Buying Into A Senate Race
Huffington, known as Perot-by-the-Sea, is a maverick Republican who is also very rich. He got rich in his Texas family’s oil-and-gas business-and his wealth, about $70 million, has allowed him to ignore the usual rules of politics. Huffington made his first and only bid for elective office in 1992 by spending 85.4 million to unseat a nine-term Republican incumbent, Rep. Robert Lagomarsino, in California’s 22d Congressional District. The total set a national spending record for House campaigns-but what stunned party regulars was the fact that $5....