SAN FRANCISCO — Green Party gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo announced Tuesday that he and nonpartisan Arianna Huffington will jointly campaign for issues in the coming months, then decide together near the end of the race which candidate is better prepared to sprint to the finish line.
Camejo made the announcement of the unorthodox partnership -- which Huffington's campaign confirmed is in the planning stages -- as consumer advocate Ralph Nader sat by Camejo's side to endorse him in the race.
Nader -- widely criticized by Democrats as a spoiler for drawing liberal votes away from former Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election -- lauded Camejo's analysis of the state's budget mess, saying it was one that "voters will not hear from any other candidate, except for Arianna Huffington."
Then, in keeping with the burlesque and unpredictable atmosphere of the state's first gubernatorial recall, Nader was slammed in the face with a pie as the news conference wound to a close.
While Camejo had urged a civil campaign against his foes, the finger-pointing wasn't far behind.
As Nader, 67, was ushered into a back room at the Green Party's headquarters to clean the pie filling from his face, Camejo responded angrily to reporters' questions about the incident.
"I'm quite sure this attack came from a Democrat," said Camejo, who garnered 5% of the statewide vote in the gubernatorial election last fall, but polled in the double digits in nine Democratic Northern California counties. "What that person just did physically is what the Democrats have been doing to Nader ideologically.... I think it's sick."
The perpetrator, who had blended in with the crowd of media representatives before pulling the pie from a bag, escaped in the city's South of Market district. Ross Mirkarimi, spokesman for the state Green Party, was more measured than Camejo, saying: "We don't know who did this. Nobody was hurt."
But the gloves had already come off.
"Another absolute lie by Camejo," California Democratic Party campaign advisor Bob Mulholland said of Camejo's accusation. "I would predict it was one of the other Green Party candidates on the ballot
San Francisco is famous for its renegade band of pie-throwers. A group known as the Biotic Baking Brigade has pied Mayor Willie Brown, Chevron Chief Executive Ken Derr and others. But a reporter's e-mail to a contact described on the group's Web site as "Agent Apple" went unreturned Tuesday.
