Huffington Attacks Feinstein

Santa Barbara Rep. Michael Huffington, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, launched a pair of commercials this week that attack Democratic incumbent Dianne Feinstein as being a big spender for supporting President Clinton’s budget last year. The campaign did not disclose how much it paid for the ads, which are scheduled to air statewide for two weeks.

* THE ADS: One commercial charges that the 1993 budget’s tax increases have hurt California’s economy. “By a single vote, the Senate passed the biggest tax increase in American history--that single vote is Dianne Feinstein’s,” the ad says. “Feinstein votes for the tax increase even though it hurts people on Social Security and small business. It costs Californians $27 billion.” The second commercial seeks to contrast Huffington and Feinstein on fiscal issues. “Citizens Against Government Waste calls Huffington ‘heroic.’ The National Taxpayers Union ranks Feinstein the eighth-biggest spender--ahead of even Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer.”

* THE ANALYSIS: Huffington’s campaign has two hopes for these ads--that they will raise his still-obscure profile and check the popularity for Feinstein reflected in recent polls. Feinstein was listed eighth by the National Taxpayers Union, but the group acknowledges that its criteria could penalize prolific legislators. NTU says the government’s cost for 31 bills co-sponsored by Feinstein last year was $42 billion, most due to her support for Clinton’s failed jobs stimulus bill and his still-pending health care plan. Huffington, meanwhile, co-sponsored four spending bills last year that would save the government $19 billion. Still, he was the seventh-highest spender of California’s 22 Republican House members. The commercial’s reference to California’s $27-billion cost for the 1993 budget is based on a study by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Also, the 1993 tax package, one of the largest in history, targeted gas, wealthy households, businesses and upper-income Social Security recipients.