If Boxer was frustrated that Brigadier General Walsh failed to shower her the proper respect, how will she react when she sees how she’s being treated by the San Diego media?

Got that Senator Boxer? One job created in San Diego so far - at a time when the unemployment rate in California is 12.2%. You would think San Diego could have created more jobs than that merely putting up signs touting the expenditure of ’stimulus’ dollars - a practice that Boxer supports.

Carly Fiorina truly is panicked. The NRSC has been spooked by the Scozzafava/Hoffman/Owens race, and is more or less going to leave Fiorina out to dry. And while she got the support of conservative favorite Tom Coburn to match Chuck DeVore’s Jim DeMint, the rest of her supporters paint a different picture. Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Olympia Snowe, Lisa Murkowski: to many of us, these are what is wrong with the Republican Senate caucus.

So now she’s launched prematurely, shot the wad of endorsements she has in the middle of a week, rushed to pander to the right by appearing in the OC Register, but even that’s not enough. Now she’s making outrageous attacks on Chuck DeVore and the rest of us who favor an Internet free of burdensome government regulation.

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Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO-turned-McCain campaign advisor and surrogate, announced on Thursday the endorsements of eight Republican Senators, including conservative stalwart Senator Tom Coburn.

“Our nation is facing serious economic challenges because we keep rehiring the same failed career politicians who have proven themselves incapable of making hard choices,” read Coburn’s statement. “Carly’s common sense and fiscal conservatism will be a welcome addition to the United States Senate. I am glad to offer her my endorsement.”

Today’s announcement by Fiorina, who only formally announced her bid for Senate on Wednesday, comes on the heels of Senator Jim Demint’s endorsement of Fiorina’s Republican primary opponent, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.

In addition to Coburn, Senators Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, Jon Kyl, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and Olympia Snowe endorsed the former Silicon Valley executive.

“I am humbled to have earned the endorsement of each one of these distinguished Republican Senators,” Fiorina said of today’s endorsements. “They are all dedicated public servants and it is a true honor to have their support.”

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Funny. The NRSC’s Chairman John Cornyn says the NRSC is sitting Florida out and won’t spend a nickel there. That’s fine. Of course they did just send out a big memo to NRSC donors and others highlighting all of the up coming opportunities for them to give Charlie Crist money.

The most interesting thing about the list is that an event for Carly Fiorina is also listed, but I thought the NRSC hadn’t endorsed her. Bwahahahaha. I know. Who am I kidding.

In case you too want to do that or show up with protest signs, the list of events, addresses, and even hosts (!!!) is below the fold.

Impressive that he has so many in Florida. Usually he goes out of state to raise his cash since fewer and fewer in Florida like him.

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We won the big statewide races yesterday, and now it’s back to work trying to win some more. The California Senate primary may not be until June, but when we’re faced with an entrenched incumbent like Barbara Boxer, we need all the lead time we can get.

Up until now, the DC types have all been supporting Carly Fiorina in our primary, even though she had not yet declared her candidacy, and had yet shown either an inability or an unwillingness to campaign to the Republican voters of this state. Thus, that early support had failed to move any dials as Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has raised money well, gained loyal grass roots support, and ran ahead of Fiorina against Boxer in polls. But now, with the fallout of Dede Scozzafava’s blowup spreading nationwide, events are moving more quickly.

The NRSC is conceding its positions in primaries, pulling a crutch out from under Fiorina’s already-limping campaign. Conservative DC types are taking advantage of the new neutrality, too, starting with Senator Jim DeMint endorsing DeVore, while Fiorina has the backing of South Carolina’s other Senator, Lindsey Graham.

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Republicans are - rightly - crowing this morning about the GOP’s victories in the New Jersey Governor’s race and a battery of races in Virginia from the Governorship on down and what they say about the turn in the national mood, if not in a pro-Republican direction then at least in a direction that’s sufficiently hostile to the Democrats that voters in states won by Obama and dominated by the Democrats in the last few years are willing to give individual Republicans another chance.

But the key word there, even in an across-the-board sweep like happened in Virginia, is individual. There remains an ongoing battle on the Right over how Republicans choose which candidates to support - who voters and the national party organs should back in primaries, when and whether to support third party candidacies, etc. It’s a battle intensified by Doug Hoffman’s loss in the NY-23 race after the NRCC-backed candidate, Dede Scoazzafava, ended up swinging the race to the Democrats when she endorsed Bill Owens. But in making sense of such debates, this is a point that cannot be stressed enough: no matter how favorable or unfavorable the overall national climate may be, no matter what ideological compass you want the party to follow, you can’t ever overlook the importance of the individual candidates and the conditions they run in. I said it in 2008 with regard to presidential campaigns, and it’s true as well of races for Governor, Senate or House: ideas don’t run for president, people do.

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As most of us watch the special election in New York, we still have a Senate primary in California to deal with. It’s the same old story, though. There are two kinds of Republicans.

One kind celebrates big government and progressive control over America. Carly Fiorina, like Dede Scozzafava, is one of those:

While some of us are fighting hard against the Obama push to nationalize the Internet, Fiorina goes behind our backs and joins them, just as Scozzafava will work with ACORN and Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile, Chuck DeVore knows the score and endorses Doug Hoffman.

There are two kinds of Republicans. Some are on our side. Some are more interested in the left. I know which I prefer to represent our party.

Anxious to capitalize on a summer’s worth of anti-tax Tea Parties and the fierce public opposition to President Barack Obama’s health care reforms, over 1,000 California Republican delegates and activists ascended upon Indian Wells for the state Party’s semi-annual convention over the weekend – but one high-profile Republican was conspicuously absent, sparking criticism from attendees and her likely-primary opponent Chuck DeVore.

Citing the physical demands of her ongoing treatment for breast cancer, for which she was diagnosed last March, potential GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina said her schedule of radiation treatments would not permit her attendance at the convention.

But the DeVore campaign has noted that, while Fiorina’s health curiously precluded her from attending the party gathering, she spent much of the following Monday campaigning in Fresno with ranchers and participated via satellite in Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women Summit.”

Laying the foundation for the belief that Fiorina is somehow casually exploiting her illness for the benefit of her campaign, State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore told The Fresno Bee he finds “it curious that her campaign said she was unable to make the convention for health reasons, and yet, … she was engaged in what appears to be a pretty standard, strenuous campaign day yesterday – the day after the convention.”

Indicative of his campaign’s reliance on rumor-mongering of a particularly vicious and fatuous sort, DeVore’s critics say his campaign’s latest assault on Fiorina is predicated on the notion that he can cobble together support among the GOP rank and file by fostering the double-edged rumor that his opponent is either too ill to campaign against Bay Area liberal Barbara Boxer or too liberal to campaign for the Republican nomination – or, perhaps, both.

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Does Carly Fiorina care what Republicans think at all? The very day after rejecting the option of taking day trips or making video addresses to Republicans gathered for the state party convention in Indian Wells, Carly Fiorina has begun making day trips to raise money. While this is a natural step for somebody who refuses to reach into her own deep pockets to fund her campaign, this does represent yet another stumble for a campaign that can’t seem to go a day without making a mistake.

It’s no wonder that polls show her running against Barbara Boxer no better than Chuck DeVore, despite Fiorina’s wide reputation of being a pro-abortion “social moderate.” One would think that a candidate who, in the public eye, neutralizes Boxer’s key issue of abortion would do better in the polling, but Fiorina’s failure to achieve anything in the polls is a testament to her failure to campaign effectively and to reach out to the Republican base. Republicans would be critical to her fight against the united front of the Democrat party, the unions, and the press. If she can’t get us on her side, she can’t win.

So why, then, does she snub us and instead turn to the deep pockets? Does she intend to run as a Schwarzenegger-ite “post-partisan?” Does she even have a plan for victory? Even Meg Whitman showed up to Indian Wells, made good speeches, and earned respect even from supporters of other candidates. She put pressure on her opponents, and Steve Poizner did not impress when he replied.

Senator Boxer will have to make a mistake if a Republican is going to beat her in 2010. I doubt Carly Fiorina is capable of applying the pressure to Boxer it will take to make that happen.

I’m writing you from the floor of the Califorina Republican Party’s (CRP) convention in Indian Wells, CA. For you non-Californians, the CRP holds two conventions every year — usually in February and September. The September convention before an election year is the de facto kickoff for the various campaigns. That’s why we’ve got here the various contenders for the CA GOP nomination out in force here: most notably Poizner, Whitman, and Campbell for Governor, and DeVore and Fiorina for U.S. Senate.

Carly Fiorina is the only major candidate who isn’t attending this convention. Her reason, as explained to Jon Fleischman in the Flash Report and Karen Tumulty at Time (yeah, I know), is that her cancer treatments preclude her from coming. Well, okay — but as RedState noted, she was certainly able to videoconference in with Elizabeth Edwards a few weeks back, and she’s planning on keynoting the Web 2.0 Summit in a couple of weeks. Oh, and she’s also jetting off to conferences in Milan and Sao Paolo shortly after that.

The Fiorina campaign is not pleased that a Rasmussen poll released on the convention’s first day shows Chuck DeVore as the stronger candidate against Barbara Boxer. Pretty tough when all that cash and name recognition buys you a solid second place.

But that’s not why I’m writing. I’m not even writing to tell you that they’ve plastered the convention hotel with “CARLYFORNIA DREAMIN’!!!” placards, complete with the three exclamation points. I’m not even writing to tell you that Carly’s staff are walking around blaming high-priced Hollywood-flack McCain-’08-veteran Fred Davis for their disastrous website. No.

I’m writing to tell you about the loose talk here about Carly and the NRSC, emanating from the friends of Larry Elder.

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Recently I and others have questioned Carly Fiorina’s commitment to the race to defeat Barbara Boxer in 2010. She won’t fund her own race with her deep pockets, which was supposed to be a key reason to nominate her. She also won’t show up to the California Republican Party meeting in Indian Wells this month (starting today, in fact)*. Her candidacy so far has been characterized as “amateurish”.

Fiorina now says cancer treatment is the reason for her evasiveness so far. And while nobody wishes she would skimp on her cancer treatment, or hope for anything less than a full recovery for her, I join Pejman Yousefzadeh in being skeptical of this explanation.

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There are two candidates who have a chance to win the Republican nomination for Senate in June 2010. One is Chuck DeVore. One of our Fighting Four candidates this primary season, he announced last November his candidacy to defeat Senator Barbara Boxer. Term-limited from his state Assembly seat, he’s committed to victory.

The other is Carly Fiorina. A political novice, never having run for office before, she doesn’t even know if she’s running for this office yet. In big, black letters her own, brand-new website asks “Coming Soon?” It’s no wonder she won’t even fund her own campaign. Why spend that money when she might not even run?

Chuck DeVore is on Facebook. Chuck DeVore is on Twitter, and he’s active on both. Carly Fiorina’s webpage has placeholder, non-functional links to both services. She may, or may not, show up to engage Republicans, and will do so only when it’s convenient for her.

We have two choices in June, but only one candidate is there for us and committed to fighting Barbara Boxer, the dumbest member of the US Senate. The clear choice is Chuck DeVore. I hope we can give to him and good conservatives like him to help him fight for us and win.

Back in mid-August, Carly Fiorina announced the formation of her exploratory committee, Carly for California, as a prelude to announcing her formal candidacy for United States Senate. FEC rules require that if a candidate receives or spends $5000.00, the candidate must begin formal filings with the FEC as a candidate. Given Fiorina’s hire of big-money consultants like Hollywood-based Fred Davis, you’d think Carly for California would have burned through that limit in about twenty minutes. Certainly it’s amazing she’s let nearly a month lapse without an announcement. Heck, she’s not even on the list for a single appearance, guest suite, or conversation at the forthcoming California Republican Party convention on September 25th through 27th.

What gives? Why the silence?

The probable answer is that Carly Fiorina is finding it impossible to put together a campaign team. Let me explain.

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At our next Republican Convention here in California, the most important vote we take may be the vote to close our primary elections, ensuring that people are Republicans before they can choose who will represent our party on the ballot. Since 1999 when we opened our primaries to those who do not join a party, we have had no noteworthy statewide electoral success from primary-nominated Republicans (our dear Governor Schwarzenegger, remember, bypassed the primary process in the recall of Governor Gray Davis).

So the benefits of the open primary have been shown to be minimal. Yet a certain coalition of Republicans will be fighting hard to keep our primaries open. Notable in that coalition are the backers of Meg “I’m a huge fan of Van Jones” Whitman, candidate for Governor; Carly “The fundamental objective [of HP is] to be a good international citizen” Fiorina, candidate for Senate; and of course Governor Arnold “Right-wing crazies” Schwarzenegger. See a pattern?

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Orange County Republican and California State Assemblyman Chuck Devore has been spreading his message of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” across the Golden State for eleven months now, all with the aim of “bouncing Boxer” from the United States Senate in 2010. And he’s so anxious to see her leave that august body that his website bears a clock to track the number of days, hours, and, yes, even minutes “’till Boxer’s gone.”

But while DeVore is surely among the most tenacious and unswerving candidates vying for public office in the 2010 midterm elections, his campaign has seen only moderate success in translating his attributes as a indefatigable campaigner into support – namely, contributions, with his last FEC filing in July showing only $75,600 in cash on hand in his uphill campaign against Democratic incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer.

In an hour-long interview with REDSTATE, DeVore likened his insurgent, techno-centric campaign to that of then-Senator Barack Obama, and said he anticipates a surge in donations as his campaign further develops its online fundraising infrastructure.

The DeVore campaign is “trying to use new media in a synergistic way to tie together volunteers in a way that had not previously possible prior to the time that Al Gore invented the internet,” he told me, tongue-in-cheek.

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Updated at the bottom.

We all already knew that if Carly Fiorina were to win the Republican nomination to challenge Senator Barbara Boxer next year, that Boxer would use Fiorina’s record as CEO of Hewlett-Packard against us. Many people still curse Fiorina for how she led the firm, and many of those people live in parts of the state we’d like to win in order to win a statewide election.

So it’s not entirely surprising that Chuck DeVore is already attempting to use HP against Fiorina. As the San Jose Mercury-News reports, DeVore alleges that HP began circumventing US export restrictions under Fiorina’s leadership, sending technology to Iran illegally through a third party, the Redington Gulf company.

If it’s true it needs to come out now, during the primary, so that it doesn’t hurt us in the general. If it’s false it needs to be refuted now, during the primary, so that it’s old news in case Boxer and the California Democrats attempt to use it in the general.

Fiorina already has a reputation with fans (yes, fans) of HP. There are people who loved its computers, its printers, its calculators, or it other products. For the people who loved the computers, the Compaq merger had an emotional impact. The people who hate (yes, hate) Fiorina because of her time at HP may be pre-disposed to believe she committed criminal acts at the company, and if she wants to be our nominee, she should clear this up as soon as possible.

Update: I am informed by a DeVore-linked source that Chuck DeVore was not pushing this story to the press, but rather he was asked for a quote to be included in a story that was already being written.

In his bid for U.S. Senate, Republican Chuck DeVore has gone to great lengths to portray his primary election opponent Carly Fiorina as too liberal, particularly on the issue of abortion, but some California political observers now say the cash-strapped DeVore campaign is playing fast and loose with the facts.

Last week, Fiorina announced she took the first step in challenging Senator Barbara Boxer, and by proxy DeVore, by registering her campaign committee, “Carly for California,” with the IRS.

The DeVore campaign, certainly wasting no time, launched a cheeky website to “welcome Carly to the race,” asking supporters to send Fiorina one of four pre-scripted emails. Found among the original choices was the patronizing option to ask Ms. Fiorina, 54, to “make up her mind” on abortion, adding that “Carly Fiorina has never said whether she’s pro-life.” The DeVore campaign has since changed the wording to “suspect on life issues,” but the sentiment—that Fiorina is some sort of pro-abortion Manchurian Candidate—remains the same.

Following the launch of the website, DeVore allies began widely circulating an item from the Wall Street Journal that so matter-of-factly described Fiorina as “pro-choice on abortion” it reeked of poor campaign opposition research. Yesterday, the article was amended to show that Fiorina was, in fact, pro-life.

You should have detected a theme here.

Despite DeVore’s protestations, Fiorina settled on the contentious issue of abortion years ago. And contrary to the campaign’s constant refrain, she proudly calls herself a “pro-life, conservative, and life-long Republican.”

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Although even Rasmussen has to say “It’s California.”

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that Boxer attracts 45% of the statewide vote while Fiorina, her best-known possible Republican challenger, earns 41%. Seven percent (7%) say they’d vote for some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided.

In March, Boxer led Fiorina by nine, 47% to 38%.

Any incumbent who polls below 50% early in a campaign is considered potentially vulnerable. However, a Democrat running in a heavily Democratic state like California is often able to overcome weak poll numbers.

Which is very true: but it’s also Barbara Boxer. This is not a very good period of time to be reflexively supporting more taxes, less energy, and the imposition of health care rationing - and, given some of the topline results to this survey (MoE is 4.5%, by the way), you have to wonder how ‘heavily Democratic’ it is these days. On first reading, the results read as being more anti-incumbent than anything else: Fiorina isn’t even formally in the race yet, although these numbers are certainly encouraging enough. Chuck Devore (who is in the race) is probably finding them encouraging, too; people in California just aren’t happy with the status quo right now - and contra Rasmussen, you shouldn’t ignore sub-50 ratings if you’re a politician who wants to keep her job.

I’d assume that Senator Boxer is taking that into consideration, except, well.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

From the AP:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Carly Fiorina has been diagnosed with breast cancer, a top aide said Tuesday.

Fiorina was diagnosed with the disease Feb. 20 and underwent surgery Monday at Stanford Hospital, her chief of staff, Deborah Bowker, told The Associated Press. Bowker said the surgery was successful and Fiorina has an “excellent” prognosis for a full recovery.

With any luck, this was caught early enough (the ‘excellent’ is reassuring news): regardless, our thoughts, prayers, and good wishes go out to her, her family, and loved ones. In times of trouble, it is the support of those who know us best that sustains; may she have that support for as long as she needs it.