Huffington Drops His Support of Stalled Crime Bill

Rep. Mike Huffington, California’s Republican Senate nominee, rejected heavy pressure from police supporters of a long-stalled crime bill in the House and said Tuesday that he will cast a procedural vote that threatens to kill the bill.

Huffington (R-Santa Barbara) voted in favor of the sweeping $33-billion crime bill when it was before the House in April. But his statement Tuesday said he is now unhappy that the bill includes more than $1 billion for “social programs,” even though they were included in the version he supported last spring.

“I want to see an end to the days when absurd and costly non-germane programs get slipped into big legislative packages,” said Huffington, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “House members should be allowed to streamline this bill and make it tougher on crime.”

Crime is the dominant issue in California’s political campaigns so far this year and, in the Senate race, the Clinton Administration-backed crime bill is the most significant vote the candidates will cast on the issue before the Nov. 8 election. The crime bill includes funding for 100,000 additional police officers, a “three strikes” sentencing law, an assault weapons ban and a package of crime prevention programs.

Feinstein campaign officials were quick to criticize Huffington’s vote. Feinstein campaign manager Kam Kuwata charged that Huffington is threatening to scuttle the measure because he does not want the senator to win a political victory if it passes.

Feinstein was the author of the measure’s assault weapons ban and, if it becomes law, it would be among her major legislative accomplishments.

“We have an opportunity to vote for probably the most comprehensive crime package in decades,” Kuwata said. “It’s rather obvious that Congressman Huffington has no fingerprints on this bill. . . . Now he comes in in the eleventh hour to make his views known only because he doesn’t want his political opponent to have a victory.”

Huffington’s chief of staff, Fleming Saunders, said the congressman was unavailable to comment Tuesday evening. He also said he was uncertain why Huffington was speaking out against programs in the bill that he had already supported in a previous version.

Huffington’s statement said he was concerned about funding for a jobs program and an after-schools curriculum that was part of the bill’s attempt at crime prevention.

“He’d like to improve the bill,” Saunders said. “You take what opportunities you can.”

Saunders also said he was uncertain whether Huffington would support the crime bill--as it is now fashioned--if it reaches the House floor. But supporters of the bill say that could be a moot point if they don’t get the votes to pass a key procedural vote first.

The so-called “rule vote,” which Huffington has said he will oppose, is required to set procedures for House debate and votes before the bill can be passed.

White House and congressional leaders have conducted an intensive lobbying effort over the last few days to win approval of the rules resolution and the crime bill. On Tuesday, White House officials said the rules vote was still too close to call.

Officials said a vote on the rules resolution could come today and, if successful, the crime bill could reach the House floor this week.

House vote counters said that as many as 40 Democrats may oppose the rules resolution because they are unhappy with the assault weapons ban. Another group of Democratic legislators were expected to oppose the rule because the crime bill expands use of the death penalty without a provision to allow consideration of racial discrimination in capital cases.

As a result, supporters of the bill were under pressure to find Republican votes. Huffington was considered a prime target because he favored the bill previously and he supports the assault weapons ban.