SPECIAL REPORT / ELECTION PREVIEW :...

Profile

MICHAEL HUFFINGTON

* Born: Sept. 3, 1947, Dallas

* Residence: Santa Barbara

* Current position: Congressman

* Education: Bachelor’s degrees in engineering and economics, Stanford, 1970; master’s in business administration, Harvard, 1972

* Career highlights: Partner, Simmons & Huffington Inc. (investment firm), 1974-1976; vice chairman, Roy M. Huffington Inc., 1976-1990; assistant secretary of defense for negotiations policy, Defense Department, 1986; member of U.S. House, 1993-present.

* Family: Married to Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington; children Christina and Isabella.

The Record

Michael Huffington emerged on the California political stage just recently when he won his first bid for public office in 1992 by unseating an 18-year House veteran, Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura). Huffington set a national record for the most money ever spent in a House race when he used about $5.2 million of his personal fortune to finance the campaign. He moved to Santa Barbara from Houston in 1991 after spending most of his career working in his family’s oil company.

In Congress, Huffington has been an independent voter, breaking from the California Republican delegation on several high-profile votes including support for President Clinton’s family leave act, the recent assault weapons ban and the easing of the ban on gays in the military. He was the only California Republican to oppose a GOP alternative to the 1993 Clinton budget, saying he favored more spending cuts.

The Speech: In His Own Words

I thought I’d talk a little bit about my campaign and why I think we can beat the honorable Sen. Feinstein and retire her to San Francisco this year. The first thing is, let me tell you, I have actually been up and down this state, going from whether it is Willits to Red Bluff, Sacramento, Temecula, San Diego, Los Osos, you name the town, I’ve tried to be there. One of the reasons is that I believe the people need to see the candidate face to face whenever possible. . . .

As you know, and I would say Feinstein and Boxer also are taking us down a fork and that fork is to the left. It’s toward socialism. When you talk about putting 15% of the gross national product under government control--i.e. health care--so that the government takes in every single dollar and pays it out. They determine who your doctor is, there is no choice in this issue.

If you decide you don’t like what the doctor told you about your daughter, your 3-year-old or granddaughter and you don’t think that doctor gave a good analysis, you want to go to the old family doctor or another doctor in another city, guess what? In many circumstances that doctor is going to be fined $1,000 for just seeing you under this health care plan. Most people don’t know that. Can you imagine in the United States of America and you can’t go to any doctor that you want to see. That’s what this plan is about. . . .

My main concern about Mrs. Feinstein is her vote on the budget. That is the reason I really got involved in this race. When Clinton got in office he said to the American people, ‘I am going to give you a deficit reduction package.’ And he raised taxes, the highest tax increase in America. And he raised spending. If there is any deficit reduction it’s because interest rates are low, not because of the tax increase or the spending increase. It’s not because of what he did. When Mrs. Feinstein was one of those 50 votes that voted for it, I realized that if I was a senator from this state it would have been 51 against and 49 for and it would have failed. Most Americans were against it. My phone calls were 10 to 1 against it. She is not pro-business. Now a lot of people think she might be because she speaks like a moderate. Her rhetoric is moderate. Her actions are liberal. She and Mrs. Boxer, who is not known as a moderate, are the Thelma and Louise of the United States Senate. They vote 95% the same, they are almost identical twins in the Senate.

The Chamber of Commerce has said, ‘Let’s look through the voting records of Mr. Huffington and Mrs. Feinstein.’ Michael Huffington got 91%. Now when I went to school, that’s an A. Mrs. Feinstein got 9%. The Wall Street Journal, they listed the top 50 spenders in the United States. Out of 100, the top 50. Well, Mrs. Feinstein gets an A there. She came in eighth in the United States Senate. Sen. Kennedy, who is not known as a fiscal conservative, came in 12th. Mrs. Boxer came in 27th. Mrs. Feinstein is no moderate. I voted for a $90-billion deficit reduction package just recently called the Penny-Kasich plan. . . . I don’t see the same attitude across the capital. And so my point is this, there are working men and women in this country who make $30,000 a year, they pay their taxes, they don’t have enough money to send their kids to school, they don’t necessarily have enough money to buy a house anymore and here we are wasting money in the Senate and in the House.

If we ever want to put more money back in your pockets, we can’t keep raising taxes and raising spending. We’ve got to cut programs. I’m willing to do that. So this is going to be a fiscal campaign. We are going to talk about economic issues. We are also going to talk about where she flips and flops on different things. In one case, she is against the death penalty when she is in a liberal city and she’s mayor. In another case, she is for the death penalty.

I voted for NAFTA because I think it’s good for America, it’s good for Canada and it’s good for Mexico. . . . She voted against NAFTA, which is not good for business. She voted against NAFTA because she got a $2.5-million contribution from labor unions. People in this state are fed up with special interests. They’re fed up with it. I’m going to represent all of you as individuals. I’m going to represent your grandchildren too.