Sen. Barbara Boxer, who has taken heat in recent months for clashes at Senate hearings, is facing a potentially tough election challenge from prominent businesswoman Carly Fiorina, who is within striking distance in a recent poll.Boxer has not exactly distinguished herself lately. If you go on to read the rest of the article you'll see a couple of recent examples of her "foot-in-mouth" disease. In addition, she's adamant about passing nationalized health care and cap-and-tax, both of which are increasingly unpopular with the voters.
Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO and top economic adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign, hasn't said yet whether she'll throw her hat in the ring against Boxer for the California Democrat's Senate seat next year. But it already could be shaping up to up be one of the most closely watched Senate contests.
A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey released July 24 shows that Fiorina is trailing by only 4 percentage points behind in a hypothetical head-to-head with the three-term incumbent. The poll put Boxer's support in such a face-off at only 45 percent, with 7 percent of survey respondents saying they're undecided.
In March, the same month Fiorina told reports she was "seriously considering" launching a bid, Boxer led her potential challenger by 9 percentage points with a 47 percent support in the Rasmussen poll. The poll has a sampling error of +/- 4.5 percentage points.
"Any incumbent who polls below 50 percent early in a campaign is considered potentially vulnerable," the polling firm said in a report accompanying the poll results. "However, a Democrat running in a heavily Democratic state like California is often able to overcome weak poll numbers."
But Fiorina's personal wealth -- HP provided her with a $21 million severance package -- ensures that she could carry out a full-scale attack. And Boxer has drawn negative press in recent weeks for two contentious exchanges, with a military officer and a black business leader.
To my knowledge the only announced candidate against Boxer is Assembly Chuck DeVore who has been campaigning for months. It's hard to say just yet how tough an opponent for Boxer he would be. He's a good conservative and would certainly make a great addition to the Senate, but may be too conservative to be a good candidate in California. The days where a Reagan conservative can win a statewide election are probably over in the Golden State, unless somebody came along with Reagan's force of personality.
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4 comments:
Boxer has been there way too long. As has the two Levin relatives in Michigan. Carly Fiorina will provide talented opposition and hopefully her personal wealth will help avoid some of the quicksand. Now if we can only get Selma Hayek to run against Speaker Pelosi?
Out with the Box of Rocks. Barbara has been an insult to congress and has way over-extended her stay there, it's time for her to be put out to pasture.
I for one will NOT vote for Forina if she runs. She has NO voting record, only name recognition and money. I will vote for Chuck DeVore. Everyone I know who has seen him in person and has asked him questions jumps on board for his campaign. I'm now one of them. Independent Caucus that helped Jason Chaffetz, with grassroots help only, out spent 6 to 1, with the good ole boys backing the multi-term candidate beat him AND is now called Congressman. IC is about to endorse Chuck DeVore.
Face it, the only change that Nuclear Chuck DeVore or Carly "HP fired her" Fiorina have against Boxer is for strong, articulate true Green to run against the Pro-Corporate, green-washed Boxer. If they can somehow siphon off enough progressive voters and expose Boxer's failures in leadership, then Fiorina might be able to pull it off. My guess is that she will decide to save her money and only run if the true believers will provide the financing.
As for DeVore, he will get the more hard nosed, BS believing Republican fringe and that is about it.
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