Go back to Words & Wit pageOAKLAND -- Pundits will be tempted to dismiss Senator Dianne Feinstein's near loss to Representative Michael Huffington, R-Santa Barbara wholly as a result of the national Republican rout. Certainly the voters are in a right mood, but it would be wrong to ignore some other factors that contributed to Huffington's near win against an unusually effective U.S. Senator, who two years ago beat the incumbent appointee, John Seymour, with a 16-point spread.
The following factors hurt DiFi.
Negative Ads. They work. Not all of the almost $30 mil Huffy spent went toward negative ads, but a lot did. As a result, Democratic pollster Paul Maslin noted, Feinstein's negative ratings are in the 40 percent range, three times the negative rating of California's new lieutenant governor, Gray Davis, whose name was mud last election when he ran ads comparing Feinstein to Leona Helmsley. Feinstein's negatives rose in tandem with Huffington's advertising budget.
Guerrilla Tactics. The Huff camp was brilliant in its ability to throw Feinstein off balance. The day of the Feinstein/Huffington debate on the Larry King show, for example, Huffington disclosed that the deed to Feinstein's home contained a whites-only covenant -- an unenforceable and meaningless clause, but the disclosure was embarrassing for Feinstein after her supporters branded Huffy a "racist'' because homes he once owned included the same void covenants. Feinstein began the program in a surly mood, and never controlled the debate. Time and again, Huffington's crew managed to psyche her out.
Huffington's Shamelessness. If ever there is a more monotonous-and-besides-who-cares issue in a campaign than this race's Nannygates, I don't want to see it. The revelation that Huffington employed an illegal alien for more than four years should have damaged his campaign, not so much because Huffington supported Proposition 187 and had sponsored legislation against the hiring of illegal immigrants, but because he lied. Huffington told reporters categorically that he never hired an illegal alien. He only admitted to hiring Marisela Garcia -- and failing to pay her payroll taxes -- when the Los Angeles Times confronted him with unassailable details. His slogan was, "Finally, A Reason to Believe''; his actions said: don't trust, verify.
Feinstein failed to capitalize on this revelation. She relied on free media when she should have spent lavishly on ads detailing Huffington's disingenuousness. Feinstein also was hindered by the fact that she apparently once hired a legal immigrant who was not authorized to work, in violation of state law, the disclosure of which prompted an outraged Huffy to brand DiFi as "a liar'' and "a hypocrite.'' If Feinstein's campaign had any momentum -- it didn't -- she could have pasted Mr. Character for that ridiculous display. Instead, his startlingly transparent hypocrisy continued unchecked.
Proposition 187. This initiative, conceived by grass-roots malcontents, did far more to help the GOP than any scheme professional consultants could have cooked up. Exit polls showed that 187 voters went for Huffington 2 to 1.
She's Out of Touch. Feinstein ran a poor campaign because she could not comprehend the voters' anger at the runaway growth in federal government. Throughout the race, she seemed in shock that Californians weren't prostrate with gratefulness for her years in government. Rather than listening to the message the polls were sending her, she blamed her failing ratings on Huffington and his money.
"I am a walking talking case in point for campaign spending reform," she told the San Jose Mercury News Monday. "Something must be done to work out caps that will work." That quote's choice when you consider Feinstein's history. As Free Press editorial page editor Jerry Roberts so aptly pointed out in his biography of Feinstein, Never Let Them See You Cry, from her very first San Francisco supervisorial race, Feinstein has won her campaigns largely indebted to family money. She is smarting from a taste of her own medicine.
If Feinstein decides to scapegoat money and champion taxpayer-funded campaign financing -- another big government tenet -- as a remedy for her near loss, it will show that she is not listening.
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