CAMPAIGN JOURNAL : Huffington Riding High; Attacks Have Feinstein Angry

The audience gathered in the Fairmont Hotel’s Grand Ballroom was more than just another crowd of supporters for Sen. Dianne Feinstein. This was the senator’s political base, including many who have stood at the former mayor’s side since her early days in San Francisco politics over 20 years ago.

So they shared a hearty cheer when Catherine Feinstein, the senator’s daughter, stood in front of nearly 600 supporters Saturday evening and said what she really thinks about her mother’s Republican opponent, Mike Huffington.

“It would be one thing for my mom to face an opponent with some smarts, or with a decent record, or, for that matter, with any record at all, or with proposals for the future that make some kind of sense,” she said. “But to wake up every day to watch someone for whom you care very deeply being pummeled by a complete nothing of an opponent is frustrating beyond words.”

Indeed, the Democrats were sick and tired of their candidate suffering months of one of the heaviest barrages of attack television commercials ever leveled at a political candidate. And they were angry because the Republican’s plan was working.

Since early last spring, Feinstein’s support in the polls has been dropping and Huffington’s rising until, last week, the two lines crossed for the first time when an independent public poll said the race is tied.

The impact on the two Senate campaigns has been like that of an unexpected late-season race between two ballclubs. The favorites are forced to fathom the once unthinkable possibility of an upset. And the underdog challengers get the first real glimpse of winning.

The different moods were clear this weekend as the two candidates searched for votes in Northern California, barely 100 miles apart. In contrast to Feinstein’s frustration, Huffington was getting stars in his eyes.

“I think, in the end, we’re going to surprise a lot of people with a victory--not just a victory, but maybe in the margin too,” Huffington said Saturday. “Something has shifted. I’m telling you, it has shifted. Something that’s wonderful. I feel it.”

Huffington’s day of campaigning Saturday did not demonstrate his feeling that there is a momentum so great it might topple a political giant.

He and his staff drove through some of the small towns in California’s Gold Country. There was a back yard barbecue for a few dozen people in Auburn. Then a radio station interview in Grass Valley. And finally a town meeting in Yuba City, where 11 people showed up at the Yuba County Farm Bureau.

But the candidate, wearing casual clothes and sneakers, was clearly enjoying himself. Between campaign stops he rode alone in a car with a reporter, volunteering to address some of the controversies raised about his business background and explaining his confidence in the race.

“I was walking through the airport and some guy passing me with his wife says, ‘Hey, good luck,’ ” Huffington said. “No one has ever done that in the entire campaign. That was number one. Then I got off the plane in Washington, D.C. and got on one of those things you take to the terminal and a person says, ‘Hey, Mike Huffington, you’re doing a great job. I’d like to support you.’ And then a guy on my left says, ‘Hey, let me give you my card, I’d like to support you, too.’ . . . I’ve never had that happen. And when you start feeling that, you know something is happening.

“It’s not only me,” he continued. “We may even take the House. I’ve never said that. But it’s possible. This is feeling like a landslide year.”

The moods of any political campaign are always mercurial. Some days are good, some are bad. And as any campaign veteran will say, moods are not a predictor of the next week, let alone the outcome of an election.

In the Senate race, there are six weeks left until Election Day. Despite the closing polls, Feinstein is still considered the favorite by many insiders.

So far, she has been substantially outgunned on television because Huffington’s personal wealth has financed a campaign more expensive than any in U.S. history. Feinstein officials are optimistic about their chances because they have saved much of their money until the end, when Huffington’s financial edge should not be as great.

But the waiting has been hard for the Democrats.

“I must say, I never thought that this would be the race of my life,” Feinstein told her supporters at the Fairmont Hotel on Saturday. “If Michael Huffington (did not) . . . have $20 or $30 million cash (for a campaign), and we went toe-to-toe and record-to-record, this would not be a contest. But it is a huge contest.

“I’ve watched month after month as the (Huffington) television blitz and the newspaper full-page ads and the radio commercials go on and our poll numbers drop,” she continued. “And I see the . . . character assassination, distortion and just plain outright lies. And to not have the ability to respond, because responding in California costs $2 million for enough (television rating) points to really break through. . . . It has been an incredibly frustrating race.”

* VOTER DRIVE: The Democrats launched a drive Sunday to register more of the state’s black voters. B1