Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina declared her intentions to run for Senate in California in a Wednesday morning op-ed in the Orange County Register. Fiorina, who has been exploring a campaign against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer for months, is expected to announce her candidacy in person at an Orange County, Calif. event at 1 p.m.
In her op-ed, Fiorina wrote that she has "not always been engaged in the electoral process," but, through her business career, began to understand the impact of government. "I now understand, in a very real way, that the decisions made by the Senate impact every family and every business, of any size, in America," she wrote.
Fiorina said her top priorities in the Senate will be "economic recovery and fiscal accountability." She then went on to stake out her opposition to Democrats' proposed health care insurance overhaul. But, in an echo of the Barack Obama, who won California with 61 percent of the vote in the 2008 presidential race, Fiorina concluded, "I believe big change is not impossible, but it does require leadership, innovative thinking, teamwork and tackling the most obvious and pressing problems first."
National Republicans think Fiorina could mount a serious challenge to Boxer, the third-term senator whose aggressive brand of liberal politics has made her the more vulnerable of California's two Democratic senators. As the one-time CEO of a high-profile tech company has the name ID and capacity to self-fund that could make it a real contest. But she also has baggage stemming from her ouster from Hewlett-Packard in 2005.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Wednesday highlighted Fiorina's controversial record at H-P. "The hallmark of Carly Fiorina's resume is her tenure at Hewlett-Packard where she laid-off 28,000 Americans while shipping jobs overseas - just before taking a $21 million golden parachute," Communications Director Eric Schultz said in a release. "Given that record, the United States Senate is the last place Carly Fiorina should go next."
Before she gets a shot at Boxer, Fiorina has to first dispatch a primary challenge from state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who is running to her right. The DeVore campaign is touting an endorsement from outspoken conservative Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. and his Senate Conservative Fund political action committee, announced Tuesday night. DeMint already endorsed Marco Rubio, a conservative former state House member who is taking on the more centrist Gov. Charlie Crist for the Florida Senate.
In a press release, the DeVore campaign said it "welcomes Fiorina's candidacy as part of the great pageant of American democracy -- and we eagerly anticipate making the case for a principled, Constitutional, and engaged conservatism."
UPDATE: In her announcement speech in Orange County, Fiorina said she was "extremely proud" of her record at H-P and pointed to the company's current performance and long term growth as a result, in part, of her leadership. Fiorina's campaign put out a release calling the DSCC's criticism "no surprise."
"This is Barbara Boxer's typical campaign tactic - to distort, mischaracterize and misrepresent her opponent's record," the release read.
CQ Politics rates the general election contest Safe Democratic.
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