Today was the second Boxer-Fiorina debate, and though they weren’t in the same room, it was still rather lively. Shane Goldmacher has a good recap of the issues discussed.
Once again, Carly Fiorina had very little of substance for the people. Oh, but she does want to end the right of women to control their own health decisions and apparently Sen. Boxer is in the pocket of “Big Enviro” b/c there is such a thing. Who knew? It’s almost like there are multiple big environmental organizations making billions of dollars trying to maintain the status quo…oh, wait, that’s Big Oil. It’s hard to keep track.
A bit of news on the horse race front today. A new poll from CNN has good numbers for Brown and Boxer:
According to a CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Wednesday, 52 percent of likely voters in the Golden State say they support Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, with 43 percent backing Republican challenger Carly Fiorina. …
In the fight for governor, the poll indicates that 52 percent of likely voters back California Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown, the Democratic nominee, with 43 percent supporting former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, the GOP nominee.
The interesting thing to note here is that both candidates are now over that magical 50% figure. The last week has been kind to Democratic candidates across the nation, as Democrats are beginning to wake up from their slumber and realize that there is an election about to happen. Here in California, Boxer and Brown have both fairly well consolidated their bases, and the big push now is to get them to the polls.
With Meg Whitman having a lovefest with Texas on the debate last night, and Carly Fiorina hanging out with the Tea party at every conceivable chance, the question is how the two Republicans plan on getting the middle. They simply cannot win with the base alone in California. They are each rapidly turning off California’s middle.
First, as you would expect, both candidates are doing similarly well within their own party, hovering in the upper 70s. But while nonpartisans are split at the Governor level, Boxer holds a 6 point lead here, 46-40.
But what is worth noting is that while Carly Fiorina hasn’t really inspired anybody, Sen. Boxer gets people moving one way or the other. 2/3 of her supporters are voting for her, for her. Meanwhile, over 60% of Carly’s supporters are motivated by their dislike for the incumbent. In California, Boxer has been an occasional lightening rod, but one thing that you can say for her is that she has the support of the grassroots base. What is expected and nurtured in the Republican party, is typically shunned within the Democratic Party. But Senator Boxer embraces the grassroots. She supports marriage equality, and has worked passionately for years on the climate crisis. She is giving Democrats something to fight for.
Meanwhile, Carly Fiorina’s unfavorables continue to rise. Since July she has hovered at 34% positive, but her unfavorables have grown from 29 to 38. There is still a lot of room for growth with 28% undecided, but California voters have not liked what they have heard about the failed CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
While Meg Whitman was hobnobbing with Condi, Carly Fiorina is getting ready to do a big fundraiser in DC tomorrow. It’s being headlined by that Tremendous Trio of Senators McConnell, Cornyn and Kyl. What a bunch. But the more interesting message comes on that left hand column, where just near the bottom comes “Koch Industries PAC.” More from Talking Points Memo:
Republican Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina will attend a high-dollar fundraiser Thursday night that includes Koch Industries PAC, a conservative megadonor that has been the subject of some high-profile magazine pieces of late.
The Koch brothers have become conservative super-villains for Democrats this year, igniting Democrats in the same way George Soros’ spending on liberal causes enrages the right. … Koch has a storied history. TPM has followed the brothers’ involvement in funding tea party groups, among other conservative causes.
The New Yorker recently published a 6,000-word exposé detailing the Koch brothers Charles Koch and David Koch and their involvement in conservative causes aiming to defeat President Obama and his agenda. The latest iteration comes as Koch spars with the White House over corporate donations. In addition to their role in the conservative movement, Koch Industries has long been pegged as a top outsourcer.(Talking Points Memo)
Is there any doubt about Carly Fiorina left. She favors Prop 23, and decimating our climate regulations. She is in the pocket of the Tea Party funders and Big Coal. She wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. She is a fan of “right-shoring” American jobs oversees, and will continue to favor and advocate for that. Oh, and yeah, she was fired for poor performance at HP.
California, Carly Fiorina is unqualified, and all wrong on all the issues.
Even your standard right-wing Carly fan has to accept one thing, they are going to spend the next 6+ weeks trying to defend the record of a failed CEO. Over the flip you’ll find a long listing of remarks, mostly from right-wing business types about just how bad she really was. I’ll skip past much of the list of ranking her in the top 10 or top 20 worst CEOs of all time, to something said in a book by Steve Forbes:
“Examples of business leaders who rise to the heights of corporate power only to be brought down by their egos include Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco, and Carly Fiorina, former head of Hewlett-Packard.” – Steve Forbes and John Prevas, Power Ambition Glory, Crown Business, 2009, page 7
This is a CEO who, in the words of another right-wing Republican in the form of a former GOP presidential candidate, was too ego-driven to successfully run a company. She was a great self-promoter, but not so much on the actually getting the job done at HP thing. The board hated her, after all she was spying on some of them. The employees hated her, she laid off thousands of them, so no surprise there. And, oh yeah, the stock value of HP halved while she was the CEO.
Certainly we can agree that the last thing California needs is somebody too concerned about their own ego to focus on the very real problems we have to deal with today.
And this ad by Senator Boxer does nothing other than turning a mirror on Carly Fiorina’s career. She’s running as the former CEO of HP, so she has to face those facts. She was fired as CEO, and as David W. Packard, a son of one of the founders of HP, said, nobody has hired her since.
Let’s not let Carly Fiorina use the Senate as a rebound gig.
“Let’s not forget that the HP board fired Fiorina early in 2005, and no company has hired her since.” – David W. Packard, former HP board member and son of HP founder Dave Packard (San Jose Mercury News, “Opinion: Neither of HP’s founders would have endorsed Fiorina,” April 22, 2010)
“…Carly Fiorina was a failure at Hewlett-Packard.” – Michael S. Malone, ABCNews.com columnist and former Hewlett-Packard employee (ABC News/Money, “Carly Fiorina’s HP Legacy,” October 10, 2006)
“Fiorina’s reign at H-P…makes a great case study of exactly what not to do.” – TheStreet.com, “The Nation’s Worst CEOs,” June 10, 2004
“[H-P’s board members] lost faith in Carly…It is difficult to find anyone involved with H-P today — board member, shareholder, employee, customer, analyst — who isn’t happy that Ms. Fiorina is gone…” – Wall Street Journal, “H-P lost faith in Carly, but not in merger,” May 24, 2006
“Fiorina was bad. Everyone seems to agree on this now… All in all, our judges seem to think Fiorina should win [the ‘Worst Tech CEO’ title].” – USA Today, “Can Fiorina trump competition for ‘worst tech CEO’ title?” February 16, 2005
“[Fiorina is] the worst because of her ruthless attack on the essence of this great company. She destroyed half the wealth of her investors and yet still earned almost $100 million in total payments for this destructive reign of terror.” – Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of Yale University (USA Today, “Can Fiorina trump competition for ‘worst tech CEO’ title?” February 16, 2005)
“Mass layoffs were announced at a time when we began to hear tales of lavish corporate jets and personal grooming assistants, and engineers were rumbling that they were being pushed out of decision making. And then came Compaq…Finally the board had enough. The value of the company had halved, staff were demoralized and sales were still not up to scratch. Fiorina refused to resign so they gave her the boot, with a suitably huge payout.” – V3.co.uk, “Top 10 worst chief executives,” November 22, 2008
“A consummate self-promoter, Fiorina was busy pontificating on the lecture circuit and posing for magazine covers while her company floundered.” – CNBC Portfolio.com, “The Worst American CEOs of All Time,” April 30, 2009
“Examples of business leaders who rise to the heights of corporate power only to be brought down by their egos include Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco, and Carly Fiorina, former head of Hewlett-Packard.” – Steve Forbes and John Prevas, Power Ambition Glory, Crown Business, 2009, page 7
Carly Fiorina is the guest of honor at a tea party rally today in Marin. While she has apparently closed the event to the press, it is open to the public! And it is free! So, come one, come all, and learn about Carly’s plans for mocking climate change, and her support for overturning Roe v Wade. And you know, bring your cell phones, flip cameras, audio recording devices. Now, I’m not telling you to break any rules, but you know, it is a public event and everything.
Of course, Carly is trying to play both sides of the tea party coin, by officially closing the event to press:
Just when we were wondering what — if any role — the Tea Party would play in statewide California races this fall we hear that US Senate candidate Carly Fiorina will be meeting with Tea Party grassrootsers and GOPers at noon Friday in Mill Valley at the Mill Valley Community Center.
Billed in the invite as “your opportunity to hear Carly speak and get your questions answered!” it’s sponsored by the Bay Area Patriots and San Francisco Tea Party, the Marin GOP and Novato Republican Women, Federated.
We’d love to tell you about it, but it is billed as “open to the public — closed to the press.” What’s up with that? Not very transparent, which is what the TP wants of government, no?(SF Gate)
Ooh, and you can buy a delicious turkey sandwich for $10! If you are near Mill Valley, definitely stop by.
Carly Fiorina made a pilgrimage to the land of my people this weekend, certainly an interesting development with just over eight weeks left in the campaign. (By the way, L’shanah tova!)
For the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, what happens in the Holy Land, apparently stays in the Holy Land. Fiorina had told an Israeli business magazine that she wanted to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. But there hasn’t been a peep out of the Israeli press about any meeting between Fiorina and top officials in Israel.
Nor is Fiorina’s campaign saying bupkis about the getaway. A campaign spokeswoman says, “This was a personal trip for Carly, so it had nothing to do with the campaign.”
Over at the Republican Jewish Coalition, which was approached by Fiorina to arrange and fund the trip, they didn’t see anything campaign-like in the visit.(Daily Beast)
So, why exactly did she decide to take a vacation that is half a world away. It’s not like there aren’t relaxing vacation spots in the Golden State where she could get away and do a bit of relaxation. But contrary to Fiorina’s campaign, this was completely about the senate race. It is especially hard to argue otherwise when she asked the Republican Jewish Coalition to pay for it. It’s not like she doesn’t have enough money to pay for a couple of first class tickets to Ben Gurion airport.
But while there is part of the typical foreign policy education component here, with Carly there is the question of her sales to Iran hanging over the whole foreign policy debate. While Carly likes to claim that she had no knowledge of the Iranian sales, she was either purposefully sticking her head in the sand in order to get the money from Iranian sales or she was a terrible CEO who didn’t know what her company was doing. As Chuck DeVore pointed out in the primary, there are simply too many questions here left unanswered.
I hope that Ms. Fiorina’s trip to Israel is a safe and enjoyable visit, but a few days in Jerusalem hardly changes her record in the Middle East. Over the flip find a letter from several Jewish leaders in Los Angeles regarding her trip.
Carly Fiorina for Senate
915 L Street, Suite C-378
Sacramento, CA 95814
September 7, 2010
Ms. Fiorina:
On behalf of CEO Watch, we are excited that you have agreed to make an educational visit to Israel. Israel is one of America’s strongest allies in the world and we hope that you go with an open mind so you can avail yourself of the many lessons you will have before you.
However, we have learned about your behavior when you were CEO of Hewlett-Packard, which we find very troubling. Over the course of the few years you ran HP before you were fired, a HP subsidiary sold equipment to Iran. According to the State Department, Iran is a state sponsor of Hamas, Hizballah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad; those terrorist groups are targeting the State of Israel.
According to news accounts, this subsidiary was started with the sole purpose of selling HP products to Iran, and you awarded this subsidiary “Wholesaler of the Year” in 2003. Earlier this year, when your behavior was reported in newspapers, your former company HP acknowledged that some of its equipment may be in use by the Iranian military. HP has now severed its relationship with this subsidiary company. During the time you were selling equipment to this state sponsor of terrorism, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called “for the destruction of Israel, describing it as a ‘cancerous tumor’ in the Middle East,” according to Reuters.
Your decision to do business with Iran has undermined Israel’s security and important US trade sanctions. We hope you can apologize in Israel for your deplorable behavior. With the beginning of the Jewish High Holy Days and peace talk resuming in Washington, we hope you will join us on the journey of real peace and security in all of the Middle East.
Safe travels,
Rabbi Steven Jacobs
Recipient of Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award, Executive Board Member of Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Founder of Progressive Faith Foundation
Rabbi Jonathan Klein
Los Angeles
Rabbi Linda Bertenthal
Managing Congregational Representative, West District
Union for Reform Judaism
Howard Welinsky
Former Chair of the Jewish Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation, Los Angeles
Andrew Lachman
Los Angeles Jewish Federation, Young Leaders Division and Jewish Community Relations Committee
There is a lot of work to do between now and November 2, but right now we are pretty much looking at an even race:
It's too close to call in California's Senate and gubernatorial battles, according to a new poll.
A CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday indicates that Sen. Barbara Boxer holds a 48 percent to 44 percent margin over her Republican challenger, Carly Fiorina, but Boxer's 4-point advantage is within the poll's sampling error. Five percent of people questioned say if the general election were held today they'd vote for neither candidate and three percent were undecided. (CNN) Full results (pdf)
Care to see a 1990s style witch hunt against the administration? Well, you are set for a fun ride. Otherwise, it's time to get in gear and work for the Democratic ticket.
At the debate last night, moderator and KTVU political editor Randy Shandobil got frustrated with Fiorina’s evasive answers on Prop 23. Apparently the other reporters at the post-debate press conference were getting pretty frustrated with the situation as well.
Well folks, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Carly Fiorina supports Prop 23 and the death of AB 32. She said as much in the debate. When she evaded the answer, she said specifically that it would “make sense to suspend it” or something to that effect. Ladies and germs, that is what Prop 23 is arguing that they want to do. Not sure how much more clear it can be made. She can hem and haw all she wants, but she can’t jujitsu this one. She opposes Prop 23, but doesn’t want to say as much because that will turn off environmentally minded voters and signal that she isn’t some sort of moderate that she is trying to play.
Nope, Carly Fiorina is just another short-sighted CEO who couldn’t even manage the short-sighted goals of increasing stock value at HP. She likes to posture, even going so far as hiding her impressive educational resume to build up her “rags to riches” street cred. But, California voters can see through these charades.
I’ve mentioned the fact that I grew up in Texas on a number of occasions on this blog. In many ways it is a great place to grow up, and in other ways…not as much. For example, you want a world class education from a public university, thank the oil severance tax. Now, if you wanted a functioning local library, you might look elsewhere.
I bring this up on the occasion of a quick youtube video put out by the LA County Democratic Party’s CEO Watch. See, Carly Fiorina loves sending jobs everywhere BUT California. Indonesia, Malaysia, China, she’s all about “rightshoring.”
: