DEMOCRAT ACTIVISTS PUSH SURPRISE AS POTENTIAL TERMINATOR STOPPER

SACRAMENTO - In a state trying to come to terms with the extraordinary
prospect of ousting its governor and replacing him with the Terminator, Bay
Area activists are stirring things up even more by trying to recruit
reformed conservative Arianna Huffington to enter the race as the
progressive alternative.

The possibility of the SUV-hating Arianna squaring off against the
Hummer-loving Arnold for the right to replace Gov. Gray Davis is creating a
buzz from San Francisco to Santa Monica. One eager supporter has already
dubbed the potential matchup "The Hybrid vs. the Hummer.''

In any other election, the notion of progressive Californians rallying
behind Huffington might seem strange. She's a onetime anti-feminist
Republican, New-Age devotee who divorced her husband after the former
California congressman outed himself as gay in Esquire magazine.

Yet Arianna advocates say the movement to draft the syndicated columnist
seems to be gathering steam.

Leading the charge is Bay Area activist Van Jones, director of the Ella
Baker Center for Human Rights in San Francisco. Jones and the fledgling
campaign are preparing to unveil their Web site -- www.RunAriannaRun.com --
to generate enthusiasm.

"She's anti-drug war, tough on corporate crime, anti-war, anti-Bush,
pro-environment, pro-electoral reform -- and smart as hell,'' Jones wrote
in an e-mail sent out last week to dozens of activists. "If anybody could
pull this off, it would be Arianna.''

So far, Huffington has done nothing to knock down the idea. Jones said
Friday that Huffington was "flattered, but non-committal'' when he recently
raised the idea with her, and vowed to talk to him more about it when she
returns from an overseas vacation in two weeks.

Huffington couldn't be reached, and her office assistant declined to comment.

Support From Green's Camejo

But that isn't stopping the movement -- which is already drawing surprise
support from Green Party candidate Peter Camejo, who said he might bow out
of the race and support Huffington if she embraces a progressive agenda.

"I'd be perfectly willing to withdraw and consider supporting someone
else,'' Camejo said Friday. "I think it could be rather interesting if she
got into the race.''

The Draft Arianna movement arose out of simmering concerns among
left-leaning Californians that the Democratic Party's strategy of
supporting Davis by keeping other Democrats off the ballot is a ``suicide
mission.''

The prospect of having no one to support as an alternative if Davis is
ousted has many liberals nervous. In a recall election, voters would be
asked two questions: whether Davis should be recalled, and who should be
his replacement. If enough Californians vote to oust Davis, the alternative
candidate with the most votes would quickly take over.

"I think the recall is despicable,'' said Hollywood film producer Robert
Greenwald, a liberal activist pushing Arianna's candidacy. "But . . . given
Gray Davis's position on everything from corporate money to prison guards
to social justice -- there's no possible way I could find myself in a
position of supporting him.''

Alternative To Davis

Although some liberals are sympathetic to Camejo's campaign, many say he
has neither the cash nor the cachet to win. Arianna has both.

With Republican actor Arnold Schwarzenegger signaling he may join the
battle to oust Davis, liberals began trolling for an alternative. Greenwald
and Jones had the same epiphany: Arianna.

The 53-year-old daughter of a Greek newspaper publisher has undergone a
political transformation in recent years. Once a darling of the right,
she's now a darling of the left.

She began her career as a conservative who questioned the feminist movement
and castigated liberal ideas.

SUV Bashing

After Sept. 11, 2001, Huffington abandoned her Lincoln Navigator for an
energy-efficient hybrid Toyota and took gas-guzzling Americans to task.
Earlier this year, she helped produce television commercials spoofing
federal government ads that linked casual drug use to international
terrorism. Huffington's ads suggested that SUV-driving Americans were
helping to fund terrorists by gobbling up oil from the Middle East.

Huffington began her life in America as an ambitious New York socialite.
She married Michael Huffington a few years before he launched his brief
political career by spending $5 million in 1992 to represent Santa Barbara
in Congress. Two years later, he lost a costly battle to unseat U.S. Sen.
Dianne Feinstein.

During the race, Arianna was portrayed as the power behind the throne who
was manipulating her less-astute husband for her own political gain. She
was forced to admit her ties to a California New Age guru, and that they
had hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny.

After Huffington admitted he was gay, Arianna divorced him and began a
career as a political pundit.