Huffington Plans to Move to L.A., Sell Santa Barbara Estate

WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Mike Huffington, who gave up his seat in Congress last year to wage an expensive but unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate, plans to leave the Santa Barbara area he represented for two years and move to Los Angeles.

Huffington has been dividing residency between the West Coast and Washington, where his wife, Arianna, lives with their two young children. Deciding that the family does not occupy the four-acre Santa Barbara estate enough to justify keeping it, the Huffingtons agreed over the Christmas weekend to put it on the market in January for $8.9 million.

“For the last year I’ve been commuting quite often between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, and the three- to four-hour drive has been just killing me,” the former legislator said Thursday from his Washington home. “I am in the house once a month for several days. Some family should be living there full time.”

Since leaving Congress, Huffington said, much of his work has centered on the Los Angeles area. He has been working on a screenplay that he plans to make into a motion picture for Crest Films in Los Angeles, which he co-owns, and he has traveled through California supporting state Republican candidates, primarily in Southern California.

“I spend a lot of time staying in hotels in Los Angeles,” he said. “I need a more central location.”

Huffington and his wife, a political talk-show fixture and advisor to House Speaker Newt Gingrich, purchased the Spanish-style Montecito estate with staff quarters, gardens and an ocean view for $4.25 million in 1988.

They have yet to decide where in Los Angeles to settle, but Huffington said they would prefer Pacific Palisades if the right house could be found.

Huffington spent a record $28 million of his personal fortune last year in an acrid race against Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. He has been mentioned as a possible GOP candidate in 1998 for governor or for the seat now held by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.

“I’m leaving all of my options open,” he said.