Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington talks to the media while campaigning for governor of California at U.C. Berkeley on September 11, 2003. ()
Arianna Huffington (born July 15, 1950) is an author and nationally syndicated columnist. She describes herself as a "former right-winger who has evolved into a compassionate and progressive populist."
She was born in Greece as Arianna Stassinopoulos, the daughter of Constantine (a journalist and management consultant) and Elli (Georgiadis) Stassinopoulos. She moved to England at the age of sixteen, and attended Girton College at Cambridge University, graduating with a MA in Economics in 1972. Huffington was formerly married to Mike Huffington; she was widely thought to have been the instigator of his unsuccessful campaign for the United States Senate in 1994 in which he spent a record-breaking US$3030 million of his personal fortune.
More recently, she has been associated with a grass-roots campaign to discourage the purchase of sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
Huffington was an independent candidate to replace California governor Gray Davis in the 2003 recall election. She dropped out of the race September 30, 2003, to try to get the recall defeated saying it was the only way to prevent Arnold Schwarzenegger from becoming Governor. "I'm pulling out, and I'm going to concentrate every ounce of time and energy over the next week working to defeat the recall because I realize now that's the only way to defeat Arnold Schwarzenegger," she said. Huffington's name still appeared on the ballot and she placed 5th in a field of 135 candidates.
Arianna Huffington has written several books including:
- The Female Woman
- Picasso
- After Reason
- The Fourth Instinct
- The Gods of Greece
- Maria Callas
- Greetings from the Lincoln Bedroom (ISBN 0517396998)
- How to Overthrow the Government (ISBN 0060988312)
- Pigs at the Trough (ISBN 1400047714)
