Boxer, Fiorina tangle in wide-ranging second Senate debate

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The environment, immigration, healthcare and the economy were among the issues discussed in a wide-ranging, bicoastal debate between Democrat Barbara Boxer and Republican Carly Fiorina.

Wednesday’s debate was the second encounter between the two major candidates for U.S. Senate.

Voters have ranked the economy and jobs as the most important issue this year and the candidates sparred early on over the topic.

Boxer said Fiorina was out of touch with Californians while Fiorina called Boxer ineffective. ‘Barbara Boxer has had 28 years to serve the people of California. And ask yourself, what has she accomplished?’ Fiorina said.

Fiorina derided Boxer’s support of the stimulus plan, calling it ‘a failure,’ as unemployment has continued to balloon. Asked what she would cut to eliminate the deficit, Fiorina kept the focus on Boxer. ‘With all due respect, her record is the issue,’ Fiorina said.

Fiorina later said she would implement a spending cap and ‘return spending as a beginning to 2008 levels.’

Boxer disagreed with that approach: ‘I’ve seen her budget recommendations. They’re a disaster for California. They would cause draconian cuts’ in social services.

Boxer said to align federal spending with revenue, she would push to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and pressure more to collect ‘from people who are ripping off the government.’ She also said she is for ‘stopping tax breaks to the millionaires and the billionaires.’

Some of the debate’s sharpest exchanges came over the environment. They have sparred over Proposition 23, the November ballot measure that would suspend the state’s law limiting greenhouse gas emission. Boxer opposes the measure; Fiorina is in favor.

‘It is shocking to me to see someone try to get to the United States Senate who would turn their back on the environment,’ Boxer said.

Boxer also took aim at Fiorina’s support of offshore oil drilling. ‘She stands with Big Oil, she doesn’t stand with the people of California,’ Boxer said.

Fiorina suggested Boxer was in the pocket of environmentalists, calling her the ‘largest recipient of money from environmental interests.’

The two candidates exchanged accusations that got more personal as the debate wore on. Fiorina said Boxer ‘engages frequently in a shocking misrepresentation of my record.’

But there were few direct interactions between Fiorina and Boxer in the debate, perhaps because the two women were stationed 3,000 miles away in different radio studios.

--Shane Goldmacher and Anthony York in Sacramento

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