Boxer’s campaign takes on Palin’s endorsement of Fiorina

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Sarah Palin’s backing of Carly Fiorina during the primary campaign gave the former Hewlett Packard chief executive an early boost in her quest to replace U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). In a campaign season in which voters were awash in mailings, Fiorina’s campaign manager, Marty Wilson, said the campaign’s tracking polls showed Fiorina rocketing to a 13-point lead in one day around the time voters received a mailer highlighting the former Alaska governor’s endorsement.

Before that point, Wilson said many Republican voters were trying “to figure out who the conservative was in the race.” Palin’s nod, he said in an interview the day before the primary, “gave us credibility among conservatives, more so than anything else.”
Looking ahead to the general election, Boxer’s campaign is wagering that Palin’s endorsement will be a drag on Fiorina as she tries to woo Democrats and Independent voters to overcome her party’s registration disadvantage. On Monday, the Boxer campaign launched a web video on their anti-Fiorina website that splices together clips of Palin and Fiorina with criticism of their positions on guns, oil drilling and abortion. The closing message: “Sarah Palin and Carly Fiorina. Wrong for California.” (Fiorina’s campaign, by the way, posts their objections to the California Democrat’s record on their anti-Boxer website).

Fiorina’s spokeswoman Amy Thoma said the Palin video was evidence that Boxer “is trying to shore up a base of voters that should already be supporting her,’ underscoring ‘just how endangered she really is.”

“We are glad to have Gov. Palin’s endorsement,” Thoma said in an e-mail, “and Carly would far prefer the support of a fellow political outsider who shares her opposition to massive government expansion over that of [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid, who champion tax increases and government takeovers of everything from our healthcare system to the financial markets, while doing nothing to stimulate true job creation and sustained economic growth.”
-- Maeve Reston in Los Angeles