CA Senate Race: Fiorina Up Big? (Hints Fiorina Rocketing FTW)

Weekly Standard ^ | May 24, 2010 | Daniel Halper

[red flanker]

Can this be for real? From Carly Fiorina's Twitter feed:

@CarlyforCA Breaking news: Fiorina 46%, Campbell 23%, DeVore 14% according to new Survey USA poll. Proof that hard work pays off!

This, I'm told by the Fiorina campaign, was just reported on television on L.A. The last SurveyUSA poll showed Fiorina trailing Campbell 35% to 24%, with DeVore in third at 15%. So, if true, this new poll would represent a huge swing--such a huge swing that I'm curious to see the actual poll.

[Syncro]

But when she chooses Fiorina over DeVore she hasn’t got the excuse that she owes Carly anything.

It's sad to see Palin morphed into such a GOP politician.

When ever anyone endorses someone for a political office, it is payback or a way to gain favor in the future, or both

In this case, Fiorina served as an adviser on the McCain-Palin ticket so there is the reason. It's payback, Carley called in the favor.

And here is an interesting aside:

Tue September 16, 2008

McCain adviser Fiorina: Palin not ready to run a corporation

CNN) -- Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO turned top John McCain aide, said she doesn't think Sarah Palin is qualified to run a major corporation. For that matter, Fiorina said, McCain, Obama and Biden aren't capable of that kind of job either.

Ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO and McCain adviser Carly Fiorina said Sarah Palin could not run a major company.

The Republican presidential candidate has been trying to portray himself as someone who can fix the country's economic woes. But that is a far different task than running a Fortune 500 corporation, Fiorina told MSNBC Tuesday.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama's camp immediately circulated copies of her words -- which didn't exactly paint their candidate in a soft light, either.

"Well, I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation, I don't think Barack Obama could run a major corporation, I don't think Joe Biden could run a major corporation," Fiorina said.

[AuH2ORepublican]

A “push-poll” is a poll paid for by supporters of a candidate that is not meant to measure how those polls feel, but merely to spread false rumors about a candidate. An example of a “push-poll” would include several typical questions about candidates and would then ask “If you were to learn that So-and-So was arrested for child rape 10 years ago but had the charges dropped by bribing the DA, would you be more or less likely to support him?”

By “push-poll” you may have meant a poll with such biased questions that lead to a certain result, but that does not appear to be the caes here, since the pollster, Survey USA, is one of the most repspected independent pollsters in the nation and would not ruin its reputation by asking biased questions.

And, more to the point, Chuck DeVore has been out of the running in every primary poll taken since the day that Campbell switched from the gubernatorial to the Senate race, so it would hardly be worth it to have a 10th poll showing him with no chance of winning. If indeed there is a massive conspiracy between SUSA and the Fiorina campaign, it would be to dishearten Campbell’s supporters.

[Syncro]

And, believe me, Boxer is not looking forward to facing Fiorina in the general.

Oh, Boxer will decimate Fiorina in the general if she gets the nomination.

Boxer fears DeVore more, that's why she has sent her minions out all across the www to push for Fiorina.

[rcrngroup]

....focus on your neighbors in Montana and their neighbors in the Dakotas. 3 conservative states with 5 out of 6 extreme liberal rat socialist senators. I will take Fiorina from Ca over those 5 and boxer and Frankenstein any day.

Good points & well taken! It is a frustration to me how conservative southern, midwestern & western states vote for RAT bastard liberal socialist senators & house members, in election after election. Voting demoRAT has got to be a massive, deranged mental genetic disorder. By all counts, there should be 10 NE coastal states & 3 west coast states, voting for demoRATs and the rest of the Senate & House & state govts should all be Repub seats. It boggles the mind to see liberal demoRATs coming from so-called conservative or moderate states.

[rabscuttle385]

Rabscuttle, you do realize that (i) guilt by association is no way to judge a candidate

What "guilt by association"?

Jim Robinson and the FR leadership team have been posting adverts for quite a while advertising Mr. Devore as "the only conservative" in the California Senate race.

What that means--if you presume that Mr. Robinson and the FR leadership team are being truthful in their statements about Ms. Fiorina, as I am presuming--is that Ms. Fiorina is not conservative (or even a conservative-leaning libertarian), period, and thus, is a RINO, given that the Republican Party platform is one of conservatism.

[AuH2ORepublican]

“Boxer fears DeVore more, that’s why she has sent her minions out all across the www to push for Fiorina.”

---

Really? Sorry, I haven’t seen that many people on conservative sites supporting Fiorina, and the ones who I’ve seen are longtime conservative posters (and not potential trolls).

And if Boxer truly feared DeVore the most, she would either (i) do nothing (since DeVore has not posted a serios challenge for the lead in the GOP primary) or (ii) clandestinely support Campbell (who would have the best chance of beating DeVore in the primary if DeVore suddenly got to 35% of the vote).

[VictoryGal]

> I seriously doubt that Boxer would rather run against the moderate-to-conservative female cancer survivor who can write a check for tens of millions of dollars than against a RINO and an archconservative who won’t be able to raise any money.

I hope you’re right. And she does have deep pockets. But, she has those deep pockets from a golden parachute after her disastrous run at HP, and don’t think the hag Boxer won’t go after that.

[Syncro]

Yep, Boxer is one smart cookie.

Her tactics sometimes eludes the best of us.

[Pelham]

Michael Huffington spent $28 million of his own money in 1994 trying to defeat Feinstein. Money isn’t as important as a good candidate.

[AuH2ORepublican]

What I am saying is that you called Fiorina a McCain acolyte, which I assumed to be your way of judging her based not on her professed views, but on the views of John McCain (for whom she worked during the 2008 presidential campaign). If that’s not what that was, then I apologize, but that’s exactly what other posters have meant when they ascribe McCain’s more obnoxious views to candidates that he has supported (such as Jane Norton in Colorado).

I have been supporting Raul Labrador in his ID-01 primary race against Vaughn Ward, and while I have pointed out my qualms about nominating Ward (due to his bizarre behavior on the campaign), I have never ascribed to him McCain’s pro-amnesty or pro-CFR views merely because Ward was McCain’s 2008 campaign chairman in NV; in fact, I have noted that Ward takes conservative positions on every issue (as does Labrador). I would hope that, similarly, you would limit your criticisms of Fiorina’s issue positions to the positions she has actually taken, and not on the positions that someone else has taken.

Ragarding JimRob’s endorsement of DeVore in the Senate race, of course I’ve seen the ads, and I read the entire thread in which DeVore answered questions from FReepers. I thought DeVore was terrific in responding to some very difficult questions (especially since he must know that trolls would be out there scouring the thread for any missteps on his part), and I agree with him on almost every one of his positions. If DeVore was within striking distance of first place, or if it was a two-person race between Fiorina and DeVore, I’d support DeVore. But I’m not going to let a pro-partial-birth-abortion, pro-same-sex-marriage, anti-Zionist, pro-Islamist DIABLO such as Tom Campbell walk away with the GOP nomination because I supported the 100% conservative polling at 15% in DeVore instead of the 75% conservative polling at 35% in Fiorina (and remember that, for all her faults, Fiorina is pro-life, pro-gun and pro-marriage).

I have nothing but respect for JimRob, who not only makes FR possible but ensures that it stays a conservative forum. One of my proudest moments on FR was when JimRob announced his support for Tom McClintock in the California recall election; I was supporting McClintock over Arnold right from the get-go, but had grown disillusioned by how the Mods had suspended the accounts of several longtime FReepers who perhaps got a little out of hand in trying to warn everyone about what a mistake it would be to support Arnold. From the day that JimRob announced that he was backing McClintock everything changed, and by the day of the recall I would guess that more FReepers supported McClintock than Arnold, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

That being said, for the reasons I set forth above, I do not agree with JimRob on his assessment of Carly Fiorina (I think that she’s a moderate-to-conservative Republican, not a 100% conservative such as DeVore, but certainly not a DIABLO such as Campbell) or on the best way to defeat Boxer in 2010. In an ideal world, Campbell would run as a Democrat and there would be a GOP primary between Fiorina and DeVore (or, even better, conservative Congressmen McClintock or Darryl Issa would have jumped in to the race, cleared the field and defeated Boxer in November). But that’s not the hand we have been dealt. My number one goal is to keep Tom Campbell from winning the GOP nomination, and I will support any acceptable candidate who has a realistic chance of beating him. In the GOP primary, poll after polls shows that Fiorina, not DeVore, is that candidate.

[AuH2ORepublican]

“Michael Huffington spent $28 million of his own money in 1994 trying to defeat Feinstein. Money isn’t as important as a good candidate.”

---

Absolutely true. But I’ve seen plenty of good candidates lose in California for lack of money (Tom McClintock being the most obvious example).

[SmokingJoe]

Boxer brings govt. jobs to Californians - that's all they care about

Yeah..that's why California's unemployment right now is at a super high 12.6%, with real unemployment(including those who have given up looking for jobs) over 17%. Now that is what voters care about.

” Fiorina’s record is one of job loss without govt there to replace them. “

What is Boxer's record then? Since 0bama took power, job losses in California have rocketed UP. Where are the jobs to replace those lost jobs at?

” The size of the unions in CA are overwhelming and we all know how they will vote”

New Jersey has a very big, strong powerful unions too, and a deep blue state to boot, and the Democrats still lost.
What more ya got?

[sissyjane]

No way!

[Pelham]

“Absolutely true. But I’ve seen plenty of good candidates lose in California for lack of money (Tom McClintock being the most obvious example)”

Which is why it was a crime for the GOP elites to get behind the novice Arnold simply because he made movies and had star power. The New Majority crowd of social liberal fiscal conservative billionaires is largely responsible for foisting Arnold on us.

[Syncro]

Way!

[AuH2ORepublican]

Amen. I was one of those FReepers exhorting conservatives to support McClintock, not Arnold, in the recall; we were kind of lonely voices in the crowd until JimRob stepped up and endorsed McClintock. But the funniest thing is, I never thought that Arnold would be quite as bad as he turned out to be; Arnold was fairly decent in his first year or two in office, vetoing gay marriage, calling for referenda to reduce the size of government, etc., but after he lost all of those referenda he became a worse liberal than even I had feared.

But you know what was even worse than McClintock being snubbed in favor of Arnold in the recall election? How McClintock was snubbed by Arnold and the RINOs in the 2006 Lt. Gov. election, which the Democrat Garamendi won by a fairly narrow margin. Arnold and the RINOs cared only about electing Arnold, no one else, and we are now facing the prospect of Moonbeam Brown heading back to the governorship.

[gogeo]

When, exactly, did we decide that women were better suited to run our country than men?

They seem to have better communication skills and a better sense of the importance of image. Both are political pluses.

[counterpunch]

So like, California would elect, say, Bill Simon over Gray Davis?

[NavVet]

Whether you agree with Palin’s endorsement or not, your adoption of the left’s “Queen of Competence” argument is intelectually dishonest. If a leftist woman had Palin’s resume, she would be touted as the most qualified politican to ever seek public office and you know it.

I don’t agree with the endorsement myself, but understand why she did it. At the time she weighed in, DeVore had been relegated to the role of Spoiler. He was barely in double digits and was not going to win the primary plane and simple. Palin’s endorsement may at least prevent a true liberal from winning the primary.

[CAluvdubya]

That is a very well thought out post. Thank you for taking the time to express your thoughts so concisely!