent support among the most likely voters, compared with 40 percent for Schwarzenegger and 25 percent for Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the only major Democrat in the replacement race.
Asked about the development at a campaign stop, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis had praise for 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," he said.
Huffington had repeatedly criticized Bustamante's acceptance of big campaign donations from Indian casino interests. But she called it "wonderful news" on Sunday when Bustamante made a surprise endorsement of her initiative to publicly finance state election campaigns.
"As you know, I believe in conversions, and I believe in redemption," said Huffington, who called herself a recovering Republican wife after her divorce from her husband, wealthy GOP Senate candidate Michael Huffington.
In recent days, the recall race has focused on the matchup between Davis and Schwarzenegger, the leading Republican replacement candidate.
State Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge, had 18 percent in the Gallup poll, but has repeatedly vowed to stay in the race despite pressure to pull out and avoid splitting the Republican vote.
The poll showed 63 percent of "probable" voters were in favor of removing Davis. Other polls, however, depict a much tighter race on the recall issue and among the replacement candidates.
Green Party candidate Peter Camejo, who had 5 percent in the Gallup poll, said Huffington called him Sunday to let him know she was considering getting out of the race.
"I advised her against it," said Camejo, who early in the campaign 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 himself.
Meanwhile, both the Davis and Schwarzenegger camps plan major events to rally last-minute support.
Former President Bill Clinton (news - web sites) was expected to return to the state to campaign for Davis on Thursday, the same day Schwarzenegger planned to depart on a four-day bus tour beginning in San Diego.
Tuesday, Davis turned to Democrats' most reliable constituency, organized labor, going with Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) Chairman Terry McAuliffe to visit a get-out-the-vote phone bank.
"Mr. Schwarzenegger says organized labor is a special interest," Davis said to hisses from the union volunteers. "He's got part of that right. You are special, you are special to our future."
The governor also criticized a comment the actor made at a town hall meeting Monday night suggesting he might support eliminating the California Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) because of its overlapping role with the federal environmental agency.
"We don't want to turn over our environment to the federal government," Davis said.
Schwarzenegger spokesman Sean Walsh said Davis' comment was "misleading" and Schwarzenegger did not favor eliminating the California EPA, just making it more efficient and ensuring that it works closely with the federal EPA.
Later Tuesday, Davis signed legislation that he hailed as a complete overhaul of state workers' compensation rules.
"These bills will stop the skyrocketing increases in workers' compensation rates and start bringing them down," he said.
The spiraling cost of workers' compensation has emerged as a hot-button issue in the recall campaign, with Schwarzenegger and Republicans repeatedly claiming high costs are driving businesses from the state. Davis said the legislation will remove that issue from the table.
Annual workers' comp costs for businesses across the state have risen to $29 billion, climbing $20 billion over the past eight years. The overhaul, passed by the Legislature earlier this month, aims to cut as much as $6 billion from the system.
But the reform legislation has not satisfied Davis' critics. During an appearance on KGO-AM in San Francisco Tuesday, Schwarzenegger attacked the workers' compensation package as not offering real reforms.
"What did it do? It didn't do a thing in order to decrease really the cost," Schwarzenegger said. "We've got to cut it back down so businesses can stay here and do business here."
The bodybuilder-turned-actor also responded for the first time publicly to Davis' repeated challenges to a one-on-one debate.
"The first item on the ballot is should we recall Gray Davis or not. This is between him and the people. ... He has to debate the people of California," Schwarzenegger said.
"I don't have to debate with him," Schwarzenegger said.
Also Tuesday, state Democratic Party spokesman Bob Mulholland confirmed that officials would hold a conference call Wednesday to discuss funding possible legal challenges to the recall after the election.
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Associated Press Writers Paul Chavez and Erica Werner in Los Angeles contributed to this story.
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Not much of an opinion on this, but No to Recall Yes to Davis/Bustamante. I can be swayed, but not for AH-nold...no way, no how.
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