POLITICIAN WATCH : Reluctant Concession

It must hurt to spend $28 million and come up empty. Maybe that’s why it took former Rep. Mike Huffington three months to bring himself to concede November’s Senate election to Dianne Feinstein.

Huffington, who insists the delay was caused only by his sincere belief that he was robbed, on Tuesday issued a written statement conceding the election. In addition, he telephoned Sen. Feinstein in Washington to congratulate her. He should have done all this long ago, certainly by mid-December when the California secretary of state officially certified Feinstein as the winner.

Huffington, who latched onto illegal immigration as a potent campaign weapon, obviously found it hard to let go of the issue once the polls closed. Perhaps he also found it hard to give up the spotlight that his personal fortune allowed him to buy.

In refusing to concede, he attempted to translate Feinstein’s narrow win--by 163,564 votes out of 8.5 million cast--into evidence of “massive voter fraud.” He alleged last year that more than 170,000 ballots were bogus, many coming from dead voters, double voters and voters who were not U.S. citizens.

From the beginning, Huffington’s complaints had the strong odor of sour grapes. In the end, his concession is a tacit admission that he could not substantiate the charges he made. Voter fraud is a serious allegation; Bill Jones, the new secretary of state, vows to improve the registration process and the accuracy of voter rolls. However, by sulking so long, Huffington only trivialized this important issue.