The Republican candidates for Senate in California just debated on the local KFI AM talk radio station — with ex-Congressman Tom Campbell and state Rep. Chuck DeVore turning their fire on the establishment frontrunner in the race, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.
While sparks flew at the debate, though, it’s not immediately clear whether any candidates scored knockout blow that could sufficiently damage Fiorina in the home stretch of the campaign, or for that matter whether Fiorina fully sealed the deal. The TPM Poll Average gives Fiorina a sudden lead with 29.1%, Campbell 27.0%, and DeVore 15.9% — in the wake of some very strong poll results for Fiorina — after Campbell had previously led in polling for this primary all year.
During a period when the candidates were given the opportunity to question each other, DeVore grilled Fiorina on her lack of a voting record — not simply as someone who has not been an elected official, but as a voter who missed many elections. It was noted that in 2000, she advocated for the failed Proposition 26, which would have relaxed an anti-tax statute that has been in effect since the 1970s. As if that wasn’t bad enough for GOP orthodoxy, it was then added that she did not actually vote in the election itself.
The conversation eventually became quite heated, going from Fiorina’s defense of Prop. 26 on the merits — it had bipartisan support from Republican former Gov. Pete Wilson and the business community, and was narrowly tailored towards the cause of school construction — to Fiorina ripping on DeVore’s third-place position in the polls.
“I’m sure it’s very frustrating for Chuck DeVore to have so many conservatives supporting me,” said Fiorina. “But I wonder why, maybe it makes him feel better, maybe it makes Chuck DeVore, who is dog-paddling at 14% in the polls, maybe it makes him feel better to belittle other people’s conservative credentials.”
When Campbell had his turn to ask a question, he too went after Fiorina. He asked Fiorina whether in 2000, when he was the Republican nominee against Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, did she vote for him?
“No, I didn’t,” Fiorina confessed. DeVore then cut in and volunteered that he in fact voted for Campbell in the 2000 race. “It is a secret ballot,” Fiorina shot back. “I didn’t vote for Dianne Feinstein, either.”
Fiorina then shot back at Campbell’s frequent arguments that he is the more electable Republican on the basis of his combination of fiscal conservatism and social moderation, pointing to his unsuccessful Senate campaigns in 1992 (when he lost the Republican primary) and 2000 (when he won the nomination and lost the general election).
“Tom Campbell used that same argument, fiscally conservative and socially moderate, and he lost both times,” said Fiorina.
In addition, Campbell disputed the validity of the new polls from SurveyUSA and Public Policy Polling (D), which have Fiorina ahead by 20 points or more in the primary, and instead referred back to a Research 2000 poll form last week that had him ahead of Fiorina by 15 points. Campbell said it was an issue of methodology: “Mistrust all robopolls.”
(ed. note: The quotes used are rush transcriptions, and may be subject to later editing.)
