Eight influential Republican senators jumped on board former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina's California Senate campaign Thursday, a day after she officially launched her bid.

Those endorsing Fiorina included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Assistant Minority Leader Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.; 2008 presidential nominee John McCain, R-Calif.; Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe. All cited her experience as a business leader.

In his statement, McCain praised Fiorina's service as an adviser during his presidential bid. "I benefited from her no-nonsense way of getting things done when she served on my campaign last year," he said.

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."

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, is expected to formally launch her long-awaited Republian campaign against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer sometime this week. She has public appearances scheduled Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, though the campaign is not disclosing at what event, specifically, she will make her announcement.

Her main rival for the GOP nomination, state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, is hoping for a big announcement of his own. The DeVore campaign is hyping a conference call slated for Tuesday night hosted by the Senate Conservative Fund political action committee and featuring the PAC's chairman, Sen. Jim DeMint , R-S.C., and Erick Erickson, editor of the influential conservative blog RedState.com.

A release touting the conference call, which is being held to discuss the state of play in the 2010 Senate races, promises that "Sen. DeMint will announce at least one major SCF endorsement at the end of the call." The DeVore campaign is leaving the strong impression that it could be him.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom dropped out of the California governor's race Friday evening, saying he was not able to commit the time need to run a competitive campaign.

His withdrawal clears the field for state Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown, who already had a strong lead over Newsom in the latest polls.

The young mayor had struggled to gain traction against Brown early on, despite the celebrity he gained from his high profile role in the gay marriage fight -- allowing marriages to take place in San Francisco in a challenge to state law. Newsom has also lagged Brown in fundraising.

Autism activist Elizabeth Emken joined the Republican field this past week to take on second-term Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif. Party strategists on both sides of the aisle expect the race for McNerney’s 11th District seat to be one of California’s most competitive House contests in 2010, and Republicans think Emken could be a credible candidate in what is likely to be a crowded GOP primary.

Emken, vice president for government relations at charity Autism Speaks and former financial manager for IBM Corp., promised in her launch speech to be “a very different kind of representative in Washington - a conservative representative.” She went on to criticize “Leader” Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic House Speaker, and “follower McNerney’s” support for the stimulus package, climate change legislation that would feature a cap-and-trade program to regulate carbon emissions, and the overall level of government spending under the Democratic-controlled Congress.

Emken left her post with Autism Speaks to run for Congress. In her remarks, she said she became “an advocate for those with autism and for all special needs children” 13 years ago, after her son was diagnosed with autism at age 4.

Before she can get to a match-up with McNerney, Emken has to face off against a field that includes businessman Jon Del Arroz, grape grower Brad Goehring and Tony Amador, a former U.S. marshal for Northern California, among others. Both Goehring and Del Arroz have kicked in a substantial portion of their funds from their own pockets. Emken is also willing to contribute to her campaign, but not entirely self-fund.

Republican Senate candidate Chuck DeVore has escalated his war of words with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, citing new evidence his campaign says shows the committee is playing favorites in the California Senate primary.

The DeVore campaign leaped on comments made by potential primary rival, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Wednesday at a campaign stop in San Diego. Fiorina, who is exploring a bid but has not declared her candidacy, told reporters, "The chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee has encouraged me to enter the race, reaffirming my belief that Chuck DeVore cannot beat Barbara Boxer," which DeVore spokesman, Josh Trevino, said contradicts previous NRSC statements that it was not endorsing a candidate in the race.

In an e-mail Trevino sent to NRSC Communications Director Brian Walsh, and circulated to the press, he asked the committee to clarify "who is telling the truth on this matter:"

Virginia Republican Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Minority Whip and one of the GOP's most potent fundraisers, used his leadership PAC last month to donate mostly to Republican candidates who are challenging Democratic incumbents in the 2010 election.

Cantor's organization, known as Every Republican Is Crucial (ERIC) PAC, reported Monday that it donated $2,500 apiece to five GOP challengers about whom the congressman and other national party officials are bullish.

They are Andy Harris of Maryland, a state senator challenging Rep. Frank Kratovil Jr. in a rematch of their close 2008 race in the 1st District; Martha Roby of Alabama, a Montgomery city councilwoman who is taking on Rep. Bobby Bright in the 2nd District; Steve Pearce of New Mexico, a former House member who lost a Senate race in 2008 and is seeking to reclaim his old 2nd District seat, now held by Rep. Harry Teague; Steve Stivers of Ohio, who is waging a rematch campaign against Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy in the Columbus-area 15th District; and Van Tran of California, an assemblyman who is taking on Rep. Loretta Sanchez in the 47th District.

California Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey, one of the most outspoken liberals in Congress, has formed a leadership PAC that she can use to contribute to campaigns.

People PAC was organized Oct. 13 with the Federal Election Commission.

Leadership PACs have proliferated in recent years, in part because members of Congress can give more to candidates from those organizations than they can from their personal campaign committees.

California House candidate Dr. Ami Bera kept up his blistering fundraising pace in the third quarter, raising $335,000 for his campaign to unseat Republican Rep. Dan Lungren.

Bera ended the quarter with $586,000 cash-on-hand.

The physician and one-time chief medical officer for Sacramento County made a splash in July when he announced he had raised more than $288,000 in his first quarter of fundraising, ranking him seventh among House challengers nationally.

Aside from a $4,800 contribution from the candidate, the funds have come almost entirely from individual donors.

California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman scored a victory Thursday when two California newspapers confirmed the former eBay CEO was indeed registered to vote in the state at certain points in the past 20 years. The reports, based on previously undisclosed records, cleared up, to a certain degree, the running debate over Whitman's history of voter participation.

A Sacramento Bee article published Thursday morning said Whitman "registered as a Republican voter in San Francisco in 1982 and also signed up to vote in Santa Clara County in 1999."

The San Jose Mercury News echoed those findings in [an article] (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_13509939%20Hewitt:#) entitled, "Meg Whitman's voting record not as bad as originally portrayed."